Every additional step during the checkout process can result in a lost customer. According to the Baymard Institute, on average, over 70% of online carts are abandoned before the purchase is completed. Among the reasons cited by shoppers, 19% said they interrupted the checkout process because they were asked to create an account or because the guest checkout option was not immediately visible. This data highlights just how important it is to design a simple, seamless payment experience.

For this reason, more and more ecommerce businesses are introducing guest checkout as an integral part of their conversion strategy. Allowing customers to complete a purchase without registering reduces friction at the most important point in the purchasing journey and helps improve their overall experience.

In this article, we’ll explore what guest checkout is, why many customers prefer it to creating an account, what benefits and limitations it can have for your business, and what strategies you can use to find the right balance between conversion and customer loyalty.

Key takeaways

• Offering guest checkout reduces barriers in the purchasing process, especially for new customers. Eliminating the requirement to create an account can help reduce cart abandonment in ecommerce and increase the number of completed orders.
  
• Guest checkout and registration are not mutually exclusive options. Many businesses achieve better results by offering both options and asking customers to create an account only after they have completed their payment.
  
• In mobile commerce, where data entry is slower and more prone to errors, an easy and fast checkout on ecommerce websites can have a significant impact on conversion rates and overall sales value.
  
• The effectiveness of guest checkout increases when combined with saved payment credentials, digital wallets, and one-click payments. These tools further reduce the number of steps required to complete the purchase.
  

What is guest checkout?

Guest checkout is a purchasing method that allows customers to complete an order without creating an account on the seller’s website. The user only enters the information needed to complete the order—such as a shipping address, contact information, and a payment method—without having to choose a password or register.

For many Italian businesses, this method offers a practical solution to one of the main issues in the ecommerce checkout flow. When a customer has already decided to purchase a product, asking them to interrupt the process to register can cause them to hesitate or even prompt them to leave the site.

It’s important to distinguish between guest checkout and anonymous browsing. Even if the customer does not create an account, the business still collects the information required to process the payment, ship the order, and send the necessary communications, in compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Many sellers do not completely stop offering registration, but they change the timing of when they offer it. Instead of making it mandatory before the purchase, they invite the customer to create an account after the order is completed, when the level of trust is generally higher.

Why customers prefer guest checkout

The growing popularity of guest checkout reflects a shift in customer expectations. Today, many customers want to complete their purchases in just a few minutes, especially when placing an occasional order or making their first purchase from an online store. From their perspective, creating an account is often a task that does not add immediate value. It takes time, requires choosing and remembering a password, and can raise concerns about the future use of personal data or receiving promotional communications.

Purchasing without registration eliminates these uncertainties. The customer can focus solely on completing the order, without encountering any unnecessary steps.

When guest checkout makes the difference

The customer’s preference for guest checkout is particularly evident in certain situations:

• When purchasing from a store for the first time
  
• When the purchase is a one-time thing and returning soon is not likely
  
• When the customer is using a smartphone and wants to complete their order quickly
  
• When the product is low-value and the process needs to be as simple as possible
  

Of course, not all customers think the same way. Those who regularly purchase from the same brand might prefer to have a personal account so they can view their order history, save addresses and preferences, or speed up future purchases. For this reason, many businesses choose to offer both options rather than impose just one.

How does guest checkout reduce cart abandonment?

Cart abandonment in ecommerce is one of the main challenges for any online business. There can be many reasons for it: unexpected costs, unclear delivery times, complex payment procedures, or just an overly time-consuming checkout.

Among these elements, the requirement to create an account continues to be one of the most debated. When a customer is forced to interrupt the purchasing process to register, there is a greater risk that they might decide to postpone the purchase or look for the same product with a competitor.

Guest checkout addresses this issue. By reducing the number of steps required before payment, it streamlines the process and reduces the risk that the customer will abandon the purchase in the final steps.

Of course, guest checkout does not eliminate all possible causes of cart abandonment in ecommerce, but it’s one of the most effective ways to simplify the purchasing process and increase the likelihood that a customer will complete their order.

Does guest checkout increase conversions?

Guest checkout can boost conversions, especially among new customers and for one-time purchases. By eliminating the requirement to create an account, guest checkout reduces one of the main friction points during payment and can help reduce cart abandonment. The best results are achieved when guest checkout is paired with a simple payment experience that is optimized for mobile devices and supported by fast payment methods.

Guest checkout vs. account-based checkout: A comparison

For many businesses, the question is not whether to offer guest checkout or registration, but how to effectively integrate both options. In fact, both methods address different needs and can coexist within the same checkout process.

Guest checkout is ideal for encouraging impulse purchases, one-time orders, and first-time experiences with a new brand. Customers can complete their purchase without registering in just a few steps and encounter fewer obstacles before checkout.

Account-based checkout, on the other hand, offers benefits especially to frequent shoppers. A personal profile makes it easier to customize the purchasing experience and quickly retrieve information already used in previous orders.

From the seller’s perspective, both solutions have their strengths and aspects to consider.

The most common mistake is forcing the customer to choose a single path. In most cases, the most effective solution is to offer both guest checkout and account-based checkout, letting the customer choose the option that best suits their needs.

This way, the business retains the opportunity to build a lasting relationship with the customer, while ensuring that registration does not become an obstacle to conversion.

Is guest checkout preferable to creating an account?

There is no single “best” solution; guest checkout is often preferable for new customers and for occasional purchases because it reduces the number of steps required to complete the order. Registration, on the other hand, can offer a more convenient experience for regular customers. For many businesses, the most effective strategy is to offer both options.

Why guest checkout is particularly important for mobile commerce

More and more online purchases are being made on smartphones. As a result, the quality of the ecommerce checkout process has an even greater impact on conversions than it does on desktop.

On a small screen, each additional field increases the time it takes to complete payment. Entering a password, confirming it, verifying the email address, and completing the registration process can turn a task that takes just a few seconds into a much longer process.

This trend is evident in Italy. According to the Ecommerce Italia 2025 report by Casaleggio Associati, 42.1% of ecommerce transactions in Italy were completed on mobile devices in 2024. In other words, nearly one in two online transactions is now completed on a smartphone, making it even more important to offer an easy and fast checkout.

It’s precisely in this context that guest checkout displays one of its main strengths, although, of course, it’s not enough in itself to ensure an optimal mobile experience. Other aspects of the mobile payment process also affect the end result, such as:

• Forms that automatically fill in addresses and personal information whenever possible
  
• Large, easy-to-select buttons on the touchscreen
  
• Numeric keypad for entering card information
  
• Layouts designed to be readable without zooming
  
• Shorter loading times during all stages of the payment process
  

When these elements are combined, mobile ecommerce checkout becomes smoother, and customers can proceed to order confirmation more easily.

Best practices for balancing conversion and customer loyalty

One of the main concerns for ecommerce business owners is the relationship between guest checkout and customer loyalty. If a customer makes a purchase without registering, will it be harder to convince them to come back?

In practice, the answer depends largely on how the postpurchase experience is designed.

Requiring all users to create an account in hopes of encouraging future purchases can have the opposite effect: some customers might not even complete their first order.

This is why many businesses prefer to submit the registration request after payment has been confirmed. At that point, the customer has already established an initial relationship with the brand and is generally more open to considering the benefits of a personal account.

Another important aspect concerns the way registration is presented. Instead of describing it as an administrative requirement, it’s more effective to highlight the tangible value it offers the customer, such as the ability to:

• Easily track the status of orders
  
• Get discounts, promotions, or free gifts reserved for registered customers
  
• Speed up future purchases
  
• Access purchase and invoice history
  
• Manage returns and exchanges from a single personal account
  

Furthermore, customer loyalty does not depend solely on whether a customer has an account, but also on other factors, such as:

• Reliable delivery times
  
• Effective customer support
  
• Clear return policies
  
• An intuitive payment experience
  

From this perspective, guest checkout is not an alternative to building lasting relationships with customers but rather a tool for increasing the likelihood that the first purchase will be successful. Once that initial trust has been established, it will be much easier to encourage the customer to create an account and continue the relationship over time.

How do saved payment methods and one-click payments improve the checkout experience?

In addition to offering guest checkout, to reduce friction during the checkout process on ecommerce websites, it’s also important to consider the time it takes customers to enter their payment information. This aspect, too, affects the likelihood that they will complete their order.

When a buyer has to manually enter their card number, the card’s expiration date and security code, and a billing address, the process inevitably takes longer. Every additional field presents another opportunity to make a mistake, abandon the purchase, or postpone it.

As a result, more and more businesses are incorporating features such as saved payment methods and one-click payments that speed up the payment without compromising security.

How these features work

Saved payment methods allow regular customers to reuse their securely stored credentials, so they can avoid re-entering their card information with every purchase.

One-click payments take things a step further: after authorizing the storage of their information, customers can complete subsequent purchases in just a few seconds, without having to re-enter their payment information each time.

These solutions help reduce friction during checkout because:

• They reduce the number of fields to fill out
  
• They reduce the risk of errors during data entry
  
• They speed up order completion, especially on mobile devices
  

A smoother experience, even without registration

It’s important to note that these features are not exclusively available to registered customers. In many cases, they can also be used by customers who make a purchase without registering, thanks to solutions that identify the customer using securely stored payment credentials.

The result is an experience that maintains guest checkout speed while further reducing the time it takes to complete payment.

Of course, speed should never come at the expense of payment security. In the European Union (EU), for instance, payment experiences must comply with the requirements of the revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2) on Strong Customer Authentication (SCA). For this reason, speeding up checkout does not mean eliminating security checks, but rather integrating them in the least intrusive way possible. In fact, the best ecommerce checkout experiences incorporate authentication, tokenization, and risk management tools that protect the customer and the business alike, without adding unnecessary steps.

How to optimize payment processes to increase conversions

Offering guest checkout is an important step when optimizing the payment process, but it’s only one of the strategies that lead to increased conversions. To achieve tangible results, it’s necessary to design the entire ecommerce checkout process so that the purchasing experience is clear, intuitive, and consistent across all devices.

Here are some of the key best practices:

• Always offer the option to make a purchase without registering
  
• Show the total cost of the order from the start, including any shipping charges and taxes
  
• Show an order summary immediately before payment
  
• Request only the information necessary to complete the purchase
  
• Offer the payment methods most commonly used by your customers
  
• Optimize checkout for smartphones and tablets
  
• Incorporate features such as saved payment methods and one-click payments to speed up future purchases
  
• Regularly monitor the conversion rate and cart abandonment rate to identify potential areas for improvement
  

Checkout optimization is not a one-time task. Analyzing user behavior and periodically testing potential improvements helps identify actions that have a tangible impact on conversions.

How Stripe helps businesses offer a smooth payment experience

Reducing complexity during checkout requires an approach that goes beyond simply eliminating mandatory registration. It’s equally important to offer an intuitive payment experience that is optimized for any device and can adapt to customer preferences.

In this context, Stripe Checkout and Link, a digital wallet built by Stripe, help sellers streamline checkout without compromising on security, reliability, and flexibility.

Stripe Checkout

Stripe Checkout is a preconfigured payment page that simplifies the implementation of the modern checkout. It supports numerous payment methods and is automatically updated to incorporate new features, user experience (UX) improvements, and regulatory requirements, without the need to modify any code directly.

For sellers, this means being able to offer a checkout experience designed to simplify the purchasing process while maintaining high security standards.

The features that help improve the experience include:

• Support for over 75 payment methods, more than 35 languages, and over 135 currencies
  
• An interface optimized for both desktop and mobile devices
  
• Built-in tools for managing authentication and transaction security
  
• Continuous updates that help keep checkout aligned with market trends
  

Link

Link is Stripe’s accelerated payment solution. Once customers have stored their payment information, they can reuse it with businesses that support Link, eliminating the need to re-enter the same information during each purchase.

Today, Link enables businesses to reach over 200 million customers worldwide and is already embedded in hundreds of thousands of websites that use Stripe, offering a faster, smoother payment experience across a broad network of businesses.

This approach makes guest checkout even faster: thanks to the recognition of saved payment credentials, the customer can complete the payment more quickly without having to create an account with the online store.

The ultimate goal is a payment experience that requires as few interactions as possible, while maintaining high levels of security and efficient transaction processing.

In an increasingly competitive market, offering a simple checkout does not mean sacrificing customer loyalty, but rather removing the obstacles that can prevent the initial purchase. Combining guest checkout with an optimized payment experience and tools such as Stripe Checkout and Link can help Italian businesses improve conversion rates without compromising security or the quality of the purchasing experience.