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Insights and Expertise
Why a generic checkout is
becoming a commercial risk
By Jacob Spencer
BR-DGE
he internet can remember the shoes you viewed
three weeks ago, the city you usually fly from,
and the exact point where you abandoned a
T purchase. Yet the moment the payment process
begins, many checkouts develop a sudden case of amne-
sia.
A returning customer who usually pays by mobile wallet,
a new customer making a high-value purchase and a
shopper in a market where bank payments are common
may all reach the same payment page. They see the same
card fields, payment methods and prompts, regardless of
which checkout flow would work best for them.
A fixed, complex or glitchy checkout makes customers
work harder. They have to hunt for the payment method
they want, take extra steps, or give up and go elsewhere.
It’s a challenge that all merchants have to tackle. But even
a small checkout change can become a bigger development
job, especially when a new payment method or provider
has to be connected.
The average customer does not exist
Many checkout decisions still revolve around a broad
picture of the average customer: a person using a familiar
card, in a core market, on a standard device, making a
transaction within a typical value range. Real customers
are far less predictable.
Payment preferences can change with the purchase, the
device and the market. Someone booking a costly trip
may want reassurance and clear confirmation, while a
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customer adding money to a gaming or trading account is
likely to prioritize speed. On mobile, Apple Pay or Google
Pay may be the obvious choice; elsewhere, a local bank
payment may come first.
Getting those choices wrong can cost the sale. Among
shoppers who abandoned an order, checkout research
puts too few payment options behind 10 percent of exits,
while 8 percent cited a declined card (see https://baymard.
com/lists/cart-abandonment-rate).
The usual response is to add another payment option.
Then another. Before long, the checkout has become a
menu, and the customer is left to sort through it.
That misses the point. Someone shopping on an iPhone
expects Apple Pay to be easy to find. In markets where
bank payments are widely used, leading with a card form
makes little sense. If a payment provider starts timing out
or approving fewer transactions in a market, payments
should be sent through another route before customers
see failures.
Use the information already there
Merchants already have useful signals to work with,
including device, location, currency, transaction value
and customer history. That data can help decide which
methods appear first and how the payment is handled
once it leaves the page. It could mean bringing Google Pay
higher up on Android, showing a bank payment option
where it suits the customer and market, or choosing a
provider with a better record in that region.
Merchant risk controls need the same care. A regular
customer making their usual purchase presents a different
profile from a new account attempting a much larger
payment. Applying the same process to both can slow
down a trusted customer or expose the merchant to more
risk than intended.
Payment personalization lives in these choices: what the
customer sees, how risk rules shape the journey and where
the transaction goes once they press pay.
After the customer clicks
The payment page is only one part of what happens.
Once they hit the PAY button, the transaction still has to
get through authentication, fraud checks and at least one
payment provider. If a provider times out or approves
fewer payments in that market, good checkout design
cannot save the sale.