By Matthew Kobach, Head of Marketing at Fast
Let’s look at the marketing channels you use to promote your products. You have ads, emails, social media, product reviews, sponsored articles, SMS messaging, and countless other platforms and options.
When you have a product you want to promote, you typically have an image, caption, and link to an online store. The calls to action are normally the same, too: click this link and buy this product once you get there.
What if you could completely eliminate that last part? The part that requires a consumer to stop what they’re doing and navigate to another page or window to make a purchase. It already exists, and it’s called headless checkout.
Headless checkout is an emerging technology that turns every marketing channel into an instant revenue stream. Soon, anyone who plays a role in marketing campaigns will be asked to use it.
Here’s how it works: Headless checkout separates the purchasing experience from an online store, which gives shoppers the chance to buy a product when they first see it. That means wherever a product is presented – whether it’s through an ad they see while reading an article, opening a promotional email, scrolling through Twitter, etc. – consumers can make any purchase right there.
For example, you see The Guardian’s promoting the latest book of the day on Instagram. With headless checkout, you could buy a copy without ever leaving Instagram. But let’s say you scrolled past that post, and later saw a review of the book of the day, or perhaps you received an email promoting it. In both instances, instead of clicking a link and going to a new window to buy a copy, you could simply click a checkout button in the middle of the review or email to order it. And the opportunities for a sale continue in real life, where a marketer could place a QR code on a billboard or on a display in a bookstore. Now bibliophiles can buy a copy of the book of the day simply by scanning. This is all possible with headless checkout.
Fast Co-Founder and CEO Domm Holland shows headless checkout in action with a one-click/swipe purchase via Instagram story.
The only company that offers this service right now is the U.S.-based checkout platform Fast. Fast has developed a checkout experience that makes buying online easier, faster, and safer. We’re behind the popular one-click payment button Fast Checkout, which pairs effectively and quickly with any setup that an online retailer or publisher currently uses. We also offer merchants access to headless checkout because we recognize that this is where commerce already is – merging with content. It’s already capturing the creator and influencer communities, allowing them to incorporate and sell products within their content. Imagine if that glitter nail polish or new workout gear were available for purchase in a tutorial video. It’s only a matter of time before more publishers, more advertisers, more marketers, and more retailers are leveraging the transformative shopping technology.
Fast dominates this space. Our closest competitors are either still developing their answer to headless checkout, or they only have “express” checkout options in some apps that actually require multiple cumbersome steps (and clicks) to complete an order.
Meanwhile, Fast is ready to go right now.
With headless checkout, the entire sales journey collapses and everyone wins. Merchants have access to a new and faster way to process orders; consumers have a snap-of-the-finger checkout experience; marketers, advertisers, and publishers play a bigger role in the sales process; and creators can seamlessly monetize their powerful and entertaining work.
“Headless checkout” screams new, new, new, but it does not replace the traditional approach to marketing. It only makes those channels more powerful. Everyone wants seamless experiences, so let’s give them the option, you can also add a free QR code.