The Hidden Risk of One-Step Checkout
Discover the unexpected negative impact of a one-step checkout and learn how to address it.
About the Author:
Co-founder of Datacop, agency that fulfils marketing operation roles in large eCommerce companies such as OluKai, Melin, Roark, Visual Comfort and Company, Dedoles and others.
Today, we’ll discuss a significant change made by one of our clients to their website, which unexpectedly led to a decline in the number of new email subscribers. The impact of this change was surprising, as we hadn’t anticipated its potential downside—it never even crossed our minds.
This scenario underscores why we are strong advocates for robust reporting systems, ideally paired with automated notifications that can quickly identify such negative trends.
Unfortunately, at the time, we lacked a report tracking daily new email subscribers over time that compares the performance against the previous year. We also did not have a notification system specifically monitoring potential anomalies in the number of new email subscribers.
As a result, this negative impact persisted for several months. During this period, the brand missed out on a significant number of new subscribers, which translated to a tangible loss in revenue that those subscribers could have generated.
In this article, we will tell you what change caused this negative impact, why we believe it had such a negative effect and also how the impact can be eliminated.
Switching from three-step checkout to one-step checkout
The decrease in the number of new email subscribers can be mapped perfectly with the moment when this brand went from a three-step checkout to one step checkout.
Before we dive into explaining why this change had such a negative impact, I encourage you to take a look at these two experiences and try to identify the reasons for the negative effect yourself. Once you've thought it through, feel free to scroll down for our explanation.
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Explanation
In the three-step checkout process, customers are prompted to provide their email address and opt into the newsletter during the first step (Information). What’s particularly significant is that customers become subscribers as soon as they proceed from the first step (Information) to the second (Shipping). This means they do not need to complete a purchase to join the mailing list.
However, this functionality differs in the one-step checkout setup. In that version, customers had to click the “Pay now” button to confirm their email subscription, which occurred simultaneously with placing their order.
This distinction is critical because there is a notable drop-off between customers who complete the first step of the three-step checkout process and those who proceed to finalize their purchase.
Under the three-step checkout process, every customer who completed the first step became a subscriber. After transitioning to the one-step checkout experience, only customers who completed their purchase were added to the subscription list.
Solution
To address this issue, you can configure the checkout process to subscribe customers immediately after they provide their email and opt-in—before completing the purchase—when they advance to the "Delivery" section.
Before implementing this solution, it's essential to consult your compliance team. The appropriateness of this strategy can vary based on the legal requirements of your jurisdiction.
If this solution is not feasible for your store, you should probably conduct an analysis to determine whether the potential increase in conversion rate from using a one-step checkout outweighs the loss of a significant number of new email subscribers.
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