"Shopify should be the company the kills checkouts all together, forever." - Tobi Lütke
Shopify has a great checkout experience already, but still, any checkout requires a person to fill out gobs of data. The W3C Payment Request API is now coming to the rescue, still, in its infancy, the API enables companies like Shopify and BigCommerce to create immersive checkout experiences without lots of typing.
What is W3C?
Let's first talk about W3C. W3C stands for World Wide Web Consortium, yup the www at the beginning of all those websites stands for the same thing! The purpose of this committee is to standardize the web, making it easier for developers like Text Connects to keep building great applications.
What is an API?
In the intro above we talked about an API, well that is just technobabble for an interface to talk between two separate systems. API stands for Application Programming Interface, we use this technology every day, between emailing customers and also talking with our data structures.
Shopify already has tried to speed up checkout
Shopify earlier this year began allowing stores to include a special option, just for Shopify Payments, allowing users to save their details with Shopify and retrieve it with a single 6-digit text messaged code. Once you enter your email address, Shopify shows the code dialog and waits for you to enter the code. After that, you can click on the complete order button and be done.
How does the Payment Request API work?
We have linked to the announcement video below so you can follow along with Shopify and how the system will work. Basically, when you click checkout in an supported browser, you will be presented with a list of your credit cards and shipping addresses. Select the options you want and click Pay. That's it, you are already done placing your order in about 5 seconds!