MACHathon: Improving Checkout Flows with Cross-Vendor Collaboration
Highlighting the interoperability of MACH technologies to create better experiences for businesses and customers.
Hackathons have long been a staple of the tech space. They’re an opportunity to push new ideas ahead quickly through short bursts of intense collaboration, and there’s almost nothing the tech sector loves more than a quick, innovative burst. They typically have a theme, and participants (mostly developers) explore that theme with the goal of creating a new solution for a common pain point, or to bring a brand new way of using software to solve real-world problems.
A MACHathon is much the same thing, only focused on MACH technologies and solutions. Earlier this year, Bold Commerce ran a MACHathon. The theme was Introducing Checkout Flows— an often overlooked component of the customer journey and commerce experience. The goal of the event was to help develop checkout as a composable category and get partners, developers, and MACH enthusiasts together to solve unique challenges for brands while leveraging checkout as the vehicle.
Participants were encouraged to develop innovative prototypes of tailored checkout flows focused on increasing conversion, average order value (AOV), and lifetime value (LTV).
Why Checkout?
Checkout is a brand’s make or break moment. Brands pour resources into personalizing their customer journey, but often leave checkout untouched, leaving brands with an average cart abandonment rate of 70%.
“Brands need to start thinking about how they can continue personalization for customers by using checkout,” said Anatolii Iakimets, Director Product Marketing at Bold Commerce. “Sticking with out of the box solutions means brands are not able to continue their focus on customization and personalization to increase revenue and sales.” But by moving to a composable checkout approach, the team at Bold have seen brands increase checkout conversion rates by up to 25%.
To help shine a spotlight on this potential revenue game-changer for brands, Bold hosted a MACHathon.
The Checkout MACHathon
The goal of the MACHathon was to help agency and technology partners create new checkout flows that would showcase how brands can drive more value and revenue through checkout. MACH technology is rooted in the concept of interoperability, and this event created an opportunity to bring solutions partners from the MACH Alliance together to advance the composable checkout story— with a little friendly competition thrown in for good measure.
“The API-driven nature of MACH means as an industry, we can deliver critical business functions as fast as we can connect to an API,” said Iakimets. Their aim was to have participating teams develop checkout flows for brands focused on MACH philosophies.
The parameters they provided were:
“Focused on checkout flows, we’re looking for entries that highlight a real challenge and show how developing innovative prototypes of tailored checkout flows focused on increasing conversion, AOV, and LTV. [Entries should] show how this technology is the solution for driving growth, accomplishing something better or quicker than before, or serving people in better ways.“
Following a 2-week registration window, the event kicked off. Participating teams had three weeks to create and submit their checkout solutions using Bold APIs. Judging took place over the course of a week and the winners were announced at Shoptalk in Las Vegas at the opening night MACH Haus party.
Two teams came away with wins: Voucherify and Terrific Minds.
Spotlight Solution: Gift Cards Made Easy
Voucherify won the Checkout Champion for their Gift Cards Made Easy solution, a one-click checkout solution for buying digital gift cards featuring an out-of-the-box plugin allowing for quick gift card purchases on any sales channel.
Built with Bold (checkout), Voucherify (gift card issuing & management), Bloomreach (gift card delivery) and Composable UI (framework), the team was able to create a fully-functional, easily configurable solution that offers real business value in just two weeks. For brands, they delivered an opportunity to improve cash flow, increase conversion rates, and grow AOV, and for customers, they simplified an often clunky digital process by creating a friction-free gift carding experience. Their simple, elegant option for customers can be quickly and easily added to a brand’s tech stack regardless of platform, and leverages the best of MACH interoperability in the solution.
“We wanted to limit the scope and keep it really straightforward,” said Marcin Ślęzak, Delivery Manager at Voucherify. “No AI, no crypto, no trend-of-the-month tech. Just a fully functional solution that any retailer could use with ease and get real value from.”
Conclusion
The MACHathon was a perfect showcase for the power of cross-vendor collaboration and the potential of MACH technologies to revolutionize critical aspects of the customer experience, such as checkout flows. By focusing on the often neglected but pivotal checkout stage, Bold Commerce and its partners demonstrated that composable and customizable solutions can significantly enhance conversion rates, average order value, and lifetime value.
As brands continue to seek ways to personalize and optimize every touchpoint of the customer journey, initiatives like the MACHathon provide a blueprint for how to use technology to drive business outcomes.
Leigh Bryant
Editorial Director, Composable.com
Leigh Bryant is a seasoned content and brand strategist with over a decade of experience in digital storytelling. Starting in retail before shifting to the technology space, she has spent the past ten years crafting compelling narratives as a writer, editor, and strategist.