Stories

In 2007, Terry Wright launched the ecommerce site Charley Harper Gallery, featuring artwork from the late artist Charley Harper, whose minimalist art captures the brilliance and vibrancy of nature. Terry discovered Charley Harper’s artwork, which captures playful caricatures of birds, fish and insects, after a trip to Costa Rica. After a long hike in the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve, Terry and his wife wandered into a gift shop where his imagination was captured by a beautiful poster filled with birds, sloths and butterflies.

“I had never seen anything like it, and it captivated me,” Terry shared. “I bought the poster, tracked down the artist and learned he had just passed.” Terry immediately struck up a close relationship with the artist’s son, who had taken charge of preserving and enhancing his father’s legacy. “The one thing the artist didn’t have was a website, so I created the first website selling Charley Harper’s art and from there, Charley Harper Gallery was born."

Since its inception, the business has been driven by a vision to share artwork with an uplifting message, and that has fueled 17 years of success, a loyal customer base, and long-term profitability. “We are so grateful for our wonderful customers, especially those repeat customers and loyal Harper print collectors,” says Terry. But like most small businesses, finding and attracting new customers is a constant challenge.

To help connect with prospects and convert them into loyal customers, Terry integrated PayPal Complete Payments and enabled Fastlane by PayPal, an accelerated guest checkout experience that has been shown to help customers complete guest checkout more than 28%* faster and drive more than 48% higher conversion than non-accelerated shoppers, which can lead to increased sales for his business.

“We were eager to facilitate a faster and more seamless checkout experience for customers, especially ahead of the holiday shopping season. Happy customers are the best route to success and Fastlane has helped us enhance the customer checkout experience, speed up checkout, and sustain business growth. When our customers are thrilled with their experience with us, they will come back next time and maybe even let their friends and family know about us too.”

“PayPal has been a strategic partner to us through the WooCommerce integration for many years,” Terry shared. “PayPal Complete Payments has helped us manage the retail transactions for our storefront while providing a safe and seamless checkout experience for our customers. It’s a product that is constantly improving and has great support. It integrates well with our sales platform, WooCommerce, and we love it because it saves us time so we can focus on tending to our customers.”

Small business owners are often required to be a jack-of-all trades. “When technology can help automate tasks and help take some of the burden off your plate,” Terry shared, “you can free up your time for more important tasks, like focusing on a more personalized experience for your customers – and that is what has led to our success over the years.”

After enabling Fastlane, Terry shared that the early customer feedback has been great. “Our customers appreciate the accelerated guest checkout option, and we expect to continue to benefit from fewer abandoned shopping carts, especially as we head into the holiday shopping season,” he shared.

When asked what advice he has for other entrepreneurs and small businesses who are just getting started, Terry emphasized the importance of resilience, persistence and cultivating strategic partnerships. “Small setbacks and failures are part of the journey – learn from them and keep going. Take calculated risks, but don’t gamble everything on one move,” he advised, adding, "and most importantly, seek out reliable partners with scalable solutions, like PayPal, to help grow your business sustainably.”

^{*Based on PayPal internal data from August 2 to September 30, 2024 (n=947). Comparing Fastlane accelerated shoppers vs. non accelerated shoppers for merchants that have integrated Fastlane.}