Let’s just do some rapid fire stats here. According to the Baymard institute $260 billion are recoverable through checkout optimizations, an eCommerce site can achieve a 35.26% increase in conversion rate through better checkout design, and too long or complicated of a checkout process is the third most popular reason consumers abandon a shopping cart.

In my own 12+ years in eCommerce, I’ve personally seen sales lifts and abandonment rate improvements through relatively simple updates to making checking out easier.

Still wondering what all the hype is about? Hopefully not; it’s a big deal.

What exactly is a 1-click checkout? If you haven’t spent a career in eCommerce, there’s no shame in first admitting we need to get clear about exactly what that means. With a 1-click checkout we’re aiming to give the consumer the ability to complete a purchase with just one click once they’ve entered their payment information. None of this sign up for an account, none of this “before you go, what about….”, none of this double-triple-quadruple confirmation…just giving them the goods, as. quick. as. possible.

And it works. Your consumers are part of an instant gratification society that just keeps getting snappier, and if you want to hold their attention, you need to keep up.

Now for another bit of eCommerce intel – you may or may not know that Amazon actually previously held a patent on the true 1-click checkout functionality which finally expired in September 2017, making it more accessible than ever to the industry at large.

This is a no brainer investment if you’re analyzing functionality to add to your eCommerce site, it’s really as simple as that.

The easiest way to achieve a 1-click checkout today is through Magento Commerce. The platform jumped on Amazon’s expired patent and became the first commerce platform to offer the functionality as a native feature, what they call their “Instant Purchase” feature, shortly after it was fair game.

However there are plenty of options for customized development to either achieve a 1-click checkout scenario even without the latest version of Magento 2.2.x, or get pretty close to it. Maybe a 1-click checkout feels like too big a leap from what you currently offer, but you can make some interim functionality updates to get your customers acclimated to a faster, more streamlined purchase process, and it definitely can’t hurt.

Even by making updates such as eliminating a “login or purchase as a guest,” can go a long way in making your customers feel like buying on your site is easy…and that’s what they want. People say cash is king…I’d argue to say that convenience truly wears the crown.

When it comes down to simplifying your checkout process, the key is to take your normal eCommerce thinking cap off and truly put yourself in your consumers shoes. Stop thinking about capturing data, stop thinking about ways to incorporate marketing so that you’re already promoting repeat sales before the person’s credit card has even been charged, stop thinking about how to make your shopper feel like they’re “part of the club.” There’s plenty of other times and places to think about those things.

Think of yourself, and how valuable your own time is. And also think of how frustrating it is when you’ve already decided you want something, but you have to jump through a few more hoops to get it. It’s really as simple as that. With every additional click, you’re actually one step further from creating a loyal customer.

Simplifying your checkout is always a profit boosting strategy.