How checkout conversion is measured
The rate is completed payments divided by checkout sessions started. The useful view is a funnel: sessions started, details entered, payment submitted, authentication passed, payment approved.
Each step loses some buyers, and the losses differ by device, country and payment method. The front end has to report its own events, because authorisation data alone cannot show the buyers who never submitted.
What moves checkout conversion
- Payment methods: the ones buyers in that country expect
- The number of fields, and whether details can be saved or come from a wallet
- How 3-D Secure challenges are displayed and handled
- Declines, and whether the buyer is offered another way to pay
- Page speed, errors and behaviour on a phone
- Prices shown in the buyer's currency
Why checkout conversion matters
A buyer at the checkout has already decided to buy, so every point of conversion is revenue the merchant had earned. Merchants choose payment providers on this figure.
Conversion is not maximised alone. Fraud rules, authentication and address checks all cost some conversion and save losses, and a gateway gives merchants the controls to set that balance.
Checkout conversion or acceptance rate?
- Acceptance rate
- Counts only payments that were submitted: approvals out of attempts. Checkout conversion also counts the buyers who left before that.
- Cart abandonment
- Buyers who filled a basket and never started the checkout. Checkout conversion begins one step later.
Where Checkout conversion shows up in a platform
Modules that do the work
- CheckoutA hosted checkout for cards, wallets, bank payments and crypto, routed to the best provider.
- Analytics & monitoringProduct analytics, attribution, engagement and crash reports, on a tracking plan you control.
- Fraud & riskReal-time fraud scoring, limits and case management, with the risk engines you already trust.
- Card acquiringCard acceptance on the phone, in store and online, through the acquirer you choose.