How to Create a Seamless Checkout

The checkout experience is the portion of the shopping experience that takes place after the customer finishes adding items to their cart and initiates the purchase. A typical checkout process: 

• Asks the customer to provide contact, billing, and shipping information

• Provides a summary or overview of the order

• Takes the customer to a payment screen

• Ends with a confirmation screen verifying that the order was processed successfully

In 1986, the grocery store chain Kroger became the first business in the United States to use self-checkout — a revolutionary new way to cut costs while giving customers more autonomy. By the early 2000s, just a few decades later, self-checkout kiosks had spread to supermarkets and retailers across the country. 

Nearly 40 years have passed since the technology debuted and self-checkout remains a popular payment option today. But with more and more purchases now being made online instead of in-store, businesses need to keep pace by offering convenient digital checkouts. Let’s take a closer look at how businesses are adapting to growing consumer demand for a seamless checkout process.

Shoppers are more likely to abandon their carts when they run into obstacles, or “friction,” during the checkout process. That’s a serious issue for businesses, because cart abandonment translates to fewer sales and lower revenue. Customers who abandon their carts are also at risk of switching to competing brands, which hurts customer lifetime value (CLTV) and average order value (AOV). 

Your business can combat these issues by giving customers a fast and easy checkout process. By making transactions convenient and seamless, your business can: 

• Reduce cart abandonment 

• Increase your conversion rate

• Improve customer satisfaction 

• Boost brand loyalty and customer retention

Shoppers may abandon their carts if they run into barriers or inconveniences during checkout. According to a report by the Baymard Institute, some of the most common checkout pain points that cause customers to abandon transactions include: 

• Unexpected costs at checkout, like shipping or processing fees 

• Being forced to create a user account 

• Not trusting the website to keep their data secure 

• Having to complete too many steps 

• Perceived lack of pricing transparency 

• Dissatisfactory return policies  

• Technical issues, like pages crashing or loading too slowly 

• Not having enough payment options 

By eliminating these barriers, you can provide a seamless checkout experience. It’s important to move quickly, because negative checkout experiences directly impact KPIs like sales revenue, customer retention, and customer lifetime value.

Simplify the checkout process

In 2024, the Baymard Institute conducted a survey that questioned more than 1,000 people about their reasons for cart abandonment. 22% of the survey’s respondents said they abandoned a cart during the past three months because the checkout process was too long or too complicated. 

You can prevent this scenario and create a more seamless checkout experience by simplifying the steps that customers need to complete. Some examples include: 

• Reducing the number of fields customers need to fill out 

• Enabling autofill or autocomplete to make filling out forms faster

• Limiting the number of screens and pages users need to click or tap through

Offer a guest checkout option

Customer profiles enable your business to make personalized recommendations — but they can also dissuade shoppers from becoming customers in the first place. In fact, more than a quarter of shoppers (26%) have abandoned an online cart because the website required them to create an account. 

Not only is it time-consuming to create and verify a new account, it can also raise privacy concerns for shoppers. Your business can solve both of these problems at the same time by offering a guest checkout option. Guest checkout allows shoppers to complete transactions quickly while protecting their privacy, without the need to spend any time filling out a user profile.

Offer several payment solutions

In the Baymard Institute survey, 13% of respondents said they abandoned a shopping cart because the business didn’t provide enough payment options. You can give customers a better, more flexible checkout experience by accepting a wider variety of payment methods, such as: 

• Debit and credit cards like Visa or Mastercard 

• Mobile wallets like Apple Pay, Zelle, or Venmo 

• Buy now, pay later (BNPL) services like Zip 

• Contactless payments 

The more payment options you offer, the more convenient it is for customers to make purchases, which increases the likelihood of transactions being completed.

Autofill customer information

A seamless checkout process needs to be quick and easy for customers to complete. You can create a more seamless checkout experience by enabling an autofill feature, which lets returning customers complete transactions faster. 

Autofill automatically populates card numbers, phone numbers, and other details with a single tap or click, eliminating the need for returning customers to manually reenter their information every time they make a purchase. Just make sure that your business complies with consumer privacy laws, such as the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), that regulate how customer data can be stored, used, and shared.

Optimize for mobile

More than half all web traffic comes from mobile devices. And naturally, that means consumers are using their smartphones and laptops to make purchases on-the-go. With m-commerce sales forecast to surpass $710 billion next year, businesses can maximize profits by catering to mobile users. That means designing your mobile checkout process to load pages quickly, store data securely, and make payments easy with one-tap and digital wallet options. It should work on both iPhone and Android devices, and feature responsive design that resizes to fit various screens.

Prioritize security

In the Baymard Institute’s research, lack of trust was the third most common reason why shoppers failed to complete the checkout process. 25% of survey respondents said they abandoned a cart during the past three months because they “didn’t trust the site” to keep their payment information secure. 

You can encourage customers to complete more transactions by building trust in your website or app — and one of the best ways to build trust is by improving your digital security. Here are a few ways you can show customers that their security is your priority: 

• Use secure protocols to encrypt sensitive data, such as HTTPS, which uses Transport Layer Security (TLS)/Secure Sockets Layer (SSL).

• Prominently display security badges and certifications on your website, like GeoTrust DV SSL or GeoTrust True Business ID.

Enable one-click checkouts

A leading cause behind why shoppers abandon carts is due to an overly complicated process. One-click checkouts can help to shorten the checkout process down to a single, effortless click (or tap). 

Instead of needing to fill out multiple fields or forms, shoppers can make payments instantly and effortlessly — even when they’re on-the-go. That’s especially useful during busy periods, like the lunch rush or holiday shopping season, when you need to maximize your efficiency and get every possible edge over competitors.

Display a checkout summary

Unexpected charges, like surprise shipping fees, are the number one reason why shoppers fail to complete purchases. According to research by the Baymard Institute, nearly half of all shoppers — 48% — abandoned a cart in 2024 because “extra costs [were] too high,” like shipping and processing fees. 

Your business can prevent this from happening by being clear and transparent about pricing — not just at the final stage of checkout, but throughout the entire purchase process. It’s vital to display order details like: 

• A summary of the items being purchased, including size and color details

• Taxes

• Shipping fees, if applicable 

• Order processing fees or other service fees

Offer live chat support

When customers have questions or concerns, it slows down the checkout process and can even dissuade them from making the purchase. Live chat support can prevent this scenario by enabling a more seamless checkout experience for shoppers. 

By using a live chat feature, customers can get fast, accurate answers to questions they have about their items. Instead of waiting on hold — and potentially rethinking their purchase altogether — customers receive assistance right away, empowering them to continue shopping and complete checkout successfully.

Show customers their checkout status

Your business can create a more seamless checkout experience by incorporating a progress indicator, like a progress bar or checklist bar, that tells customers exactly where they are in the process. This strategy is effective because it’s rooted in science, drawing on a psychological concept known as the Zeigarnik Effect — a phenomenon where people feel internal pressure to recall and finish uncompleted tasks. A progress bar acts like a “you are here” map, eliminating stress and uncertainty from the checkout process by showing customers how many steps are left to complete.

Zip is a buy now, pay later (BNPL) app that creates a fast and easy checkout process for over 6 million shoppers around the globe. More than 79,000 businesses accept Zip as a frictionless payment method, including top retailers and brands like Apple, Amazon, Target, Sephora, Walmart, The Home Depot, and more. 

By giving shoppers the option to pay using Zip, you can make the checkout process faster and more convenient. That’s why businesses who use Zip see an average AOV lift of 46%. Here are some of the features that make Zip such a powerful tool for supporting seamless checkout: 

• Customers can pay with one tap or click. 

• Zip works with iPhone, Android, computers, and tablets. 

• Applicants get decisions right away. 

• Shoppers can use Zip in-store¹ or online¹. 

• Zip’s easy-to-manage installment plans boost customers’ purchasing power.

What are the most important parts of the checkout process?

From a customer’s perspective, the most important parts of a seamless checkout process include having multiple payment options (including options for guest checkout), clear and transparent return policies, a checkout progress indicator, and minimal steps to complete the transaction. It’s also important for customers to feel like they can trust the website or app with sensitive payment information, which is where trust badges and social proof come in handy.

What is a one step checkout?

A one step checkout is an ultra-streamlined checkout process that customers can complete with just a single tap or click. One step checkout is the perfect example of a seamless checkout experience, since customers can finish paying in seconds with minimal information or effort required.

What is a seamless shopping experience?

When a shopping experience is “seamless” or “frictionless,” it means that the customer can smoothly, effortlessly move from one stage of the purchasing journey to the next. The benefit of seamless checkout is that it encourages customers to complete transactions, return for future purchases, and spend more time engaging with your app or website. To create a seamless checkout experience, businesses need to ensure it’s fast, easy, and convenient for shoppers to make payments.