Headless Checkout: How Bolt Brings Your Store Everywhere

<p>Imagine it’s halftime at a Los Angeles Lakers game. The crowd is buzzing from the first half and now it’s time to promote a limited-edition Kobe jersey on sale after the game. Typically, they’d announce it on the scoreboard and direct you to the in-arena stores.<br>&nbsp;</p><p>This is the way it’s always been done and it’s fine. But do you really think your customers and shoppers want “fine?”</p><p>Now, imagine the Lakers or any sports team can make that experience amazing and seamless. You could have QR codes in the teams’ colors on the back of seats and on the scoreboard. When a customer scans it, they could checkout with a single click and either pick it up at the in-game arena or have it shipped to their home or to someone else’s place they’re gifting it.<br><br>This experience is possible today thanks to <a href="https://www.bolt.com/blog/the-age-of-conversational-commerce">Bolt’s Checkout Links</a> and its headless checkout capabilities.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><h2>What Is Headless Checkout?&nbsp;</h2><p>We view headless checkout as the part of <a href="https://www.bolt.com/blog/revolutionizing-retail-with-headless-commerce">headless commerce</a> that’s focused, obviously, on the checkout experience. And at Bolt, we believe that checkout should be frictionless to deliver an amazing customer experience that boosts revenue for merchants.<br><br>Headless checkout means someone attending the game above can pull out their phone, point it at the QR code, then be able to checkout with a single tap. There would be no redirects to different product pages, no long forms to fill out and no credit card numbers to put in.<br><br>You should be able to buy at the point of inspiration with a single click. That could be when you’re scrolling through TikTok, reading a digital news publication, shopping online or at a basketball game.&nbsp;</p><h2>How Bolt’s Headless Checkout Benefits Retailers Like You&nbsp;&nbsp;</h2><p>Your storefront is no longer bound by the walls of your brick-and-mortar store or online store. Your storefront is everywhere your customers are. That means in app, on Twitter, on bus stops, in stores, in WhatsApp groups, in the latest Buzzfeed article, in emails, through online stores and much, much more.&nbsp;</p><h3>Boosting Revenue</h3><p>Headless checkout empowers you to turn all of these points of inspiration into a seamless checkout experience. That means higher conversion rates, a better overall shopping experience and ultimately, more revenue.&nbsp;</p><p>Put yourself in your shopper’s shoes:&nbsp;</p><ul><li>They see someone using your product on social media&nbsp;</li><li>They’re already imagining how great it would be in their house</li><li>If there’s a buy button, they have to click on it to get to the product page.</li><li>If it’s still in stock, they have to add to cart.&nbsp;</li><li>Then, they add in their name, billing information and credit card&nbsp;</li><li>Maybe they have to sign into a third-party payment to pay.&nbsp;</li><li>They finally get to hit buy.<br>&nbsp;</li></ul><p>You’re making somebody jump through a lot of hoops to give you their money. It’s no wonder that <a href="https://www.bolt.com/thinkshop/shopping-cart-abandonment">abandoned carts</a> lead to $1 trillion in lost sales annually.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p>With headless checkout, that same shopper’s experience is much better:</p><ul><li>They see someone using your product on social media&nbsp;</li><li>They’re already imagining how great it would be in their house</li><li>They buy it with one-click checkout directly with a link in the social media feed&nbsp;</li><li>They’re happy and, hopefully, love the product and your brand.&nbsp;</li></ul><h3>Minimizing Hassles&nbsp;</h3><p><br>The great thing about headless checkout with Bolt’s Checkout Everywhere and Checkout Links is that you don’t have to sacrifice core parts of your tech stack to get that frictionless checkout experience.&nbsp;</p><p>If a shopper buys from your social feed or through a QR code, that purchase flows into your existing workstreams. That means you don’t have to worry about separate inventory and management systems—all the orders are as if they took place natively on your website.&nbsp;</p><p>Additionally, Bolt’s Checkout Everywhere works with your existing tech stack: it’s a platform-agnostic solution that works with your existing payment processors and alternative payment methods.&nbsp;</p><h2>How To Get Started With Headless Checkout&nbsp;</h2><p>First off, you must embrace that mindset shift of extending your store everywhere your shoppers are. Yes, it’s still going to be important to drive traffic to your website but it’s not the only way to sell. And with social media consuming more and more of people’s time, the brands who embrace <a href="https://www.bolt.com/thinkshop/how-social-commerce-is-changing-the-online-shopping-experience">social commerce</a> and headless checkout are going to win.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p>You’ll then have to find technology partners who can help you achieve this ambitious challenge. You’ll want solutions that deliver a great checkout experience, work with your existing tech stack and can be set up relatively quickly.&nbsp;<br><br>Thankfully, Bolt already offers headless checkout today. Feel free to <a href="https://www.bolt.com/thinkshop/how-social-commerce-is-changing-the-online-shopping-experience">reach out</a> to see how it can help grow your business.&nbsp;</p>