What’s the best color for the “Add to Cart”/CTA button?

By understanding color psychology and using optimization tools, you can create powerful CTA buttons that drive sales and conversions on your Ecommerce site. Keep in mind your brand's identity, create contrasts, and consider the preferences of your target audience to create compelling and effective CTA buttons.
September 11, 2023
Updated by
Davis Paipa

When it comes to your call-to-action button, every design decision matters as every Ecommerce site’s goal is to turn more visitors into paying customers. When you know the right tricks and tips on how the color affects people’s thoughts and actions you can easily facilitate your business and conversion optimization. This post will explain to you how to build better CTA buttons including an “Add to Cart'' button on your website.

Why are CTA buttons important to sales?

As it may seem a little bit of an unnecessary thing, this button makes the real deal. It has a huge impact on your conversions. There was an interesting confirmation at the Unbounce Boston Road Trip (2018). The Toast VP of Marketing did a study where a single, focused CTA button was added to an email campaign and it boosted clicks by 371 percent and increased sales by a staggering 1,617 percent. This is one of the many proofs that you should pay attention to call-to-action buttons like “Add to Cart, free trial sign-up buttons and download buttons. The “Add to cart” button is one of the most important in sales as it’s a step closer to closing a deal, hence it should integrate seamlessly within your website’s existing colour scheme. These seemingly unimportant things make the overall look about your website affect people when making specific choices and purchases and that increases  company's sales.

What makes a good CTA button?

CTA buttons can vary in style and size depending on your goal conversion and website style. New business starters often wonder about their Ecommerce site’s design. How to really know what makes a good call-to-action or “Add to Cart” button?  The answer is it’s many things, like the placement of the button, the size of it, the color and how it plays with the rest of the page. For this reason a lot of companies choose to devote some of their money to professionals who check not only a conversion of a site but also its overall performance and do many optimization tests including A/B Testing

A/B Testing

Attention and Contrast

It’s important for companies to catch consumer’s attention. When it comes to color techniques, the use of contrast is particularly important. Have you ever thought to yourself what kind of buttons make you want to click? It's a lot more possible for consumers to press the button if it’s contrasting everything else. In an ocean of content marketing, color can help your business stand out. It’s a psychological fact that as kids we get interested when something pops out and makes us look and wander what’s underneath that. Choice of color not only allows the buyer to find the right button but the right color takes control of a person's decision and makes him do the move.

A psychological side to colors

Color is an emotional cue both in everyday’s decisions and in business. Why is it important to know these physiological facts and how can it affect your sales rate? It’s easy. Just as we mentioned earlier, it will be easier to get a consumer to make a call to action when the color used on these action buttons will be agreeable and likeable for his mindset and subconscious. Understanding color psychology is important for the success of the business and sales.

Aesthetic and style

It’s just one button that may feel not that important when you think about your hard work that’s put in business but the truth is - it really matters from a consumer's perspective. Your site’s visitor is more interested in his benefit and what he gets out of this purchase. It’s for sure that a customer wants service. When spending money, people do it more willingly when they can feelsatisfied and proud of themselves and their decisions. Color is a big part of that process. Let your customer shop with pleasure!

add to cart button

Color scheme for “Add to cart”/CTA buttons

There are some color schemes for you to find your perfect color bases. The two most commonly used schemes that are used for “Add To Cart” and other call-to-action buttons are complementary and triadic. Let’s take a look!

Complementary scheme- this one means that it's best to choose a color that’s opposite. For example, if your site is mostly green, you need to choose the red color for your “Add To Cart” button and so on. Simply because it contrasts perfectly and draws attention to it.

Triadic scheme- this scheme shows how to balance your color palette on the site. You can see that these colors spare evenly throughout the color wheel showing different contrasts but keeping them in harmony.

colour scheme add to cart button

Top 5 colors for “Add To Cart”/CTA buttons

1) Red

In business, red color draws attention to itself and calls for action to be taken. Red color screams energy, passion, action, strength and excitement. Researchers have even discovered that red means victory. They concluded that in one-on-one sports, for example, boxing, wrestling etc., in 16 of 21 rounds there were more red-clad winners. The researchers were attentive to point out that the effect is probably subtle, such that red can be a deciding factor only among evenly matched competitors. Another famous A/B test shows that the results of which were published in 2011, highlighted the value of using red as a button colour. It was about red “Get Started Now!” button instead of the usual green button. The results of their test were convincing: the red button gave a 21% increase in conversions.

Successful companies that use red: Netflix, Target, Coca-Cola

2) Green

Green color always works as it’s a natural “go” sign associated with action and forward movement. And for sure associated with a traffic light it naturally gives you a “go-to” signal and will more likely get an action on your site. Lately it’s powerful because of environmental factors and trends. This color is even more suitable for companies that provide products or services relatable to the environment. However, in Ecommerce this color is really powerful and shows positivity which encourages people to make a purchase.

Successful companies that use green: IBM, Argos, SportsDirect

3) Orange or Yellow

Orange and yellow colors are exciting and warm. It may be because of the connection between warmth from the sun and happiness, that leads to people taking action. It’s an easy psychology- people will be more likely to buy products that they associate with happiness. Here’s an example- Amazon. It’s entire site includes yellow and orange colors. As they do website optimization testing a lot, you can be quite sure that this color will work for your ecommerce site too.

Successful companies that use orange/yellow: Amazon

For an e-commerce site, blue colour schemes can be a useful way of conveying trustworthiness. Among B2B websites and communications agencies, it is by far the most popular color used in CTA and “Add To Cart Buttons”. 6 of the top 10 B2B companies have blue as a primary or secondary colour in their branding because of the one simple reason: it signals trust. As many successful companies keep their “buttons” blue, it’s pretty obvious that this color is working for conversion.

Successful companies that use blue: Facebook, IBM, Microsoft

5) Black

This color may be quite surprising to appear in this list because of different opinions about using this color for a call-to-action button. There are many popular brands like Zara, Dorothy Perkins and Boohoo that use black buttons. You may ask why? The answer may be really simple. With black we associate something classic, elegant. Something that gets attention without even asking. Black means power and control. Not only it shows class but it also provides a stark and elegant contrast. But there are some experts that state this color as one of the worst colors for “Add To Cart” and CTA buttons just because people consider black as a sad and even depressing color. However statistics show the opposite- sometimes less is better and more effective.

Successful companies that use black: Topshop, Net-a-Porter, The Body Shop

Which color to use on your ecommerce site?

It’s possible to find a relation with more than one color above with your site. Deciding which one to give the final shot may present a bit of a headache as you want to encourage the visitor to click this button. 

Here are some tips you need to keep in mind:

  1. Brand color- choose the color that already fits on your page and matches with everything on your site. That will highlight your company and values even more.
  2. Contrast- remember to match color with your brand but also make it stand out. For example, “Add to cart” button should be visible for everyone immediately as it almost screams for a visitor to click on it and buy your product
  3. Industry- make your button colors about your specific field and goals. For example, if you’re producing something environmental, keep your colors about something natural like green or blue.

When it comes to CTA/”Add to Cart” buttons it’s important too onl trust different optimization tests, other people’s opinions and go with the flow. Eventually you will know and understand your site’s design better and you’ll be able to change and make these buttons perfect for your Ecommerce site for successful results. For that reason you can use Google Analytics Solutions, Optimizely, Canva Color Wheel or similar services for testing purposes. Just remember to keep in mind these tips and tricks, practice it on your Ecommerce site and see what works for your audience.

You might like
Marketing
Mastering Shopify Marketing for Boxing Day Shopping: Quick Tips for Success
Ecommerce & Shopify apps
How 6 Figure Business Ovi Watch is preparing for Black Friday Cyber Monday (BFCM) with Add Announcement Bar App
Ecommerce & Shopify App
What is the best way to translate Shopify store?
Let's Build Your Ecommerce Empire.
Subscribe for great deals
Thank you! You Are on the list!
huh? Something went wrong...
© 2023, Libautech. All Rights Reserved