Sponsor content is created on behalf of and in collaboration with NewStore by DigitalCommerce360. Our editorial staff is not involved in the creation of the sponsored content.


The checkout experience is a make-or-break moment in retail. In fact, it’s been reported that shoppers say the checkout process is their number one pain point about the shopping experience. Of course, the entire customer journey is worth getting right, but a poor checkout experience will hurt the business in many critical ways — from sales to revenue to loyalty.

Optimizing the checkout experience is not something to overlook if you want satisfied customers and healthy profits. By introducing innovative technology and payments into the checkout process, you can deliver customers the seamless end-to-end shopping experience they expect. All the while creating differentiation between you and the brands that refuse to evolve.

Consumers love online checkout
FTI Consulting predicts online retail sales will reach over one trillion by the end of this year. This is a number the firm originally predicted for 2025 but was accelerated dramatically by the pandemic. Pandemic aside, there are reasons why consumers are buying so furiously online.

A Digital Commerce 360 survey identified what website aspects have met or exceeded 1,000 consumers’ expectations. While there are a few things that more than 50% of consumers feel satisfied with — such as easy search functionality and stock information — 73% of respondents love that most ecommerce sites have a fast and easy checkout process.

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Knowing that cart abandonment is an $18 billion problem, brands have put time and effort into making the last touch online both efficient and effortless. Features from automatic payment population to one-click checkout options make transacting online friction-free.

Even though there is much to be desired about shopping online (and more and more consumers are doing it), we know that consumers still prefer shopping in-store. So, how can you make the most liked thing on websites (the checkout process) an experience that shoppers also like in-store? Here are a few ways.

Simplify the store point of sale
The point of sale (POS) is to stores what the checkout page is to websites. However, they’re not created equal. While brands have invested to create streamlined checkout experiences online, most still run their stores on legacy point of sale systems. These systems are typically fixed solutions working alongside credit card readers, receipt printers, and a myriad of other things (calculators, phones, you name it.)

To make the in-store checkout experience more like online, above all else, you need to streamline the point of sale. The easiest way to do this is to replace your traditional system with a mobile solution. There are so many benefits to a mobile POS, but mobile checkout is king. Mobile checkout brings the point of sale to the shopper, wherever they are in the store.

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Just like brands can lose billions in sales online due to cart abandonment from clunky checkout processes, they can also lose billions in-store due to long checkout lines. With a mobile POS, shoppers can check out when they’re ready and without a queue.

Introduce easy and fast transactions
In 2021, 57% of consumers said they prefer shopping with brands that provide digital, contactless payment options. And, according to Marqeta, consumers are so interested in these payment types that 60% feel comfortable leaving the house with a phone and no wallet.

Contactless payment methods have become sticky because of their ease, speed, and security. Online, the checkout experience can range from minutes to around 90 seconds, depending on if the customer has saved payment and shipping information. However, with a mobile POS and contactless payments, you can reduce transaction times to just 10 to 15 seconds.

This process actually just got even more simple with the roll out of Tap to Pay on iPhone, a new capability from Apple that allows brands to accept contactless payments without the need for any extra hardware. Before you needed a mobile device, credit card terminal, and receipt printer to complete a checkout. Now, it can all be done on a single iPhone. For one NewStore customer, this feature has reduced payment processing time by 30%.

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Many hypothesized contactless payments would persist after the pandemic. They not only have, but they’ve also evolved with the introduction of Tap to Pay on iPhone to become more seamless than ever before. And that makes for a supercharged in-store checkout experience.

Making checkout an opportunity
You need to offer a seamless checkout experience wherever customers can buy from you. However, the more people shop online, the more they will expect their in-store and even mobile app experiences to be just as fast, simple, and convenient.

Nike’s Chief Design Officer John Hook once said: “Imagine the website, live. The future of retail is going to be less fixed, more fluid, and hyper-responsive to consumer trends and needs.”

This perspective can be immediately applied to the store checkout experience. With solutions and features like mobile POS and Tap to Pay on iPhone, you can create a store transaction moment that meets or exceeds the ones your shoppers really love online.

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Stephan Schambach is Founder and CEO of NewStore. The company offers a modular, mobile-first platform that includes POS, OMS, clienteling, inventory, and native consumer apps, designed to create amazing shopping experiences that store associates and consumers love.

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