Be One with the Checkout

“One Page” that is young grasshopper, Elastic Path’s single page checkout software to be specific.

As the moniker implies, Elastic Path announces a single-screen type check out tool to combat the scourge of modern retailing - shopping cart abandonment. Indeed, MarketingSherpa indicates nearly three out of every five online shoppers abandon their shopping cart before finishing the order.

One Page (an add-on to the also recently announced customer-centric Elastic Path 5) attempts to solve this conundrum by providing responsive, real-time validation and authentication to help customers feel confident and comfortable enough to complete purchases easily and quickly. In fact, returning customers can complete purchases with one click, really.

A press release by Elastic Path’s (smoothly professional) public relations crew at Schwartz Communications tells the whole story in the Press Release titled “Elastic Path Software Announces Single Page Checkout for Online Stores” but in the meantime, here are a few particularly tasty snippets about AJAX (learn more about AJAX on Get Elastic podcast #6 with Andre and Alexi of nitobi) and some comments from CEO Harry Chemko on the “big reasons” why removing barriers to checkout helps retailers increase conversion and boost revenue.

Elastic Path is the first major ecommerce software vendor to offer a 100 percent browser-based Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX)-powered one page checkout. AJAX technology enables web pages to be more responsive by exchanging small amounts of data with the server behind-the-scenes so that the entire web page does not have to be reloaded each time the user makes a change. The end result is an increase in the web page’s interactivity, speed, and usability, all of which contribute to online consumer satisfaction and loyalty.

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Elastic Path One Page provides customers with a constant snapshot of order details. The contents of the shopping cart can be adjusted at any time without losing existing data, enabling customers to see the effect of an applied promotion code without ever leaving the checkout process. Additionally, by maintaining a small size footprint, Elastic Path One Page loads in under half the time of competing flash-based offerings, enabling retailers to provide an optimal shopping experience without demanding the presence of finicky browser plug-ins.

and CEO Harry speaks about the importance of cost of acquisition,

“One Page is representative of ecommerce sites that are customer-centric, ultimately driving profits through customer acquisition and retention. This release extends our leadership in ecommerce innovation and we are excited to be the first major ecommerce platform to offer an AJAX checkout alongside an expansive set of features and components.”

Elastic Path-ers will be showing off the new One Page checkout at forthcoming trade shows and the software will be available for purchase late November 2006. In the meantime, check out the One Page Data Sheet for more info.