Fastlane by PayPal Now Open to all US Merchants

PayPal’s one-click-checkout tool Fastlane is now available for U.S. businesses of all sizes.

The company announced Tuesday (Aug. 6) that the program — first introduced in January — is now open for any businesses using PayPal’s Complete Payments or Braintree platforms.

“Merchants often lose sales due to lengthy guest checkout experiences. Despite the time-consuming process, guest checkout remains a preferred checkout method for many consumers,” PayPal said in a news release.

“PayPal developed Fastlane to address these challenges, prioritizing the needs of merchants and consumers at the core of the product. Fastlane helps merchants recognize consumers early in the guest checkout process using their email, allowing them to access their saved information with a one-time passcode so they may autofill their checkout and complete their purchase in as little as one click,” the company continued.

The release added that consumers not recognized during checkout can create a Fastlane profile for faster future checkouts, with no forms to fill out or new passwords to remember.

As PYMNTS wrote in June, shoppers have increasingly come to expect retailers to simplify their checkout processes, according to both expert insights and surveys of consumers.

“Business that can adapt to very convenient ways for customers to pay are going to win in the long run … so staying on top of offerings for a streamlined payment and checkout approach is a heavy focus,” said Justin Downey, vice president of product at Maverick Payments.

For example, The PYMNTS Intelligence study “The Online Features Driving Consumers to Shop With Brands, Retailers or Marketplaces” found that 50% of consumers consider the ease of a merchant’s checkout process when deciding where to shop.

“Anything that makes processes quicker and easier with less obstacles for customers, that’s where the excitement is,” Downey said.

Major retailers have begun innovating in this area. Marko Ivanovic, director of digital payments at Adidas, told PYMNTS in an interview last year that the footwear company is looking to offer up a more frictionless payment experience both online and in stores.

“We’re already offering a range of mobile payment methods, like Apple Pay, Google Pay and WeChat Pay. We also launched PayPal in stores. For us, it’s members first, one-click checkout, especially for the young generations that do everything with their mobile,” Ivanovic said.