Preferred Payments Tempt 72% of Consumers

With research finding that 91% of consumers said a smooth checkout experience engenders loyalty with merchants and brands that provide it, checkout friction is being singled out as a step that can be vastly improved, bringing benefits to both parties in a transaction.

For the study “Building a Better Online Checkout Experience: The Key Features That Matter to Customers,” a PYMNTS and Checkout.com collaboration, we surveyed over 2,000 United States consumers to find the frustrations that haunt checkout and the features that improve it.

As for the features on offer than resonate best with online shoppers, they come down to less friction and greater convenience, the latter defined by a combination of factors in a transaction.

Per the study, “data reveals that more than two-thirds of shoppers took advantage of three key features during their most recent online purchases: the flexibility to use a preferred payment method, at 72%; an easy-to-navigate cart, at 70%; and the ability to check order confirmation easily, at 70%. Most shoppers also cited using several other features in more than half of their checkouts, most notably free shipping, cited by 61%.”

Not having the checkout features consumers want and expect is a losing bet after the great digital shift as people are now conditioned to expect the right feature set when they shop and move along to the checkout phase.

“Our research also identified the checkout features consumers most frequently wanted but were not offered,” the study stated. “Thirty-seven percent of consumers cited price-matching as a desired feature the merchant did not offer during their last purchase. Coupon code entry and multifactor authentication were the next most frequently missed features, each cited by 22% of respondents. Sizable portions of consumers also wished to see trustmarks and to be offered real-time assistance and buy now, pay later (BNPL) options, among others.”