PayPal has made Fastlane available for US businesses to increase their sales and drive customer loyalty. Announced earlier in 2024, Fastlane utilises PayPal's payment expertise to innovate and accelerate the guest checkout experience – allowing users to complete their purchase in as little as one click.

Accelerating the checkout process According to PayPal, merchants often lose sales due to lengthy guest checkout experiences. Despite the time-consuming process, guest checkout remains a preferred checkout method for many consumers. In fact, Capterra found that 43% of consumers said they prefer online guest checkout and 72% said they would still use guest checkout even if they have a store account.

The same research found that 66% expect online checkout to take less than 4 minutes – creating a need for greater simplification and speed when consumers check out as a guest. PayPal developed Fastlane to address these challenges, prioritising the needs of merchants and consumers needs at the core of the product. Fastlane helps merchants recognise consumers early in the guest checkout process using their email, allowing them to access their saved information with a one-time passcode so they may autofill their checkout and complete their purchase in as little as one click.

Consumers not recognised during checkout can create a Fastlane profile with a simple opt-in during their checkout experience for faster future checkouts; no forms to fill out or new passwords to remember. Once a consumer has a Fastlane profile, they can speed through future checkouts anywhere Fastlane is enabled. A proven solution Black Forest Decor, a small business that focuses on home decor and lighting products for homes, cabins, and lodges, has been testing Fastlane by PayPal for several months.

Their typical, non-Fastlane guest checkout converted at approximately 74% and in about 3.9 minutes. With Fastlane, Black Forest Decor experienced an increase in conversion to approximately 86% and shoppers completed their purchase in as little as two minutes. BigCommerce, a key partner of PayPal and the first ecommerce platform to integrate Fastlane, has been working with their merchants to test the Fastlane experience over the past several months.

Results from these tests show that guest shoppers using Fastlane: Convert more than 80% of the time; Convert up to 50% better than non-Fastlane users; Complete checkout in as little as two minutes; Reduce time to check out by 32%. Fastlane by PayPal is now generally available on PayPal Complete Payments and PayPal Braintree. Merchants will also be able to access Fastlane through platforms including Adobe Commerce, BigCommerce, Salesforce Commerce Cloud, and others for US merchants.

Integrating Fastlane into a merchant's online checkout can take as little as one step, allowing merchants to provide faster checkouts for their consumers. .