How It Works: Hosted Checkout vs. On-site Checkout

Checkout experiences of customers play a huge role in how they perceive a business, especially in e-commerce. Business owners need to implement a simple and quick checkout process to reduce cart abandonment and enhance repeat sales. If the checkout process is simple and easy to follow, customers can effortlessly experience an affordable and smooth checkout experience.

There are two ways businesses can adopt checkout; they are on-site checkout and hosted checkout. Businesses that are newly implementing checkout methods need to be aware of both of these types and what are the differences between them.

In this article, get to know about on-site checkout vs. hosted checkout.

How does an on-site checkout process work?

It is a type of online payment where customers can fill in their payment information on the site they are shopping from. Merchants can accept payment easily through this method; the site needs an SSL certificate to encrypt the data. When using an onsite payment method, the site needs more configuration.

The on-site checkout process is quite simple and easy to follow. 

• Customers can select the checkout option after selecting all the items and putting them in the cart.
• A checkout screen will be displayed on the website itself.
• Users can put all the required information in that and then pay using their preferred way of payment.

By following these 3 steps, customers experience a seamless payment method. Many Bitcoin payment processors like Speed provide integrated plugins for your website to function in the on-site checkout process.

One can check out the Speed WordPress plugin and implement them at your website to start accepting payments, enabling the on-site checkout.

Features of on-site checkout

On-site checkout is popular among both merchants and customers due to its various features, like,

• Reducing the number of steps in the checkout

As the user remains on the merchant’s site, they don’t have to start the checkout process from scratch. This reduces the number of steps to complete an on-site checkout. Customers prefer this checkout process as it saves them time and effort.

• It reduces the fields in the checkout forms.

When customers use on-site checkout, they are registered with the website and must put their payment details and preference on the checkout form. This eliminates the chances of long checkout forms that take a lot of energy to fill up.

• No heavy devices are required as checkout gets available on the mobile.

As the name suggests, on-site checkout keeps you on the same site without redirecting or needing any heavily deployed devices. Most of the e-commerce sites are device friendly and can be operated using mobile phones, giving users easy checkout with their phones.

• Variety of payment options

On-site checkout provides multiple ways to pay on the checkout screen; customers can pay using their preferred mode of payment. Most of the on-site checkout process includes all the possible payment methods for the seamless experience of their customers.

• Secured and reliable for payment details

The checkout process takes place over the merchant’s site; hence the customers don’t have to worry about the security of their payment details. The information you put through these is kept for that particular transaction and is not saved. When customers are willing to check out another time, they submit their payment details again.

This way, on-site checkouts ensure no one can mislead or take advantage of your payment details.

Benefits of on-site checkout

Apart from the features, several other advantages come with on-site checkout. Let’s explore them more.

• Provides customized payment process

On-site checkout helps out the customers, but it also helps out merchants to improve the reliability of their brand. Merchants can customize their checkout screen to make it look more reliable to the customers; they can add more custom fields like delivery date or package tracker.

• Easy to implement

These on-site checkout methods are pretty easy to implement, merchants need to integrate with any Bitcoin payment processor that provides plugins for on-site checkout, and that’s it. With this simple process, any website can incorporate payment processors and install these plugins to simplify their customers’ experience with checkout.

• Enhanced customer experience

Complicated systems are frustrating customers with checkout processes; it not only decreases the potential of business but also negatively impacts branding. Since merchants started adopting on-site checkout systems, they have been able to play safe in providing the best and hassle-free experience to their customers.

Drawbacks of on-site checkout

Certain drawbacks provide on-site payment and some scope for improvement. Every tech system has some forms of drawbacks, but these drawbacks are the reason that helps them to improve the services and features.

Let’s discuss some over here.

• Effects on the website speed

When there are too many service pages on a single site, there is a high chance that it may affect the website’s running speed. At times when too many actions run on a site simultaneously, it puts up a lot of extra load on the server. With this, the server can slow down or produce glitches while running.

• It can sometimes overburden clients

When the customers need to check out too many items at a time, some on-site checkout pages ask for product details too. This can overburden the clients by asking for too much information. 

Sometimes merchants keep too many options to select from for customers; this creates a lot of dilemma and confusion for them. Most of the time, customers stop using a site for this particular reason.

How does a hosted checkout process work?

Once you have integrated a hosted checkout with your business, do all the customization you want, like logo and brand color. Many Bitcoin payment partners like Speed provide a relatively quick and straightforward checkout process.

Let’s look at the flow of how a hosted checkout process work,

• When customers are done adding things to their cart and proceed to checkout. Then the button redirects them to the hosted checkout page. 
• Customers add payment, shipping, and billing information or even use existing accounts to choose a payment method.
• After that, customers can once review their order; after the completion of checkout, customers get redirected to the site.

Features of hosted checkout

Merchants who want to avoid taking the checkout load on their server mainly trust other payment processors who provide hosted checkout services. Some other features also attract merchants to adopt hosted checkout for their customers.

• It collects the customer's information.

When customers are redirected to a third-party page, they need to fill up all of the details asked there. This way, the correct information regarding the customers gets collected, reducing the chances of fraud.

The payment processors keep all the information; merchants can access it through their dashboards.

• Process the payments without any glitches.

With the help of hosted payment processors, the load of payments and data does not come over the local server of merchants but instead gets stored in the provider’s server. This allows both of them to function freely, keeping the servers away from any glitches.

• Generates payment confirmation with receipts

Hosted checkout pages are very convenient for customers. Once the payment is made, they assure them by generating the payment confirmation and a receipt with respect to the payments. This provides proof to customers about their payments and a summary of their orders.

Benefits of hosted checkout

Hosted checkout pages possess some benefits that are found nowhere. Its large user base proves that hosted checkout has been gaining popularity in recent years and has been a one-stop solution for mainly small and medium businesses.

• Increased security

Hosted checkout means a third party apart from the website. This keeps the data secure and safe in their database with their responsibilities. There are chances that when any bug arises in the site, it can affect the payments of customers, but with hosted checkout, the payment processor adds an advanced layer of security. 

With this added security, customers’ trust in merchants gets enhanced, and they are more likely to use the sites that have integrated hosted checkout services.

• Quick and easy-to-set-up

Payment processors have done all the work after a merchant integrates hosted checkout with its business. These checkout services are quick to integrate, and minimal effort is needed from your side to manage these pages. With quick set-up, anyone can take up their business online.

• Less liability on merchants

As the payment is processed from the merchant’s site, they are not liable for any transaction. All the data is stored with the host, and they keep track of them. Merchants receive the amount in their account, and the payment processors look after all the other activities and transactions.

• Multiple options to conduct payment

Hosted checkout provides a set of payment methods for its customers. Merchants can select a variety of payment modes they want for their clients, and at the time of checkout, they can easily select from these options. This simplifies the whole checkout process; when a client is redirected to the hosted page, they feel the merchants are reliable as they care for the client’s preference. 

Drawbacks of hosted checkout

There is no doubt that hosted checkout is a new rising trend for merchants and clients. But there is also room for improvement in every system. Similarly, certain things keep a hosted checkout on the backside.

• Higher charges per transaction

When an external party is involved in the checkout process, they charge a certain fee per transaction. The customers mainly pay this extra charge through transaction fees. Due to this, they need to pay more per transaction; this drawback can lead the customers to switch to websites that support on-site checkout.

• No track of end-to-end experience

All the data of customers gets stored on the host server, and this breaks the cycle of user experience with the website. Merchants cannot get the data tracked during checkout, which will create difficulty for them in getting feedback regarding their end-to-end experience.