Last updated: November 2024

Express checkout removes the steps between purchase intent and completed sale. Here's what it actually does for conversion, which elements matter most, and how Pay by Bank via Fena fits into a high-performing UK ecommerce checkout.

Most checkout drop-off happens in the final steps — and it's preventable

A customer who reaches your checkout has already made the hardest decision: they want to buy. Everything that happens between that decision and the order confirmation is a series of small friction points, each capable of turning a completed sale into an abandoned basket.

Express checkout exists to compress that gap — fewer steps, less information required, faster path from intent to confirmation. When it's implemented well, it measurably improves conversion and reduces the cart abandonment rate that quietly erodes revenue across every ecommerce store.

This guide covers what express checkout actually is, the specific mechanisms through which it improves conversion, what to measure to know whether it's working, and how Pay by Bank via Fena contributes to a faster, lower-friction checkout experience for UK Shopify and WooCommerce merchants.

Quick summary

• Express checkout reduces the number of steps between a customer deciding to buy and completing the purchase — fewer fields, fewer pages, less friction

• Cart abandonment is highest at the payment and account creation stages; express checkout addresses both directly

• The conversion impact is strongest for mobile users, first-time buyers, and customers who don't have stored payment credentials on your site

• Pay by Bank via Fena is a form of express checkout — bank-authenticated payment without card detail entry, completing in seconds through the customer's banking app

• The metrics that show whether express checkout is working are: checkout conversion rate, abandonment rate by step, mobile conversion rate, and checkout completion rate

• Express checkout works best as part of a broader checkout design philosophy rather than as a standalone addition

What express checkout actually means

Express checkout is any checkout configuration that reduces the standard steps required to complete a purchase. In practice it covers several related but distinct things: one-click checkout for returning customers with stored credentials, accelerated payment methods like digital wallets and Pay by Bank that skip card entry, and checkout page designs that minimise required fields and page transitions.

What these approaches share is a common goal: get the customer from decision to confirmation in as few steps as possible, with as little information input as the transaction actually requires.

The baseline problem they're solving is consistent across UK ecommerce. Standard checkout flows — create an account or log in, enter a delivery address, enter card details, confirm — involve multiple steps at each of which a proportion of customers stop. Some stop because they've forgotten a password. Some because they can't find their card. Some because a page takes too long to load. Some because the number of steps between where they are and where they want to be simply exceeds their patience threshold.

Express checkout doesn't solve all of these, but it addresses the most consequential ones.

Why checkout friction costs more than merchants realise

The industry benchmark for cart abandonment sits around 70% — roughly seven in ten customers who reach checkout don't complete a purchase. On any individual day, that number can feel abstract. Modelled across annual revenue, it represents a substantial amount of lost sales that a better checkout experience could recover.

The specific steps where drop-off is highest are well-documented: account creation requirements, card detail entry on mobile, and the appearance of unexpected costs. Express checkout addresses the first two directly. A checkout that doesn't require account creation removes a barrier that causes genuine abandonment among customers completing one-off purchases who have no interest in managing another account. A checkout that offers bank authentication or a digital wallet instead of manual card entry removes the physical friction of finding and typing card details — particularly significant on mobile, where screens are small and keyboards are slow.

The commercial case for improving this is straightforward. A 5% improvement in checkout conversion rate on a store processing £1M annually is £50,000 in recovered revenue. Express checkout is one of the highest-leverage changes available because it operates at the stage where purchase intent is highest.

The elements that make express checkout work

Not all express checkout implementations are equal. The ones that genuinely move conversion rates share a set of characteristics that are worth understanding before deciding what to build or enable.

Minimised required fields.

Every field a customer is asked to complete is an opportunity to stop. Audit your checkout and ask whether each piece of information is genuinely required to process the transaction. Name, delivery address, and payment — everything else is optional from a fulfilment perspective, even if it's useful for marketing or CRM purposes. Collect the minimum; ask for the rest after the order is confirmed.

Prominent placement.

Express checkout options — whether that's Pay by Bank, Apple Pay, Google Pay, or any other accelerated method — only work if customers see and choose them. They should be displayed clearly and early in the checkout flow, before the customer has already committed to filling out a long form. An express option buried at the bottom of a checkout page misses the customers who would have used it.

Authentic mobile optimisation.

Mobile users are the majority of UK ecommerce traffic, and their checkout experience is materially different from desktop. Buttons need to be large enough to tap accurately. Form fields need to trigger the right keyboard type. Payment methods that avoid manual card entry entirely — Pay by Bank, digital wallets — remove the most friction-heavy step for mobile shoppers. Testing your checkout on actual devices, not just desktop browser emulators, reveals issues that aren't otherwise visible.

Guest checkout as standard.

Requiring account creation before purchase is one of the most reliably documented causes of checkout abandonment. Guest checkout should be the default or equal option, not a secondary path that requires the customer to actively choose it. Account creation can be offered after purchase completion, when the customer has had a positive experience and is more likely to see the value in saving their details.

Fast, recognisable payment methods.

Customers complete payments faster when they're using a method they already understand. Stored cards, digital wallets, and Pay by Bank all offer the familiarity advantage — the customer recognises the interface and knows what to do. Unfamiliar payment flows introduce hesitation that familiar ones don't.

Transparent costs throughout.

Surprise costs at checkout — shipping fees or charges that appear for the first time at the payment step — cause abandonment at a rate disproportionate to their amounts. Express checkout is partly about speed, but it's also about trust. A customer who feels misled about the total cost will abandon regardless of how fast the payment step is.

Where Pay by Bank fits into express checkout

Pay by Bank via Fena is an express checkout method in the most direct sense: it replaces the card entry step with a bank authentication flow that takes seconds and requires no information the customer doesn't already have to hand.

The customer selects Pay by Bank at checkout, chooses their bank from the list of major UK banks, and is taken to their banking app. They review the payment amount and authorise it using their existing banking credentials — biometrics or PIN, the same action they take to check their balance. The confirmation returns to your checkout, the order is placed, and the customer is on the confirmation page.

There are no card details to enter. No CVV to find. No billing address to type on a mobile keyboard. For customers who use their banking app regularly — which is the large majority of UK adults — this is a payment flow that feels faster and more natural than card entry.

For merchants, Pay by Bank via Fena adds three benefits beyond the conversion advantage. It eliminates chargebacks on those transactions — there is no card network dispute mechanism in the flow. It settles same-day or instantly rather than on the standard card settlement cycle. And it reduces the per-transaction fee by removing card network interchange and scheme fees from the cost structure.

Fena's integration adds Pay by Bank alongside your existing payment methods on Shopify and WooCommerce, not as a replacement. Customers who prefer cards still use them. Customers who prefer Pay by Bank — a growing segment as open banking familiarity increases in the UK — have that option available.

The metrics that tell you whether it's working

Adding express checkout options without measuring their impact is the most common implementation mistake. These are the numbers that reveal whether the changes are delivering:

Checkout conversion rate

is the primary signal — the percentage of customers who initiate checkout and complete a purchase. This should be tracked before and after any express checkout change, isolated from other variables where possible.

Abandonment rate by checkout step

tells you where in the flow customers are dropping off. If abandonment is highest at account creation, guest checkout is the fix. If it's at payment entry, an express payment method addresses it. Without step-level data, you're guessing at which problem to solve.

Mobile conversion rate

tracked separately from desktop shows whether the mobile experience is genuinely working. A store where mobile conversion is half the desktop rate has a mobile checkout problem that express payment methods are well-placed to address.

Checkout completion rate

— the proportion of customers who finish the checkout process once they've started — shows friction in the payment flow specifically. An improvement here after adding Pay by Bank or a digital wallet confirms the payment method friction was a real factor.

Payment method split

shows how much of your volume is going through each payment method after adding new options. If Pay by Bank is available but not being chosen, it may not be prominent enough in the checkout layout, or customers may need clearer explanation of what it is.

Repeat purchase rate

over time reflects whether the overall checkout experience is contributing to customer loyalty. Customers who complete a purchase easily are more likely to return; those who found it difficult are less likely to.

How to think about express checkout as part of checkout design

The most effective approach to express checkout treats it as part of a broader checkout design philosophy rather than a feature to enable and forget.

The questions worth asking regularly: where are customers dropping off in the checkout flow? What's causing it? Is it account creation friction, card entry difficulty, unexpected costs, or lack of preferred payment options? What would removing that specific friction look like?

Express checkout options — Pay by Bank, digital wallets, one-click checkout for returning customers — each address a different part of the friction landscape. Choosing the right combination depends on your customer profile, average order value, and device mix.

For most UK Shopify and WooCommerce merchants, the baseline that delivers the strongest results is: guest checkout available and prominent, at least one express payment option for customers without stored credentials, Pay by Bank available for bank-authenticated payment without card entry, and a checkout page that loads fast and works properly on mobile. Beyond that, the improvements are iterative — test, measure, and refine against the metrics above.

Frequently asked questions

What is express checkout in ecommerce?

Express checkout is any checkout configuration that reduces the steps required to complete a purchase. It includes one-click checkout for returning customers with stored credentials, accelerated payment methods like Pay by Bank and digital wallets that skip card detail entry, and checkout designs that minimise form fields and page transitions. The goal is to get customers from purchase intent to order confirmation as quickly as possible.

Does express checkout actually improve conversion rates?

Yes, for most ecommerce stores. The impact is most significant for mobile users, first-time buyers without stored credentials, and stores where the current checkout flow has unnecessary steps or required account creation. The size of the improvement depends on how much friction the current checkout has and which express options are added.

What is the best express checkout option for UK Shopify merchants?

There isn't a single best option — the right mix depends on your customer profile. For first-time buyers and mobile users, Pay by Bank via Fena removes card entry friction and doesn't require any existing account. For returning customers, stored cards and digital wallets offer one-tap speed. Most UK merchants benefit from offering all three alongside each other rather than optimising for one.

How does Pay by Bank work as express checkout?

The customer selects Pay by Bank at checkout, chooses their bank, and authenticates the payment in their banking app using biometrics or PIN. The confirmation returns to the checkout automatically and the order is placed. There's no card detail entry and no third-party account required. For most UK shoppers, the flow takes under 30 seconds.

What metrics should I track to measure express checkout performance?

The most important are: checkout conversion rate (completions divided by initiations), abandonment rate by checkout step, mobile conversion rate tracked separately from desktop, checkout completion rate, and payment method split across available options. Track these before and after any express checkout change to assess the actual impact.

Is guest checkout part of express checkout?

Yes — guest checkout is a foundational element. Requiring account creation before purchase is one of the most consistently documented causes of checkout abandonment. Express checkout works best when guest checkout is the default or equal option, with account creation offered after the purchase is complete.

Does Pay by Bank via Fena work alongside existing payment methods?

Yes. Fena's integration adds Pay by Bank as an additional checkout option on Shopify and WooCommerce without replacing cards, wallets, or other existing methods. Customers choose which method to use at checkout, and all options work simultaneously.