According to Tyson Hackwood, head of Asia for Braintree, a PayPal subsidiary that provides a payment processing platform, every second an individual spends checking out, 12 customers abandon their online purchase.
This figure increases dramatically for mobile transactions, due to a wider range of external variables that must be considered.
Missing out on the last step of the customer conversion process is a problem that many online businesses have. As a solution, Hackwood suggests hiding the frustrating aspects of making payments.
For most people, this is entering their credit card information or logging into a third party platform, where the transaction is facilitated. To curb abandonment rates, companies like Airbnb and Uber are capturing payment details once, usually during the sign up process or on a separate section of the app.
When a customer makes a purchase, he or she will only see a confirmation of the payment method before completion, eliminating the need to pull out a card and perform meticulous checks on the submission.
Alan Wong, a Braintree developer advocate, shines light on the execution of the invisible payments experience in a recent company blog entry:
Another great example is Uber, whose checkout flow is all but invisible. There have been dozens of apps before theirs that provided users with a way to call for a cab, but Uber delivers a user experience that is smooth and simple.
Powered by Braintree, Uber makes the payment experience so seamless that you literally just hop out of the car without needing to fiddle for exact cash. Need a receipt? No problem, one is already being sent to your email.
Based on a report by Deloitte, a leading management consulting and research firm, titled Mobile Nation: Opportunities and Strategies for Retail, the online retail industry is worth around $12 billion annually.