How Benefit Cosmetics’ UK Site Saw 82% Higher Checkout Rates with Bolt

As ecommerce shopping continues to expand and is expected to grow from, more brands are looking to transform their online store into the frictionless shopping journey that customers have come to expect.&nbsp;When global beauty brand <a href="https://www.bolt.com/blog/bolt-europe">Benefit Cosmetics</a> sought out to enhance their checkout experience, their UK Ecommerce Manager Ursula Casserly was not optimistic, because she was familiar with the closed-off nature of checkout experiences after working in ecommerce for almost a decade. But that all changed when she began working with Bolt.In the past, she found that upgrading anything checkout-related was a nightmare. Even something seemingly benign could drag on for months and required input from multiple stakeholders, and even then, there was no guarantee her efforts would work. Now, with Bolt, she has regained control of the checkout experience. “Bolt listens to our input in shaping the product we ultimately give customers,” she says, “I feel I can now get my hands dirty and contribute to the checkout process based on what I see on the site, what I see in the market, and what I think our customers want.”She saw this firsthand when the company onboarded Bolt. <a href="https://www.bolt.com/checkout">Bolt One-Click Checkout</a> addressed Ursula and the global teams’ need to have a seamless checkout experience across their global entities—one that automatically localized address fields, languages, and currencies without sacrificing the customer experience. Bolt’s global footprint across the UK, Europe, and the Americas brought comfort to Benefit Cosmetics’ team, even though the integration came on the heels of their busy holiday season.&nbsp;The holidays are an important time when shoppers flock to retailers' websites, but a large part of that increased traffic doesn’t convert to sales. In the fourth quarter of 2021, <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/1254962/cart-abandonment-rate-in-the-uk/#:~:text=When%20shopping%20for%20goods%20online,the%20UK%20were%20not%20completed.">nearly 80% of mobile orders in the UK</a> were abandoned at checkout. So it was imperative that Bolt fast-tracked the integration to ensure a smooth launch before potential shoppers flooded in.&nbsp;In the months after going live with Bolt, Benefit Cosmetics saw a meaningful uplift across all its sites. For the UK channels that Ursula manages, there was a 22.5% increase in unique visitors, and 24.2% increase in checkout conversion rates.&nbsp;More people were visiting the Benefit Cosmetics’ website and they were converting into shoppers. The company has seen checkout rates on its UK sites balloon by 82% this year and Bolt Accounts across all of the company’s sites have averaged 21% higher order values than guest accounts.&nbsp;“I can see it in the numbers that people are finding Bolt way easier,” Ursula said, “There’s not as much friction going through checkout, and I think that ease of use is reflected in our better results.”&nbsp;Besides a frictionless experience, customers are also gravitating to Bolt’s mobile-friendly checkout process and the ability to use alternative payment methods. People in the UK love using their phones for shopping on the go. A Paypal study found that <a href="https://www.paypal.com/uk/brc/article/paypal-commerce-index-social-and-security-top-of-mind-for-uk">almost three-quarters of UK consumers</a> prefer the convenience of shopping on mobile devices.&nbsp;“The majority of our [UK] customers use mobile and Apple Pay, so now that we have both, it’s become a much quicker way for shoppers to checkout in their preferred way,” according to Ursula.&nbsp;Bolt was able to address any challenges brought up in the integration process. For example, Benefit's checkout was auto-populating postcodes incorrectly. The Bolt team quickly found a workaround without disrupting the customer experience. This fast troubleshooting—something that would have taken other providers weeks to correct—saved Benefit from sending thousands of orders to the wrong address.“It instilled a lot of faith and trust in Bolt, which was a nice place to be when we hadn’t been working together for a long period of time,” she recalls.Bolt continues to look for new ways to help Benefit Cosmetics as it expands its footprint in the UK and other regions.“Bolt is essentially an extension of our Web team. We collaborate closely on strategic roadmap initiatives and are able to easily roll out new features across our markets based on local needs,” says Cindy Shen, VP of Global Commerce at Benefit Cosmetics.&nbsp;Furthermore, with Bolt’s <a href="https://www.bolt.com/businesses">Checkout Everywhere</a>, Benefit Cosmetics has the ability to turn social media into a shoppable, one-click surface. This is particularly interesting for Benefit Cosmetics because a growing number of people discover beauty products on social media and could lead to new, meaningful revenue streams for the company.&nbsp;&nbsp;The partnership has also freed up time in Ursula’s busy schedule. “[My role now] is more strategic than firefighting,” she says, “I’m looking into the future and thinking what we can do to increase and improve different aspects of the business.”