Overcoming Checkout Challenges with Composable Checkout Solutions
The checkout abandonment problem and how composable technology can help your business solve it.
Cart abandonment is a big issue for digital retailers. Out of 100 customers who “add to cart”, fewer than 30 of them actually complete the purchase, and that abandonment rate is leading to $4.6 trillion in abandoned merchandise annually.
According to Baymard data, roughly half of the shoppers who create carts proceed to the checkout. These shoppers have a higher intent to purchase than those who abandon their carts, thus the problem is better described as "checkout abandonment" rather than "cart abandonment." So what happens at checkout?
According to data around 53% of shoppers that get to the checkout abandon it, leaving the checkout completion rate at 47%. Though this number varies by device type, with checkout from mobile converting at 42.4% rate and from desktop at 52.5% rate, if roughly half of the high-intent shoppers in your flow are abandoning a purchase, you’re missing a lot of sales. So why are customers abandoning their checkouts? And what can you do about it?
Drivers for checkout abandonment
There are many reasons shoppers fail to complete a purchase in progress. While some factors, like shipping costs, are unrelated to the checkout itself, others such as a complicated checkout process, mandatory account creation or lack of payment options, can be resolved at checkout.
One surprising fact is that 6% of shoppers abandon their checkout when they see a discount code field. They go searching for a coupon online and often never return to complete their order. These kinds of interruptions in the experience could be costing your business significant revenue.
Rigid default checkout
Despite these checkout issues leading to significant revenue loss, why do brands struggle to address them? The main reason is that many all-in-one commerce platforms were designed long ago with limited options for payment, shipping, promotions, and other features. The primary objective of the checkout process used to be securely handling payments. Consequently, these platforms developed a rigid, embedded checkout system that is both difficult and expensive to modify.
As a result, brands have been forced to stick with the default checkout system and accept the status quo. This rigidity has hindered their ability to adapt to changing customer expectations and incorporate necessary improvements to reduce checkout abandonment.
Minimizing checkout abandonment with checkout flows
To reduce checkout abandonment, the checkout process must be customized for different shopper segments based on factors like shopping channel, device type, and more. By tailoring the checkout experience to specific user segments, brands can address unique preferences and behaviors, enhancing convenience and reducing friction.
For instance, mobile shoppers might prefer a simplified, touch-friendly interface, while desktop users might appreciate more detailed options and information. Additionally, tailoring checkout options based on geographic location or customer loyalty status can further personalize the experience, leading to higher checkout completion rate. These distinct tailored checkout experiences are called checkout flows.
A checkout flow is an optimized checkout experience individually designed to serve a specific set of shoppers based on user-defined criteria, such as the device they're using, their screen size, or the items in their cart.
Each checkout flow is composed of several key components:
Checkout Frontend: This is the user interface that defines the arrangement of various elements and what the user sees on the screen. It encompasses the design and layout of the checkout page, ensuring a seamless and intuitive experience for the shopper.
Checkout Business Logic: This component outlines the functional aspects of the checkout process, including payment options, payment providers, shipping providers, and promotions. It manages the rules and operations that drive the checkout flow, ensuring that all necessary services and preferences are correctly integrated and functioning.
Making checkout flows with MACH
Composable commerce enables checkout to become a first-class citizen within the commerce stack, allowing brands to select and implement the checkout solutions that best meet their needs. The MACH architecture underpinning composable commerce empowers brands to create personalized checkout experiences by facilitating the creation of custom checkout flows.
Microservices architecture enables the checkout process to be seamlessly integrated into an existing commerce infrastructure while allowing it to scale independently. This is particularly beneficial during high-traffic events like Black Friday, where the checkout system can handle peak volumes without impacting the rest of the system.
An API-first approach allows users to check out from any physical or digital channel, providing a consistent and flexible shopping experience. This means that whether a customer is purchasing through a mobile app, a website, or even an in-store kiosk, the checkout process remains unified and efficient.
Cloud-native infrastructure supports on-demand checkout consumption, enabling brands to deploy the composable checkout alongside existing legacy systems. This minimizes transition costs and risks, as the new checkout system can be tested and rolled out incrementally.
Headless checkout architecture allows for the creation of various checkout frontends, such as one-page, three-page, or drawer checkouts, and different checkout designs. By separating the frontend presentation layer from the backend functionality, headless checkout enables rapid customization and innovation, ensuring that the user interface can evolve independently from the backend systems.
Conclusion
Businesses have long ignored the checkout experience in their e-commerce experiences, allowing the out-of-the-box solution that came with their monolith to play an outsized role in their total revenue. But the era of composability is here, and with it an opportunity to optimize one of the most impactful and overlooked parts of the customer journey. Even a couple of customizations can make a significant difference to checkout abandonment rates, and by using a modular approach to create custom checkout flows that match customers needs and expectations, businesses can increase checkout conversion rates by up to 25%.
Anatolii Iakimets
Director, Product Marketing, Bold
As the Director of Product Marketing at Bold Commerce, Anatolii leverages his extensive experience in headless and composable commerce to lead Bold’s go-to-market activities across various business segments.