This new checkout technology is revolutionizing how people shop

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By Nikhita Mahtani

Most marketing campaigns have the same end goal: get customers to your website so they’ll buy something. But what if I told you there was a more efficient way to sell online – without customers actually going to your website?

A new technology called headless checkout allows shoppers to instantly buy products from virtually anywhere. Online checkout company Fast is sharing this commerce tool with businesses around the internet, and forever changing traditional email and affiliate marketing campaign outcomes in the process.

Its one-click payment button, Fast Checkout, which gives shoppers the option to purchase products in just seconds – and ditch passwords for good. Think Amazon, but for the rest of the Internet. The Fast Checkout button can live on product, cart, and checkout pages. See how it works here.

Why is this important? Well, because the global industry cart abandonment average sits at about 70%, and Fast’s payment button reduces that abandonment by almost half.

Now, Fast is taking its payment button beyond a merchant’s website. Fast does this by separating the checkout experience from the online store experience. This allows the merchant to place the Fast payment button anywhere online – expanding a seller’s customer base to include buyers who otherwise might not have visited their online store.

“Fast Headless Checkout completely transforms affiliate marketing,” said Calanthia Mei, VP and Head of Partnerships at Fast. “It turns all the marketing channels into instant revenue channels by converting sales on the spot, online and offline, in one click.”

Refinery29 recently published an example of headless checkout – a shoppable article in partnership with Skin Elite. Refinery29’s audience can read about Skin Elite’s products and buy them using the Fast Checkout button embedded within the article, which allows them to purchase from Skin Elite directly without ever leaving the article.

“Headless checkout meets consumers at the moment of inspiration and removes the friction in purchasing,” Mei said. “When someone reads a review and decides to purchase it, they typically would have to click a link that takes them to a merchant’s website where they are then asked to add the item to their shopping cart and work through a cumbersome checkout flow. Fast is enabling one-click checkout by embedding the Fast Checkout button in online articles, display ads, and more.”

And that’s not all: Fast’s headless technology even brings one-click checkout outside the digital world. With QR codes strategically placed in flyers, catalogues, billboards, and other physical spaces, Fast’s one-click checkout automatically becomes one-scan checkout. Last week, Vinik Sports Group and the hockey team Tampa Bay Lightning announced their partnership with Fast to blanket its QR code onto 10,0000 cup holders in Amalie Arena.

“Fast is redefining the fan experience with headless checkout,” Mei said. “With headless checkout, fans don’t have to leave their seat to purchase merchandise at a game or concert. By scanning a QR code on a cup holder or on the jumbotron, fans can immediately purchase merchandise via Fast Checkout and pick it up on their way out. Fast has partnered with Vinik Sports Group and The Lightning to bring this to life for the first time.”

Traditionally, online stores use ads, emails, affiliates, and industry websites to drive traffic to their websites. With headless checkout, businesses still can drive sales in those spaces, but the difference is now they can do so wherever the consumer is. That means customers can buy items while reading an email, spotting an ad, or reading a product review, without being forced to stop what they’re doing and go to the website itself. It’s convenient for the customer and increases sales for the merchant.

“The possibilities for headless checkout,” Mei said, “are endless.”