What is click to pay?

The e-commerce landscape is fiercely competitive. In order to gain an edge over the other merchants within the same space, your company needs to keep pace with consumers’ needs and expectations, developing a customer experience that is fast and frictionless, as well as being secure and reliable. 

Click to Pay, also known as one-click payment, offers consumers exactly that. By speeding up the transaction process and making shopping more intuitive, this single-click payment makes it quicker and easier for consumers to make a purchase. 

One-click payments can help to erode barriers to sales, build trust in your e-commerce store, and encourage repeat and impulse purchases. 

Here, we look at how Click to Pay works and how it can be employed to lend retailers a competitive advantage.

Click to Pay explained

Click to Pay makes it possible for customers to make online purchases by clicking a single button. The customer is then presented with a list of payment options like bank accounts or credit cards that they have already saved. By choosing one of these options, the customer can complete the purchase simply by following a few quick authorisation steps, for example, facial identification or entering a pin. They can also add add alternative options, like a new card or different account, which can be saved for next time.

What is Click to Pay for?

The main aim of Click to Pay is to speed up the purchasing process. Rather than having to manually enter the details of their payment card, the customer simply chooses the Click to Pay button, then selects their relevant card/account. In the age of online shopping, convenience of this kind can help to drive sales and revenue for merchants. Another aspect of Click to Pay which customers find appealing is the security – their card details are never shared with the actual website, but are held securely by the Click to Pay service.

The advantages of Click to Pay

From the customer’s point of view, the chief advantage of Click to Pay is that it replaces the multiple online shopping buttons offered by the likes of American Express and Visa with a single, overarching system. In the past, merchants might have offered options such as Masterpass, American Express Checkout and Visa Checkout, single-click options set up by the individual payment card companies. These were superseded by the launch of Click to Pay in 2019.

Why use Click to Pay?

From the point of view of a merchant eager to make more money through ecommerce, Click to Pay is the latest innovation to enhance the customer experience. From fast loading times to responsive websites and ease of navigation, the online shopping experience is all about speed and convenience. Any customer who finds a website doesn’t offer maximum convenience is likely to look elsewhere. Click to Pay offers maximum convenience by being standardised across all websites and payment platforms – and it’s easy to use.  

The Click to Pay experience

To use Click to Pay on a merchant’s website, customers must sign up then add their payment cards to the account. They can do this via a payment card network such as Visa or MasterCard. They will be asked to enter the details of any payment cards they want to add to Click to Pay. Once done, every time they see the Click to Pay button on a website they just have to click on it to complete the payment process. Clicking on the button will trigger the sending of a six-digit security code to the customer’s phone or other device.

Once the code has been entered, all the customer has to do is select which enrolled payment card they wish to complete the purchase with. The biggest advantage of this system is that the security aspect hinges upon the unique six-digit code the customer receives each time they use it, rather than relying on the customer having to memorise yet another password.

Less friction 

Ecommerce grew significantly during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, when lockdowns meant that more and more shopping shifted online. A one-click payment option is the latest innovation designed to ensure that customers who switched to online shopping through necessity continue to embrace it on the grounds of convenience. By removing friction from the payment process, Click to Pay helps to drive sales higher and keeps customers coming back to a merchants’ website, safe in the knowledge they can get what they want quickly and simply.

Increased revenue

By relieving barriers to payment, retailers may improve their conversion rates and drive revenues by improving customer loyalty. 

One-click payment helps to drive sales higher by facilitating easier repeat purchases. As it makes for a reliable and frictionless experience, it keeps customers coming back to a merchant’s website, safe in the knowledge they can get what they want quickly and simply.

Accessibility

One-click payments can extend beyond your e-commerce site. They can be facilitated via payment links accessed through a payment button on an email, or a link in a text message.

We can help

GoCardless is a global payments solution, setting people and businesses free from the frustrations and cost of outdated payment methods. Find out how GoCardless can help you with one-off or recurring payments.

Using Instant Bank Pay, powered by Variable Recurring Payments, it's easy to set up quick payment links for instantly confirmed payments.