Fellow product managers, CRO specialists, and marketers probably need to come to terms with a seemingly uncomfortable fact that most e-commerce teams avoid saying out loud: your checkout experience is no longer a supporting feature. It is the product.

And no, it doesn’t take a runner-up seat to your PDP design, hero banners, or even your pricing strategy. 

In today’s scenario, Apple Pay can complete a purchase in under 8 seconds, TikTok users expect to buy within the content stream; Google Search shoppers arrive with high intent but zero patience. 

The brand that wins is the one that removes steps, not adds persuasion.

And yet, most stores still expect users to add to cart, view cart, log in or create an account, enter shipping, enter billing, choose payment, review, and confirm the purchase. 

In total, you are offering them eight chances to hesitate and effectively eight chances to leave. 

On that note, Baymard Institute’s latest research puts average cart abandonment at ~70%, and the top reasons are still painfully basic: unexpected steps, forced account creation, slow checkout, and overly formatted flows.

In today’s blog, we are going to explore how brands that fix the friction problem are not optimizing carts; instead, they are bypassing them.

What “frictionless checkout” really means (and what it doesn’t)

So, before we go any further, let’s define terms because “frictionless checkout” is often oversimplified.

According to Shopify, a frictionless customer experience is one in which customers can move from interest to purchase with minimal interruption, repetition, or confusion across devices and touchpoints.

However, there is an important nuance that needs to be highlighted here, frictionless does not mean zero confirmation, information capture, reassurance, or zero brand experience. 

Instead, it means removing unnecessary friction at moments where the user has already made a decision.

Now, that distinction is critical.

Some friction builds trust, while misplaced friction destroys momentum.

Why the traditional cart is increasingly the wrong abstraction

The shopping cart is a legacy construct.

It was designed for desktop-first browsing, multi-item shopping, comparison-heavy behavior, and slower, more deliberate decision cycles.

But modern e-commerce behavior, especially on mobile, looks quite different.

Nowadays, most sessions are short, a large share of purchases are single-SKU, payment credentials are already stored, and identity is tied to the device, not the site.

In this environment, the cart often introduces an extra page load, an extra decision (“review or continue?”),and an extra chance to hesitate.

Baymard’s UX research repeatedly shows that each additional checkout step increases the risk of drop-off. Particularly on mobile, not because users don’t want to buy, but because they’re forced to reconfirm the intent that they already have.

Express checkout: why Apple Pay and Google Pay change the equation

Express checkout methods like Apple Pay and Google Pay don’t just speed up payment; they fundamentally change how the brain perceives the transaction.

Here’s what actually happens psychologically when a shopper taps an Apple Pay or Google Pay button on a product page:

1. Cognitive load drops

There are no form fields, formatting rules, or room for validation errors.

2. Trust is externalized

The shopper doesn’t need to evaluate your payment security, instead they’re relying on Apple or Google, brands they already trust with their identity and money.

3. The action feels reversible and safe

Biometric confirmation feels more controlled than typing card details, especially on mobile.

In fact, here’s a common sentiment (taken from multiple Reddit threads & Quora discussions), “If Apple Pay is available, I don’t hesitate. If I have to type my card on mobile, I reconsider.”

This, ladies & gentlemen, is the essence of frictionless shopping in its purest form.

An insight into creating a truly frictionless customer experience (Not just a faster checkout!)

Let’s now delve into how to create a truly enjoyable, frictionless checkout experience for customers.

1. Understanding that friction begins at intent, not at checkout

So, different traffic sources arrive with different cognitive states. For instance, a TikTok user is in discovery mode, a Google Search user is in evaluation mode, and a returning customer is in confirmation mode.

When you treat all of them with the same funnel, that is where friction quietly creeps in.

Baymard’s long-running checkout research consistently shows that users abandon not because checkout is long, but because it feels unnecessarily hard for their context.

Taking human reality into perspective, a TikTok user doesn’t want feature comparisons, shipping calculators, or account creation prompts; they want momentum.

A Google Search user, on the other hand, expects details and gets uneasy when they’re missing.

Frictionless experience equals a context-aware experience.

2. Express checkout works because it removes decisions, not steps

Interestingly, Apple Pay and Google Pay work not because they are faster but because they remove form-filling anxiety, eliminate address uncertainty, and reduce trust evaluation at the most sensitive moment.

Apple Pay’s own human interface guidelines emphasize that biometric confirmation replaces conscious decision-making. Face ID or Touch ID feels final and safe, not tedious.

Google Pay similarly positions itself as a way to “complete purchases without re-entering information”, especially on mobile-first journeys.

This is why express checkout buttons on product pages often outperform cart-first flows, and users convert before second-guessing kicks in

It’s not just speed; it’s offering cognitive relief.

3. Understanding why bypassing the cart often increases conversion, of course, when done right!

So, as discussed earlier, cart pages were built for the desktop era e-commerce, where comparison, saving items, and delayed decisions were the norm rather than an exception.

However, modern e-commerce, especially one that is mobile and social driven, is a conflation of impulse and confidence, rarely an outcome of deliberation.

So, reducing friction in the payment moment improves completion rates, particularly when payment methods are surfaced earlier in the journey.

Here are some key nuances that PMs should care about.

Bypassing the cart works only when the product page already resolves key objections  such as price clarity, delivery expectations, returns & trust signals

Otherwise, the cart wasn’t friction; it was offering reassurance.

This is exactly why the best-performing product pages today surface Apple Pay/Google Pay alongside “Buy Now”, dynamically expand delivery and returns inline, and show trust signals without pushing users into another page.

To sum up, frictionless does not mean minimal UI; rather, it means offering a seamless experience where nothing is missing, and nothing is extra. 

4. Predictive journeys are known to beat universal funnels

Now this is where most teams profess that they are sophisticated, and then don’t proceed to implement it. 

A frictionless customer experience adapts based on traffic source, device, user history, and intent strength. 

Shopify explicitly emphasises personalization and journey continuity as core to reducing friction across channels. 

Let’s look at an interesting real example. TikTok referrals look for one-tap express checkout, minimal copy, and social proof over specs. In comparison, Google Search browsers (high-intent keywords) look for full PDPs, detailed breakdowns, shipping, and returns clarity before payment. 

Now they might be going for the same product, but they have distinctly different profiles.

Understanding this difference actually shows basic respect for human psychology.

5. Uncovering the hidden friction that nobody talks about ~ trust transitions

One of Baymard’s most overlooked findings is that trust drops sharply when users feel a “handoff” between systems, especially at checkout.

Express payments help because Apple Pay and Google Pay act as trusted intermediaries, and users mentally shift responsibility away from the merchant.

Now this is pretty huge for newer brands, international stores, and mobile-first experiences.

But this will only work if branding remains consistent, confirmation feels instant, and post-payment communication is clear.

So, a frictionless experience doesn’t end at payment success; it ends when the user feels certain the transaction worked.

6. Decoding what frictionless looks like in practice, not in theory

So, for PMs and CROs, here’s the checklist that truly matters;

~ Payment options surfaced before checkout

~ Express pay is visible on product pages

~ Checkout adapts to the traffic source

~ No forced account creation

~ Inline answers to shipping & returns

~ Trust signals without modal overload

~ Clear post-purchase confirmation

Baymard estimates that a significant portion of checkout abandonment is caused by avoidable UX issues, not user indecision.

That’s not a promise of guaranteed uplift; it’s an argument for eliminating self-inflicted losses.

The road ahead

If you are considering partnering with Mavlers to build a seamless checkout web experience for your valued customers, you might want to read this next: How Can I Engage With Mavlers? An Overview of The Engagement Models.