Guest Checkout
Guest checkout lets a shopper complete a purchase without creating an account — entering delivery and payment details for this order only, with the option to register afterwards. Forced registration is among the most cited reasons for abandonment; guest checkout removes it at the cost of the account data and saved card an account would hold — a trade wallets and network tokens have narrowed.
- Also known as
- Checkout without account, Anonymous checkout, No-registration checkout
- Used at
- e-commerce checkouts of every kind; surveys consistently find a quarter of shoppers who abandon cite being forced to create an account (Baymard's checkout studies put it near the top, after extra costs)
- Binding
- no rule; but data-protection law shapes what a guest's details may be kept for, and PSD2's SCA applies regardless of account status
- Typical effect
- adding guest checkout to a registration-only flow lifts checkout conversion by several points; the loss is some share of accounts that would have been created, mitigated by offering registration on the confirmation page (often 30–50% take-up)
- Typical modern form
- guest checkout with wallet buttons (Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal, Shop Pay) that fill delivery and payment in one tap; the account, if any, is created behind the scenes from the wallet's data or the email
- Parties
- the merchant's product team, the payments team (which handles tokens and authentication for guests), the PSP or checkout vendor, and the shopper who wants to buy one thing once
How guest checkout works in practice
A first-time shopper reaches the checkout with a €60 basket. Registration-only flow: create an account, choose a password, verify an email — and a third of shoppers leave, because they wanted a jumper, not a relationship. Guest flow: email for the receipt, delivery address, payment — done. Or, with wallets: tap Apple Pay, confirm with a fingerprint, the wallet supplies the address and the tokenised card, done in fifteen seconds. The merchant has the order and the email; on the confirmation page it offers "save your details for next time" and a third accept. The shopper who declined is still a customer, and next time she is a returning guest with the same wallet.
The trade the merchant makes is data for conversion, and the trade has become cheap. What an account provided — a saved card, a saved address, order history, a login to check status — wallets and email links now provide without one; what a registration wall cost — a quarter of first-time buyers — it still costs. Merchants with a genuine need for accounts (subscriptions, regulated products, loyalty programmes) create them after payment, from the guest's details; merchants that force registration first are usually doing so because the platform's default was set in 2012.
For a payments company, guest checkout with wallets is a conversion product; for a buyer of an e-commerce business, a registration-only checkout is a quick win the seller left on the table.
Example
A homewares retailer requires an account to buy. Checkout conversion: 58%; new-customer share of orders 30%. It adds guest checkout with Apple Pay and Google Pay buttons and post-purchase registration. Checkout conversion rises to 71%; new-customer share of orders rises to 41%, because the shoppers who would not register now buy; post-purchase registration is accepted by 38% of guests; the loyalty programme's enrolments fall 15% in absolute terms and the marketing team objects, then notices that revenue from new customers is up 45%. Twelve months on, 60% of returning guests pay by wallet, and the merchant's saved-card feature, once the reason for accounts, is used by fewer customers than Apple Pay.
Common mistakes
- Forcing registration before payment because the platform's template did. - Guest checkout without wallet buttons, so guests still type everything. - Never offering registration after the purchase, when the shopper is most willing. - Keeping guests' details for marketing without the consent the data rules require. - Loyalty and subscription teams blocking guest checkout for everyone to protect enrolments from a few.