One-click checkout: shorten the path between the button and the purchase

Why every step before payment costs sales

An average checkout in the United States shows 23.48 form elements by default, the Baymard Institute measures. Every field, every page and every choice is a chance to put the purchase off. Baymard estimates that a large e-commerce site can gain 35.26% in conversion just by fixing the flaws of its checkout.

One-click checkout tackles the problem at the root: the buyer clicks, sees the total price, pays with the method already on their phone. Information that is not needed for the payment waits until afterwards.

Stripe Checkout and payment links: a ready-made payment page

“Stripe Checkout” is searched 480 times a month in France. Stripe describes it as a prebuilt payment page: you do not have to build a card form or handle security or the bank’s strong customer authentication. Payment Links go even further: one link per product, placed behind a button, with no server code.

• Hosted Checkout: your site creates a payment session and redirects the buyer; suited to a basket, options or variable quantities.
• Payment Links: one fixed link per product or bundle; ideal for a site selling guides, templates or courses at a fixed price.
• In both cases, the payment page is served by Stripe, secure, translated and mobile-friendly.

Apple Pay, Google Pay and Link: paying without typing a card number

On mobile, typing sixteen digits on a small screen is the moment people give up. Wallets solve the problem. According to Stripe’s documentation, with Payment Links or hosted Checkout, Apple Pay works with no configuration: you just switch it on in your payment methods. For Apple Pay as for Google Pay, you only pay the standard Stripe processing fees.

Link is Stripe’s wallet: it remembers the buyer’s payment details for fast checkout on every site that accepts it, and works with Checkout, Payment Links, Elements and Invoicing. It is priced like a card: on Stripe’s French price list, 1.5% + €0.25.

Check this for the country your business is registered in: Stripe’s wallets documentation states, for example, that Google Pay is not supported for Stripe accounts in India.

What we have put in place on our own sites

On our shops and our PDF guide sites, the journey has been shortened through successive decisions, each one dated and measured:

• 4 October 2026: One click to the payment page: visible price, no intermediate page, no account.
• 12 October 2026: One-button repeat purchase (card kept by the payment provider with the buyer’s consent), Google Pay switched on.
• 17 October 2026: Every page three clicks or fewer from the home page through real HTML links, checked every week by an in-house crawler.
• 17 October 2026: Optional email before payment (“to find your purchase again”), a basket only from 3 products, pay first, personalise afterwards.

The principle behind these decisions: purchase first, questions afterwards. Choosing a variant stays mandatory before paying; everything else (personalisation, a detailed delivery address for a digital product, preferences) can wait for the thank-you page.

Setting up one-click checkout, step by step

For a shop or a digital products site, this is the order of work:

1. 1
   One button per product: a single buy label, the price written on the button or just above it, visible without scrolling on mobile.
2. 2
   Payment link or Checkout session: one link per product and per bundle for a short catalogue, a Checkout session as soon as there is a basket or options.
3. 3
   Wallets switched on: Apple Pay, Google Pay and Link in the payment method settings; test on an iPhone and an Android phone.
4. 4
   No mandatory account: offer the email field so buyers can find their purchase again, without forcing it, and create the account after payment if needed.
5. 5
   Total price before the button: delivery costs and taxes stated on the product page, never discovered on the payment page.
6. 6
   A compliant confirmation button: the wording required by law appears on the payment page (see below).
7. 7
   A useful thank-you page: immediate delivery of the digital product, a summary, personalisation questions, a complementary product in one button.
8. 8
   Measurement: begin_checkout and purchase events in Google Analytics 4, to see whether the change improves your rate.

The rules that still apply, even in one click

Going fast does not exempt you from the obligations of distance selling. In France, the confirmation button must carry the words “commande avec obligation de paiement” (order with an obligation to pay) or an equally unambiguous wording, or the order is void. Pre-contractual information (characteristics, total price, delivery time, right of withdrawal) must be given before the order. The payment page hosted by Stripe shows an explicit payment button; make sure your product page and your terms of sale do the rest.

For digital content delivered immediately, the right of withdrawal only lapses if the buyer has expressly agreed to it: the guide on selling PDFs explains how to handle this.