First name. Last name. Shipping Address. Payment information. Billing Address. Delivery method. Repeat, for every purchase. Exhausted yet?
Customers often abandon their online shopping carts when the checkout process feels too extensive and time consuming. Every abandoned cart contributes to a loss in revenue for ecommerce businesses. In order to mitigate this issue, Amazon decided to implement 1-Click Checkouts in 1999. They also bought a patent for it and successfully sued Barnes & Noble when they tried to implement a similar feature on their platform.
Amazon’s 1-Click Checkout Patent
According to a case study conducted by Wharton, the business school at the University of Pennsylvania, Amazon utilized 1-click checkout to create a database filled with customers’ information. Their 1-click checkout method was a game changer as it allowed Amazon and no other ecommerce platform to market, approach, and sell their products to existing customers.
In 2017, Amazon’s patent for 1-Click checkout expired. Many organizations quickly jumped on the bandwagon and started implementing 1-click checkout on their online stores. But are 1-Click checkouts all that? Let’s find out.
What Is 1-Click Checkout?
As the name suggests, once a customer enters their information on a platform, it is stored in the platform’s database. When a consumer returns to the site to make a future purchase, the checkout process is completed with a single click.
Depending on the vendor providing the 1-Click checkout services, the number of fields and some features may vary from one another. However, the crux of the checkout functionality remains the same:
- Customers provide information including their shipping address, full name, contact number, and payment.
- The data is stored in the database through a secure network.
- Billing and payment information is sensitive. It requires proper encryption when storing billing details.
After filling out the form, customers do not have to worry about anything else. The remaining steps happen behind the scenes.
A basic representation of the one-click checkout button.
Check out our blog post on shipping trends for 2022.
Ecommerce Benefits With 1-Click Checkouts
In the early days of ecommerce, customers had to complete long and tedious checkout processes that involved multiple pages. The experience was redundant and wasted the shopper’s time. Offering a quick, 1-click checkout process reduces the number of steps needed to complete a transaction. This improves the overall shopping experience for the customer by decreasing their frustrations and increasing convenience.
Save Time
Before high-speed internet, one of the worst parts about multi-page checkout was the loading speed of each page. 1-click checkout saves the customer time by simplifying the checkout process. By allowing customers to save their payment and shipping information, they don’t have to manually enter this information on multiple pages to make a purchase. Streamlining the checkout process makes it quicker and reduces human error, which leads to a better overall shopping experience.
Increase Sales
A survey conducted by Elasticpath concluded that conversion rates increase by 21.8% when there is a single checkout page. 1-click checkout reduces cart abandonment rates by making the checkout process faster and more convenient for customers. Customers quickly and easily complete their purchases, reducing the number of shoppers that abandon their carts due to frustration or time constraints. Additionally, increasing the number of customers who complete their purchases leads to increased sales for the retailer.
Popular 1-Click Checkout Vendors
Multiple vendors provide 1-Click checkout for ecommerce marketplaces. Here are some of the most popular 1-click checkout vendors:
- Link with Stripe
Link allows customers to enter their information once. After that, they can make future payments with one click.
Backlinko has provided some interesting statistics about Link with Stripe:
- Within the past two years, the value of Stripe has increased three times. It is currently valued at $94.4 billion.
- A whopping 3,124,751 live websites accept payment through Link.
- They processed around $350 billion in payments.
- Meta Pay
Who doesn’t have an account on Facebook or Instagram these days? It is estimated that more than 2 billion people are a part of either of these social platforms. Understanding the need for an easy checkout method, Meta created their own 1-click checkout.
Meta has shared some interesting facts about their paying module:
- Customers can make payments in 55 different currencies; 160 countries have access to Meta Pay.
- Multiple verification methods such as fingerprint or facial recognition are available.
- Meta Pay is usable via any of the Meta applications such as Whatsapp, Facebook, Instagram, and more.
- OneTouch by PayPal
PayPal is one of the most popular and preferred payment platforms worldwide. In total, PayPal conducted 19 billion transactions in 2021. To compete with the existing 1-Click checkouts, PayPal introduced OneTouch with a similar purpose.
- According to Vox, 250 popular online retailers offer OneTouch for payments.
- Insider concluded that in Q2 of 2016, the total number of users of OneTouch reached 50 million.
The Decision: To Implement Or Not To Implement
Hamlet’s dilemma of “to be or not to be” often arises in the ecommerce industry when there is confusion on whether a feature would work in a given situation. Here is a quick analysis of where the 1-Click solution would work and where it would not.
Which Industries Should Implement 1-Click Checkouts?
Ecommerce marketplaces such as grocery, medicine, and other similar businesses that receive repeat customers regularly benefit from 1-click checkouts. The efficient checkout process saves customers time and reduces unnecessary hassle.
Who Should Avoid 1-Click Checkouts?
Some businesses in the electronics industry are required to give explicit information about taxes, shipments, and delivery. Businesses like these should ensure the proper delivery of all the details before reaching the 1-click checkout process. Or, they can avoid it altogether and use a conventional checkout instead.
Headless Commerce Compliments 1-Click Checkouts
Headless commerce allows the front end of the ecommerce platform to disconnect from the back end. This lets the developers and marketers have a free hand to work on their respective modules.
Unified ecommerce platforms using the headless approach can have different checkout options. For example, a clothing ecommerce site can implement 1-click checkouts while selling or advertising on Facebook. At the same time, their website checkout can have multiple steps and follow the conventional strategy.
Final Words
It is important to use the 1-click checkouts appropriately. Amazon identified it as a means to collect unique user data and make the lives of their customers easier at the same time. By implementing strong marketing strategies, 1-click checkouts can increase sales, revenues, and eventually profits in no time.
At UpStart Commerce, we offer headless commerce services. Our goal is to provide a seamless and effortless platform for retailers replatforming to headless architecture. Start your free trial today.
