Most businesses know exactly how much it costs to get someone onto their website.
They track their website metrics, cost per click, cost per acquisition and return on ad spend with precision. Every campaign is carefully optimised to attract more of the right customers.
Then the customer reaches the checkout.
Ironically, the one place where money actually changes hands often gets far less attention.
If the payment journey is slow, confusing or unreliable, all that investment in marketing can unravel in a matter of seconds. It’s a bit like spending a fortune renovating your shop, only to put a broken till by the front door.
The businesses seeing the strongest checkout performance don’t rely on a single payment method or one processing route. In this blog, we explore how businesses can build flexibility into the payment journey, giving customers more choice while giving themselves more control over how transactions are processed.
The checkout has become part of the customer experience
Customers don’t think about payment infrastructure. The only thing they can judge is the experience, so if checkout feels slow, awkward or unreliable, they associate that frustration with your brand, not your payment provider.
They expect checkout to be quick and effortless. If they’re forced to hunt for their wallet, re-enter card details for the third time or discover their preferred payment method isn’t available, patience wears thin.
The numbers tell the story. Nearly 1 in 5 shoppers have abandoned their online shopping transaction due to a long or complicated checkout process. And after as little as three seconds load time, 57% of customers will leave a site, with 80% of them never returning. So that checkout load time is crucial!
Visa’s research also highlights just how important the checkout experience has become. A European Click to Pay pilot found that reducing checkout time by up to 40% could increase merchant revenue by as much as 30% by making it quicker and easier for customers to complete their purchase. The research also found that 62% of consumers abandon a purchase after just two minutes at checkout, reinforcing how little patience shoppers have when the payment process feels slow or complicated.
While there are plenty of reasons people leave before buying, a clunky payment experience is one of the easiest problems to fix.
Small checkout frustrations quickly become lost revenue
It’s not typical for a checkout to completely fail, but each small inconvenience soon adds up when shoppers value efficiency and a smooth experience.
Perhaps the payment page takes a little too long to load. Maybe the customer can’t pay with their preferred digital wallet. Perhaps a legitimate transaction is declined for no obvious reason, or they’re asked to repeat the process after an unsuccessful attempt.
In isolation, each is a small problem to tackle. But collectively, they can have a real impact on revenue, customer satisfaction and brand perception.
A declined payment doesn’t always have to mean a lost sale
Failed payments are particularly frustrating because many businesses never discover why they happened.
A generic “transaction declined” message doesn’t tell the customer what went wrong, and it doesn’t help the merchant either. Was it an expired card? Insufficient funds? A temporary issuer response? A routing issue?
Most customers won’t stick around to find out. Research shows that more than half will abandon their purchase if payment requires multiple attempts. That’s revenue walking away, often for reasons that could have been avoided.
The good news is that many declined payments are preventable. Payment gateways and orchestration platforms can intelligently route transactions, support multiple acquirers and provide better visibility into why payments fail. That means more successful transactions and a better experience for customers.
Customers want payment choice, not compromise
Today’s shoppers expect flexibility. Debit and credit cards remain important, but so do Apple Pay, Google Pay, Open Banking and emerging payment methods such as Click to Pay.
Offering more ways to pay removes unnecessary barriers and makes it as easy as possible for customers to complete their purchase using the method they already trust.
Behind the scenes, intelligent payment routing also plays an important role. Sending transactions to the most appropriate acquirer can improve acceptance rates, reduce failed payments and create a smoother experience without customers ever knowing it’s happening.
A healthier checkout starts with asking the right questions
Businesses regularly review their marketing performance, sales pipeline and customer service metrics. Doesn’t your checkout deserve the same attention?
Are customers abandoning payments at a particular stage? Are legitimate transactions being declined unnecessarily? Are you offering the payment methods your customers actually want to use? Could your payment infrastructure be working harder behind the scenes?
Improving checkout performance doesn’t always require a complete overhaul. Often, a few targeted improvements can reduce friction, improve payment acceptance and help convert more of the customers you’ve already worked so hard to attract.
Ready to see how your checkout is performing?
If you suspect your payment journey could be working harder, now is the time to find out.
Book a payment performance review with Encoded. We’ll assess your checkout journey, identify opportunities to reduce payment friction and help uncover quick wins that could improve acceptance rates and increase conversion.
