E-commerce

Checkout platform Fast tackles cart abandonment with this one-two punch

The answer to your online store's biggest pain point is literally one click away.

Photo provided

November 8, 2021

By Jason Boyd, freelance writer and marketing specialist

The answer to your online store's biggest pain point is literally one click away.

Seven out of 10 shoppers abandon their online shopping carts, and it costs e-commerce stores at least $4.6 trillion a year in lost revenue. Why?

Most shoppers blame long checkout flows that include adding items to a cart that they're ready to buy – only to spend the next several minutes filling out countless form fields just to complete the order. In other words, the more daunting the checkout process, the more likely shoppers will simply abandon their carts.

So, what's the solution?

Online checkout company Fast makes online shopping faster and easier for consumers with Fast Checkout, its one-click payment button that shortens the purchasing experience from minutes to seconds. Fast removes the need for customers to remember passwords or re-enter their information each time they want to buy something.

It's a simple, one-click payment solution currently available in 35 countries and supporting more than 100 currencies.

"I don't know anyone who likes typing out their name, address, and payment information every single time they want to buy something," Calanthia Mei, VP and head of partnerships at Fast, said. "While there is no lack of accelerated checkout products, Fast offers a true one-click checkout experience. When you click the button, within seconds, the order is complete. That's it. That is an invaluable asset for shoppers, and they reward merchants for offering that convenience."

Product detail page checkout

Merchants can place Fast's payment button anywhere on their site, but the most popular spot is the product detail page. That way, shoppers can simply click Fast Checkout when they're ready to buy and skip the cumbersome "add to cart" step entirely.

When a customer uses Fast Checkout for the first time, they will go through a traditional checkout experience:

• Enter information (name, email address, phone number, card number, and shipping address).
• Select a shipping option.
• Click Complete Purchase.

But after the first purchase, customers never have to re-enter their information again. And that means the next time that customer clicks Fast Checkout anywhere else, the experience is completely streamlined. Instantly, their order is placed.

"The great thing about product detail page checkout is you're giving shoppers the option to buy something when their interest is at its peak, right there on the product page," Mei said. "When someone knows what they want and they're ready to buy, they should have the option to do that without any hurdles."

Order batching

If customers can buy an item quickly without going through the traditional checkout process, how might this affect sellers? One-click, single-item purchases are convenient for shoppers, but some sellers worry about paying multiple transaction fees and lowering their average-order-value (AOV) – the average amount a customer spends each time they visit an online store.

Fast resolves these concerns with order batching. Order batching is when multiple orders made by the same shopper are combined into one transaction.

Here's an example: a shopper makes a one-click purchase, then sees another item they like, purchases it, then purchases another, and so on. All of these orders made within five minutes of each other are combined into just one transaction.

"It's one order for sellers in the backend," Mei said. "One shipping fee. One nice package. For sellers it means average order value increases while shipping cost remains low."

The only other platform that has both of these features is Amazon, but they use a closed environment that sellers have to join to access its features. Fast takes a different approach: bringing its one-click solution directly to the seller. Fast Checkout can be installed on any online store and works on all devices, platforms and browsers.

Being so widely available, Fast is bringing its one-click checkout to the entire internet.

"We believe sellers of all sizes should have access to this experience," Mei said. "We believe buyers should be able to check out anywhere at the point of inspiration."