A customer finds exactly what they’re looking for, adds it to their cart, and heads to checkout. Then comes the friction: creating an account, entering payment details, navigating unexpected fees, or waiting for a transaction to process.
And just like that, the sale disappears.
For years, businesses have focused on attracting customers through better marketing, personalized recommendations, and competitive pricing. But increasingly, the moment that determines whether a purchase happens at all is the final step.
Checkout is no longer just a transaction. It’s becoming a competitive advantage.
The Hidden Cost of Checkout Friction
Consumers have grown accustomed to convenience. From one-click purchasing to digital wallets, expectations around speed and simplicity have fundamentally changed.
According to the Baymard Institute, the average documented online shopping cart abandonment rate is approximately 70%. While many shoppers abandon carts because they’re browsing or comparing prices, complicated checkout processes remain a meaningful contributor. (Source)
Unexpected costs, mandatory account creation, limited payment options, and lengthy forms can all create opportunities for customers to reconsider their purchase.
For merchants, that friction represents more than a missed sale. It can translate into higher customer acquisition costs, lower conversion rates, and lost lifetime value.
And in an increasingly competitive digital marketplace, even small improvements in checkout conversion can have meaningful financial implications.
Payment Choice Is Becoming Part of the Experience
Not every customer wants to pay the same way.
Some prefer credit cards. Others rely on digital wallets, bank transfers, or buy now, pay later options.
The challenge for merchants is delivering flexibility without creating complexity.
Digital wallets, including Apple Pay and Google Pay, can reduce the need to manually enter payment information. Meanwhile, alternative payment methods can help businesses accommodate different purchasing preferences across markets.
Worldpay’s Global Payments Report tracks the growing role of digital wallets and other alternative payment methods in commerce worldwide. (Source)
But adding more payment buttons isn’t necessarily the answer.
The goal is to present relevant, trusted payment options in a way that makes completing a purchase feel effortless.
The Infrastructure Behind a Better Checkout
Behind every seamless transaction is an increasingly sophisticated payments infrastructure.
Payment orchestration platforms can help merchants route transactions between payment service providers, manage multiple payment methods, and optimize processing performance.
For businesses operating internationally, this flexibility can be particularly valuable.
A transaction that succeeds through one payment provider might fail through another due to regional processing differences, issuer preferences, or technical limitation
