How One Button Made Amazon 43% More Sales

Amazon made an extra $2.4 billion a year by changing one button—not a new product, not a new marketing campaign, or new management—just one button: the “Buy Now” button. This simple change allowed for a single click to purchase, no credit card forms, no hassle. Let’s dive into how it works, the surprising science behind it, and how you can apply the same principles to boost your sales, no matter what you sell—even if you don’t have a checkout button.

The Hidden Cost of Convenience

Think about your online shopping experience. How many times have you abandoned your cart because the checkout was too much of a hassle? You might have gotten distracted, faced frustrating forms, worried about security, or second-guessed your decisions as extra steps took too much time. This is where Amazon’s one-click button comes in.

The Science Behind One-Click Buying

A 2023 study by Murat Unal and Young-Hoon Park from Cornell University analyzed over 18,000 online shoppers over 35 months. They found that one-click buying:

Increased spending by 28.5%
Increased orders by 43%
Increased items purchased by 36%
Led to customers visiting 32 times more frequently
Resulted in an extra 245 minutes spent on the site

So, why is one-click buying so effective? It’s not just about convenience; it removes negative emotions. The emotional weight of a complicated purchase process—like pulling out a credit card, entering an address, and navigating multiple screens—makes the purchase feel harder and heavier. This emotional factor is the first surprise in how one-click buying boosts sales.

One-Click Buying: An Engagement Magnet

Here’s the second surprise: one-click buying isn’t just a sales booster; it’s an engagement magnet. The same study found that one-click buyers made 32 more visits to the site and spent an extra 245 minutes browsing. Why? Because buying becomes easy and enjoyable. This encourages customers to return, explore, and discover, creating a positive feedback loop. A customer uses one-click to buy a product and then browses more, discovering new items and buying even more. It’s a snowball effect!

The Unexpected Winner

Now, the third surprise is who benefits most from one-click shopping. It’s not your loyal high-spending customers; it’s actually the occasional buyers. They are the ones most sensitive to the friction of a traditional checkout process. One-click removes that barrier, turning them into more frequent, higher-spending customers. Research shows that these occasional buyers benefit significantly more from one-click than ultra-loyal customers.

Friction: The Key to Unlocking Growth

So, what’s the key element that can get you a 42% lift in sales (even if you don’t sell online)? The answer is friction. One-click removes friction online, but you can remove friction anywhere in your business. This is how you can apply it:

Simplify your processes
Streamline your communication
Make it easy for your customers to interact with you

Imagine a doctor’s office: one has patients filling out long paper forms and waiting weeks for appointments. The other practice has online appointment scheduling, digital forms to complete at home, and automated reminders. This reduces friction for patients and improves efficiency for the office.

Implementing Frictionless Selling

Frictionless selling is the future. If you’re not working on this, your competition is. To succeed, you must eliminate friction at every step. Don’t just think about online checkouts; examine your entire sales and delivery process. Identify pain points, delays, and areas where customers get frustrated. Simplify, streamline, and automate, then measure the impact on your sales.

Continuously Optimize for Success

Repeat this process constantly, looking for ways to reduce friction and enhance the customer experience. Start with the changes that will give the biggest impact. If you want a step-by-step way to find exactly what to tackle first, use my Scale with Science method, available for free. Learn how to apply the scientific method to grow your business.

By simplifying the checkout process, reducing friction, and leveraging the psychology of shopping, you can drive higher conversion rates and increase revenue. As Amazon’s success with one-click ordering demonstrates, the future of business is providing fast, efficient, and intuitive ways for customers to buy from you.

January 23, 2025

Maximising Sales Through Online Reviews

Could you be missing out on a 24% increase in sales by not focusing on your online reviews? Let’s explore how to take control of your reviews and turn them into a powerful sales weapon using science. I’m going to give you a tool so you can do it NOW.

The Impact of Reviews

A 2021 study in the Journal of Marketing Science found that a single negative first review can tank your average rating by 0.29 stars and cost you nearly 40 reviews over the next year. AND … if that one bad review is the first one shown, it can poison the well for months to come. However, if you get those first reviews right, you’re setting yourself up for a wave of positive feedback since customers often base their reviews on earlier reviews.

Step 1: Respond to Every Review

Here’s the first step to fixing this: respond to every single review, good or bad. Research by Proserpio and Zervas published in the Journal of Marketing Research found that responding to reviews boosts star ratings and can increase the total reviews by 12%. It can also bump you up half a star within six months. Why? It shows that you care, you’re listening, and this builds brand value over time.

Now, before I give you the how-to, I’ve created a free mini masterclass on scaling with science, packed with tactics you can use today. Just click here to get it for free: Free 7-day mini-masterclass

Handling Negative Reviews

We all get negative reviews from time to time. Research from Bocconi University and INSEAD in 2023 showed that a single negative review on the first page of your webpage can decrease purchases by 42%. Each additional negative review drops that by another 27%. This effect is strongest for reviews about product or service functionality. But remember, negative reviews aren’t all bad. They give you a chance to publicly demonstrate how you handle problems and can turn dissatisfied customers into brand advocates by responding to them.

Step 2: Review Order Matters

Next up is review order. Research from Tuck and the London Business Schools highlights something called the primacy effect. A bad first review is incredibly damaging, but a relevant positive first review is a massive plus. Check how your website or product listing sorts reviews. If they are sorted by date, fix that – and feature a compelling, detailed positive review as the first one that people see. This can increase your sales by up to 20% (!).

Testing Your Changes

How do you test if all this is working for your business? It’s simple: use the scientific method. Ask the right questions and let the data guide you. I’ve got a tool called Sell More with Science that you can use to pick exactly the right test to run.

For your on-site reviews, create two versions of the product page: one with your current review set and one with the optimized reviews. Run a simple A/B test showing different people different versions of each page and see which gets a better response. Use any standard page tracking software to track how far people scroll down, how much time they spend on the page, and how many add-to-cart clicks you get (more details in the free resource download above). You’ll find that by changing the review order, it probably makes a huge difference!

What if you have a product on a third-party site? This testing can take a little longer but it’s worth it. First, track how many leads come in from each review site or how many sales you’re getting. This gives you a baseline. The next step is to actively manage the reviews—respond to them and address negative reviews both publicly and privately. After a month or two, check for an increase in leads or sales for those sites.

Real Results

I’ve worked with a services company to lift revenues by 24% without spending a dime on new advertising. Product companies have seen even bigger increases—all by focusing on working scientifically to sell more. Make sure you use the Sell More with Science chart to guide you: if you want the full roadmap to scale your business scientifically, click here to see how I built a $2.9 million business from just $500 in tests using the scientific method.

December 11, 2024

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