Surely, you’ve heard of the $300,000,000 button? In case you haven’t, here it is in a nutshell:
A $25B retailer replaced the “Register” button on their checkout page with a “Continue” button, essentially allowing shoppers to check out without registering a new account or logging into an existing one. Sales jumped 45% in that first week. Within a year, the company recorded a $300,000,000 bump in sales.
This incredible story took place in 2009, a lot has changed since then. Most notably is the ever present smartphone in practically every consumer’s palm. Why does that matter, you ask? Well, smartphones not only changed the way consumers shop and the way brands need to adapt presentation to fit mobile devices, but also completely altered consumers’ expectations. According to Google, 75% of consumers now expect to receive immediate information on destinations, services or products while on a smartphone.
The need for speed on a mobile device has carried over into a general impatience among shoppers. In addition to having an overall lower tolerance for slow or cumbersome sites, consumers today are more wary than ever of falling victim to data breaches or credit card fraud. The popularity of oversharing personal information has actually made many consumers more protective of their privacy. All this impatience and anxiety contribute to the 70% shopping cart abandonment rate across eCommerce businesses.
The Benefits of Guest Checkout:
1. Speed
A Guest Checkout provides a faster checkout option for shoppers.
A Guest Checkout provides a faster checkout option for shoppers. Shoppers want to complete their purchase as quickly as possible. Even shoppers who already have a store account, often prefer not to use it. This is because recalling login credentials is not always easy and can often lead to numerous failed attempts and time spent searching for and/or resetting usernames and passwords. According to research on abandoned carts conducted by Baymard Institute, 27% of shoppers abandoned a checkout due to the length or complication of the checkout process.
2. Less Friction
A Guest Checkout option removes excess layers of friction.
Creating an account takes time, effort, and requires shoppers to provide additional information that many shoppers wish to avoid. According to Baymard Institute, 35% of shoppers abandoned a checkout due their unwillingness to create a store account.
3. Confidence
A Guest Checkout does not save consumers’ payment information, making shoppers feel more secure.
Many shoppers are concerned about the security of their financial information. Requiring consumers to register with your store before completing a purchase can make shoppers feel insecure about where their credit card info will be stored, protected, and who in your company will be able to access that information. According to Paysafe, the need for tighter payments security is a concern of 76% of consumers.
4. Privacy
A Guest Checkout does not require any commitment on the part of the consumer.
Consumers value their privacy and may be concerned about being pestered with marketing material from sites they shop at. Requiring a store account may make shoppers feel like they are being forced to make a ‘commitment’ to the site. In the words of one shopper, “I’m here to make a purchase, not start a relationship.”
Is there a downside?
Offering your shoppers a guest checkout option is a wise business move. Understandably, merchants may be concerned with the downside of not being able to retarget guest shoppers, provide them with records of previous orders, or offer a quicker checkout (by autofilling saved shipping/billing information) on their next visit.
However, these concerns can be alleviated by offering a Guest Checkout with the option to create an account at the end of the checkout process. Having already done all the work, many shoppers do actually opt for that option.
Even if a shopper does not opt to create an account, at least they opted to complete their purchase! At the end of the day, it is the number of conversions that generate healthy revenue, not the number of new accounts created.
NoFraud’s Revolutionary Checkout Alternative
Offering a Guest Checkout as an alternative to requiring the registration of an account is one way to approach the checkout process and reduce checkout abandonment. But there is a better way. NoFraud, an advanced fraud prevention company, just released a revolutionary checkout alternative that eliminates friction and reduces cart abandonment by as much as 55%.
A dynamic one-page design dramatically reduces the number of input fields, provides shoppers with an autofill address and payment option, prompts customers to fix typos or incorrect information in real-time, and never requires the registration of a store account.
NoFraud Checkout offers a customized experience for each guest. It leverages fraud prevention and device recognition software to identify shoppers with as little as their email address. This allows the system to speed customers through checkout with as little as one-click.
With NoFraud Checkout, creating accounts, remembering passwords or payment information, or spending more than a few seconds completing a purchase can become a thing of the past.
Learn more about NoFraud’s frictionless checkout.
