Payments gateway finds flaws in top e-commerce checkouts

Internet Retailing

5th Oct 2017

A detailed review of the top 100 commerce sites around the world, as ranked by Alexa, has surfaced a surprising number of flaws in the checkout process.

Internet commerce platform, Stripe found that 72 of the top 100 had three or more errors in their checkout flows, and almost half did not have auto-fill set up correctly for entering billing information saved in the browser.

Meanwhile, one-fifth made mobile checkout significantly harder by not providing a numerical keyboard for entering credit card numbers.

Research suggests such points of friction during checkout are a key factor in almost three-quarters of mobile shopping carts being abandoned before purchase.

Jordan McKee, principal analyst at 451 Research said a streamlined checkout flow that optimises based on context is “essential” for businesses to increase conversions.

“Unfortunately, designing a customised purchase experience that minimises friction has traditionally been a resource-intensive process fraught with complexity,” he said.

Stripe agreed that businesses typically have to choose between using pre-built payment forms that are quick to install, but may not be tailored to their customers, and customised forms that may introduce new errors to the system.

In an effort to solve this dilemma, the platform has released a new feature called Elements, which allows businesses to customise various checkout flows, such as mobile and alternative payment methods, without a lot of effort.

“With two-thirds less code than would be typically required, businesses can implement and fully customise Stripe Elements in a matter of minutes, immediately offering their customers a great checkout experience,” said Lachy Groom, head of products at Stripe.