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10. Embedded payments: Popu- Improving conversion
larized by Lyft, Grubhub and
other non-financial companies, Philip McHugh, executive director at FlexCharge, urged payments industry
embedded or invisible payments stakeholders to tackle declined transactions, a leading cause of shopping cart
integrate digital commerce into abandonment.
their offerings, making transac-
tions smoother and more conve- "All of the big trends mentioned above—online channels, more payment choice
nient for everyone involved. and security-based solutions—are all part of an ever improving transaction
journey," he said. "Regardless, acceptance rates continue to be a challenge with
These various payment methods col- merchants losing anywhere from 5 to 40 percent of their sales due to declines."
lectively shape the world's economy,
offering convenience, speed, secu- McHugh mentioned a number of variables can impact transaction declines, such
rity, and flexibility to consumers and as fraud concerns, merchant risk profiles or just inefficiency in the ecosystem,
businesses alike, Kohler noted. and there is no single silver bullet for solving this issue. Merchants, he said,
need to evaluate payment performance and consider investing in solutions
"Technological advancements have designed to mitigate chargebacks and improve transaction acceptance rates to
revolutionized how we transact and make digital commerce smoother and more efficient for everyone.
will likely continue to shape the fu-
ture of payments," he said. "Let's face "The bar for winning business in ecommerce has never been higher," he
it, electronic commerce is the spine said. "Top players have to be local and global, with easy and effective integration
of the global economy that ties us all capabilities and strong but cost-effective controls on fraud and losses. Above
together, making resources and trade all, they need to perform, which means they need high acceptance rates."
possible."
Will today's still-popular plastic cards and payment rails seem as quaint as
Next-gen checkout knucklebusters in a year or two?
Karpas pointed out that merchants Dale S. Laszig, senior staff writer at The Green Sheet and founder and CEO at DSL Direct LLC, is
want to personalize the entire cus- a payments industry journalist and content strategist. Connect via email dale@dsldirectllc.com,
tomer journey, from an initial prod- LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/in/dalelaszig/ and Twitter https://twitter.com/DSLdirect
uct inquiry on a search engine or a
website, through product compari-
son, to buying decision. However,
as Bold Commerce researchers have
noted, a subpar checkout experience
can kill a sale.

The Bold Commerce 2023 Omnichan-
nel Personalization Index found 65
percent of shoppers surveyed were
dissatisfied with checkout recom-
mendations, 45 percent expressed
frustration with inconsistent offers,
and 35 percent were dissatisfied with
speed of service and post-purchase
issue resolution.

Rather than focus exclusively on con-
version or speed to reduce cart aban-
donment, Karpas advised merchants
to follow the money by upselling and
cross-selling to enhance checkout op-
tionality, which he believes is critical
to growth.
"Third-generation checkout is all
about tailored checkout," Karpas said.
"It introduces the checkout power
trio: conversion, average order value
and lifetime value. Turn one of these
interconnected dials and it impacts
the other two."
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