Buy Now buttons are the main CTA (call to action) items on your website. So are the Add to Cart buttons. Everything you do in your store boils down to motivating the visitors to click on either of these two buttons. And when it comes to driving such clicks on your e-commerce site, color can play a significant role. Studies have shown that certain button colors can evoke particular emotions and influence behavior.
So, what are the colors that make people want to buy an item? What is the best color for the Buy Now button? The answer is not straightforward but we hope to provide some useful insights with our original Buy Now button color research.
Best Buy Now Button Colors: Do They Exist?
There has been a lot of talk about call-to-action buttons, including Add to Cart or Buy Now buttons in e-commerce. One side is actively testing the button colors and reports various conversion rate improvements (from a legitimate 130% to a questionable 300-400% increase). The other side is saying that there's no use in testing the button colors at all and instead, we should all concentrate on the content of our websites in general.
As always, the golden truth is to stay somewhere in between. Indeed, you can't expect your business to skyrocket just because you've changed the 'buy now' or 'add to cart' button color. Unless you offer useful content, you'll get zero engagement. After all, any type of button only works in collaboration with all elements the customers see on your page.
When analyzing button colors, it’s important to consider the overall palette used across the site. For example, leveraging tools like a color palette tester can ensure consistency between your branding and CTA design. This kind of cohesion can subtly but meaningfully affect user behavior.
But, as multiple sources from WebMD to 99Designs state, the colors do affect people, and we can't ignore that. For example, red is known to create a sense of urgency, while green brings feelings of safety and relaxation. Blue is often associated with trust and professionalism: just think about online brands such as LinkedIn, Zoom, and Skype. Orange, meanwhile, is an attention-grabbing color, making it a good option for sites with a friendly and customer-oriented tone. (Like Amasty).
How We Picked Websites to Analyze Add to Cart and Buy Now Button Colors
Curious to know which colors are mostly used in popular e-commerce stores? We visited several hundreds of e-commerce stores and looked at which call-to-action button colors they were using.
All the sites were picked from Alexa's Top Shopping Websites (Global), which means that all the websites are among the most popular and successful stores. The CTA button color was counted only if the site was working, selling anything, and the product was in stock. No pre-orders, back-orders, 'See in Stores', or other options were counted. We also only included the product page buttons in the statistics, excluding pop-up, category, or search page buttons.
Best Button Color Research: The Statistics
As we see, Red is the most popular button color among the reviewed websites. Green, blue, and orange are very close, altogether making around 74% of the total.
To see if the results differ in various industries, we analyzed the best color for CTA buttons in three key e-commerce categories: electronics, food, and clothes.
Add to Cart and Buy Now Button Colors in Electronics
In this category, the result is close to the general one: Red is among the most popular button colors, but so is Green. Blue and orange are the follow-up choices here, but the blue color has a smaller share this time.
Add to Cart and Buy Now Button Colors in Clothes
In clothing, we see a complete change of leaders. Black is the new black. What's more, the share of the 'other' colors segment is much larger. It comprised pink, violet, purple, brown, white, and other colors that got 1-2% percent each. Also, the clothing category had the biggest variety of the 'other' section compared to other viewed categories.
Add to Cart and Buy Now Button Colors in Food
Last but not least, the food category. Again, Red is the leader here and the 'Other' category is significantly large. Notice that blue colors weren't popular in Food at all. Instead, we see an unusual color - pistachio - among the most popular add-to-cart and buy-now button colors.
How You Can Use The Button Color Stats In Your Business
Ultimately, the best CTA colors or best color for the Buy Now button will always depend on your specific industry and brand books. But here are the key takeaways of our study:
- If you want to change or choose the color for your button, you can start with the popular options. For example, you shouldn't go for Blue if you're in the Food segment.
- You can also go for the most popular button color options if you have no time or resources to run A/B tests, research competitors, or perform a deep analysis of your product pages.
- It's always good to know the general tendencies and 'what works' stats in your industry and observe whether they change with time.
While using someone's best practice is an effective shortcut, always find a way to see what works for your audience and try different variants. Testing different colors and monitoring their impact on conversion rates can help you find the ideal option for your website and your customers.
Frequently asked questions
"Add to cart" is an e-commerce function allowing shoppers to select products they want to purchase and save them in a virtual shopping cart. This action doesn't complete the purchase but holds items for review before checkout, where users can pay for their selections.
The best color for a Buy Now button depends on your industry. Green is highly popular in electronics, Black is most used in Clothes, and Red can be often seen in Food marketing.
Red, green, and orange are popular for the "Buy Now" buttons thanks to their ability to evoke urgency, trust, and attention.
Red buttons are reported to get the most clicks due to their association with urgency and action.
Red is considered the most eye-catching color, drawing immediate attention and conveying urgency.
Orange is the most motivating color, often used to inspire action, particularly in e-commerce for call-to-action buttons.
Red, green, and orange are the best colors for food marketing according to our research.
The best color for an e-commerce website varies, but red, green, and black work well for motivating purchases and creating trust.
To change a button's color in Google Sites, click the button, select "Edit," then click the paint icon to open the "Color" settings. Choose a color from the palette or input a hex code for custom colors. Changes will apply automatically.
To change the buy button color on Shopify, go to Online Store > Themes > Customize. In the theme editor, select Theme Settings > Colors. Look for the option to change the button color and customize it as desired. Save changes when finished.
To add a "Buy Now" button on Shopify, go to your admin dashboard, navigate to Online Store > Themes > Customize, and select the product page. Look for the Buy Buttons section, enable the button, and save. You can also use the Buy Button sales channel to embed buttons on external sites.
To remove the "Buy It Now" button on Shopify, go to your admin dashboard, navigate to Online Store > Themes > Customize, select the product page, and disable the dynamic checkout button option. Save your changes to update the store without the button.
If your "Buy Now" button is greyed out, it could be due to inventory issues, such as the product being out of stock, or an error in the product settings. Ensure that the product has available stock and that all required fields, like price and variants, are properly configured.
