One Click Mobile Payments

Written by Araminta Robertson.

Did you know that one click payments grew Amazon sales by 5%, translating into $2.4 billion sales annually? That’s a huge number and illustrates the impact of streamlining the checkout flow into just “one click.”

In 2021, Amazon’s patent for the one click button has long since expired and now every retailer and merchant can use it to reduce cart abandonment and grow sales. Let’s dive into what one click mobile payments are, how they work and why they benefit your business.

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What are one click payments?

As the phrase suggests, a one click payment is a payment that is literally one click away. This works because the customer’s card details have been previously stored on file, which allows their card to be automatically charged whenever they click on a “pay” or “buy” button.

A merchant that has integrated with a licensed third party payment solution such as Mode, wouldn’t need to worry about managing and storing customer’s card details, as the third party is able to process the transaction securely through the use of Open Banking technology. One click payments are seamless and easy to use - and they don’t always involve a click. For example, a customer’s card being charged once an Uber trip has ended  would also count as a frictionless mobile one click payment.

Benefits of frictionless mobile payments

More people are shopping online than ever before. Although purchasing items online is regarded as more convenient than in-person shopping, there is still some friction in the process: customers often find themselves having to memorise many different passwords and manually type in their details whenever they want to pay.

This added friction will cause many customers to abandon their cart midway, or simply choose to shop elsewhere. With customers now used to the likes of Apple and Google Pay,  it is not very customer centric to require customers to manually enter their details or remember their passwords.

One click payments help reduce the friction when customers go to pay, and this leads to a number of benefits:

Lower cart abandonment rates

E-commerce cart abandonment rates are high, at an astonishing 70%. So, there’s no denying that having to fill in card details for a purchase causes customers to go elsewhere, and therefore increases cart abandonment rates. With one click payments, that friction virtually disappears. Thanks to tokenisation and the ability to store card details, payments become invisible and the customer can focus on the experience of shopping.  

Increased customer satisfaction

One click payments also increase customer satisfaction as you’re saving your customers’ time and they are likely to appreciate it. Fewer steps, faster checkouts and not having to remember a PIN number or password greatly enhances the customer experience overall. Increased satisfaction significantly improves the chances that they’ll recommend your product to others, and also works as a great competitive advantage if your competitors are still using outdated and clunky processes.

Increased security

Finally, one of the great benefits is the added security. Storing card details through a secure third party platform like Mode means that all details are tokenised and encrypted. As a merchant, you won’t have to store any sensitive information. Thanks to tokenisation, the string of numbers and letters don’t mean anything if personal details are compromised. Tokenisation can also be easily integrated with biometrics, which is not only more secure, but customers don’t even have to click. They just need to complete face ID verification or use their fingerprint, and the payment goes through.

How does it work?

In order to enable one click payments, you must partner with a payment gateway, such as Mode. The payment gateway is integrated into your website through an API, which allows them to store card details as well as personal details of your customer. Through tokenisation (replacing personal details with a random string of numbers and letters), the payment gateway ensures all details are encrypted and can be used whenever requested.

Chronologically, this is how the process works:  

1. Your customer adds their card details on a first purchase
2. The gateway stores those details (with the customer’s permission)
3. The gateway also stores a reference ID of that first payment
4. Next time the customer wants to pay, they just need to select their card and the gateway will use the reference ID of the first transaction
5. The customer pays with one click!

As a merchant, it means you can charge your customers when they make the next purchase without having to ask for card details again. In order to maximise security, there is also the option to ask for the CVV again.

Interested in learning more? Speak to one of our expert team to get early access to Mode’s revolutionary payments and loyalty solution.