‘One-touch’ path to purchase for Black Friday success

December 11, 2024 Dominic Lill

Black Friday marks the start of the busiest shopping season of the year, with UK shoppers expected to spend £9.14 billion over the weekend alone. In such high-stakes periods, a seamless shopping experience is critical for retailers looking to boost sales and retain customers.

One-click checkouts in the form of a Buy-Now button offer the ultimate solution: a faster, simpler way to shop that can handle surging traffic, prevent cart abandonment, and drive conversions.

Why Checkout Simplicity Matters

During peak shopping season, efficient and reliable payment systems are crucial for retailers to boost sales and meet rising consumer expectations for speed and simplicity. One-click checkouts — a digital payment method that allows customers to complete purchases with a single click — offer a solution. By securely saving payment details after the first transaction, one-click checkouts provide a seamless, faster checkout experience, enhancing customer satisfaction and encouraging repeat business.

For retailers, this technology not only enhances the customer experience but also helps manage high volumes of traffic. By processing transactions almost instantly, it reduces the strain on servers and minimises the risk of slowdowns or malfunctions – issues that recently plagued Boots. Ahead of Black Friday, Boots launched its “biggest ever” sale with over 22,000 promotions, only to face a 30-minute crash of its app and website due to overwhelming demand. Many customers abandoned their carts in frustration, underscoring the importance of reliability during critical shopping periods.

Studies show that optimising checkout processes can significantly improve sales and overall customer satisfaction. For instance, Amazon’s introduction of one-click checkout in the late 1990s reportedly boosted sales by 5% annually, showcasing the value of simplifying the purchasing journey to avoid losing customers and revenue.

Boosting Conversions and Preventing Cart Abandonment

Simplifying the purchasing process is essential for maximising sales and reducing cart abandonment during high-traffic shopping events like Black Friday and January sales. One-click checkouts encourage spontaneous purchases by enabling customers to act quickly, especially with time-sensitive deals. Retailers benefit from fewer distractions or opportunities for customers to abandon their carts, translating into higher conversion rates.

Beyond immediate sales, an effortless checkout process fosters long-term customer loyalty, ensuring shoppers return for future purchases.

Secure Shopping

A quarter of online shoppers abandon a purchase due to trust concerns, especially when it comes to credit card security. One-click checkouts address these concerns by emphasising security and data transparency, often using third-party providers to handle sensitive information.

Retailers can implement several measures to enhance customer protection when using one-click checkouts. For instance, multi-factor authentication methods such as fingerprint or facial recognition add an extra layer of security. Encrypting payment details with protocols like Transport Layer Security (TLS) helps prevent transaction fraud. Additionally, replacing sensitive card information with tokens ensures no raw payment data is stored or shared during transactions. These cybersecurity practices allow one-click checkout systems to deliver strong protection against data breaches and fraud, reassuring customers that their transactions are safe and secure every step of the way.

While strong security measures are critical, one-click checkouts also offer retailers a valuable opportunity to boost sales and build customer loyalty during the festive season. With Black Friday and the festive season in full swing, retailers have a critical opportunity to transform their checkout process. By investing in one-click checkouts, they can boost sales, foster trust, and build lasting customer loyalty during the busiest shopping periods of the year. Don’t let outdated systems hold you back – embrace innovation and create a frictionless experience your customers will love.

By Neerav Shah, VP EMEA at commercetools