Shopify One Page Checkout: Everything You Need to Know

The Shopify One Page Checkout, one of the most anticipated ecommerce features available to Shopify merchants, is finally available to activate from your store settings.

Designed to simplify the checkout process for consumers, the One Page Checkout collects the same information from your customers as the traditional three-page checkout, with fewer pesky steps.

As of October 2^nd, 2023, Shopify automatically migrated all users on plans outside of Shopify Plus to this layout as the new default. This means if you’re not a Shopify Plus customer, it’s worth getting used to the new functionality offered by this service.

Here’s everything you need to know about the Shopify One Page Checkout. You can check out our full Shopify Pricing guide for more info about the costs and fees.

What is the Shopify One Page Checkout?
The Pros and Cons of the One Page Checkout
The Difference Between a One-Page and Multi-Page Checkout
One Page Checkout vs One-Click Checkout
Pros and Cons of One Click Checkouts
How to Use the Shopify One Page Checkout
Alternatives to the Shopify One Page Checkout
The Shopify One Page Checkout: Finishing Thoughts

What is the Shopify One Page Checkout?

The Shopify One Page checkout is a new, streamlined version of the standard Shopify checkout process. Shopify says they have been testing and developing this solution for some time, and believe it can significantly improve both buyer experiences and conversion rates.

For instance, customers can complete the checkout process up to 4 seconds faster (on average) than the multipage version.

This single-step checkout is intended to optimize the purchasing experience on your Shopify store, making it easy to minimize cart abandonment, and capture customer information.

The checkout features the same analytical tools and conversion tracking solutions as the original checkout. It also offers identical “customization options” to the three-page checkout.

The Pros and Cons of the One Page Checkout

A streamlined checkout experience is one of the most important factors influencing the success of your Shopify store. Anyone who buys something online needs to go through a checkout journey to select their preferred payment methods, and enter their details.

However, the complex your checkout is, the more likely tour customers are to abandon their purchase. A one-page checkout typically allows customers to fill in information faster, and make quicker purchases, leading to higher levels of customer satisfaction.

Of course, there are downsides to using checkout apps and tools with a single page too. Let’s take a look at some of the pros and cons of this new default checkout layout.

Pros of the Shopify One Page Checkout

Increased conversion rates: One of the most common reasons for ecommerce cart abandonment is a long and confusing checkout process. Allowing customers to enter all of the details, such as their shipping address and payment information on a single page can streamline the purchasing experience, and improve the user experience. This boosts your chances of earning additional sales.
Faster processing: Customers can become impatient when dealing with a multi-page checkout experience. If your customers get frustrated when dealing with your checkout solution, they’ll be more likely to abandon your website, and feel negatively about your brand. A single checkout page reduces the time it takes to place an order.
Better site performance: Multiple pages often come with a longer load time than a single page. If you want to deliver a streamlined user experience to your audience, a single page checkout can reduce your risk of common issues. The new one-page checkout from Shopify offers a fantastic experience on mobile devices and web pages alike.
Greater customer satisfaction: Ultimately, the easier it is for customers to complete their purchase on your store, the more likely they are to be satisfied with your store. Happier customers are more likely to revisit your store, and make more purchases in the future, which increases your chances of repeat revenue.

Cons of the Shopify One Page Checkout

Extra scrolling: If you want to collect the same amount of information from customers when using the new layout for the Shopify checkout page, it’s going to turn into a pretty long page. This can cause frustration if customers need to scroll endlessly to finish checking out. Adding fewer fields to your checkout form can help to mitigate this issue.
Fewer insights: For many business owners, it’s important to analyze each stage of the customer journey to optimize your site for higher conversion rates. A multi-page checkout shows exactly when your customers abandon their purchase. However, it’s hard to get the same insights when using a single page checkout.
Page load: Although the overall checkout load time is lower with a one-step checkout, the leading page for the single page can be a lot longer. If you have a lot of information to load, such as multiple shipping methods, payment options, cross-sell and upsell data and more, this can lead to delays.

The Difference Between a One-Page and Multi-Page Checkout

Many business owners believe a one-page checkout option is the best option to increase conversions. However, this might not be true for every organization.

In most cases, a straightforward one-page checkout is valuable when you’re appealing to a younger audience or mobile users, and selling lower “average order value” products.

Alternatively, a multi-page checkout process might be more valuable when you’re selling expensive products, and want more opportunities to cross-sell and upsell your consumers.

For Shopify users, the differences between a one-page and multi-page checkout go beyond the number of pages.

For instance, the header layout for your one-page checkout will be different, which could impact how your background image displays on a custom checkout. Additionally, the one-page system introduces some additional wording customization to the theme content editor “checkout and system” page.

One Page Checkout vs One-Click Checkout

Another point worth noting here is that a One Page Checkout isn’t necessarily the same as a One Click checkout. Multi-page checkouts can still support one-click payments, through express payment methods offered by Amazon Pay, Google Pay, Apple Pay, PayPal, or Shop Pay.

One-click checkouts can also be extremely effective for business owners looking for ways to improve the customer experience and increase conversions.

With a one-click checkout, customers only need to enter their billing address, payment details, and other information once, and save them using a dedicated app for later use.

Advertisment ⓘ

Once the information is saved, they can simply click a button to enter the right information into the checkout form.

Like the One Page Checkout, however, One Click checkouts also have their pros and cons business owners need to consider.

Pros and Cons of One Click Checkouts

Pros 👍

Speed: In today’s chaotic world, people can quickly get frustrated by a lengthy checkout experience. One-click buying is great for impatient shoppers who want to avoid wasting time entering details into any form, whether it’s spread across multiple pages or not.
Increased conversions: Because one-click checkout pages make the checkout process much easier, they can deliver higher revenue for sellers, minimizing shopping cart abandonment. They’re ideal for ensuring people can make purchases fast before they have a time to rethink their decision to acquire a product or service.
Impulse purchasing: Similarly, one click checkouts can increase the chance of impulse purchasing. With fewer roadblocks to making a purchase, more customers will be able to access your products on a whim, which could increase your sales.

Cons 👎

Risk: A quick-buy button enables customers to purchase products rapidly without additional authentication methods. This opens the door to the risk of fraud and potential purchasing issues. It’s important to ensure you have the right security measures in place to minimize the chances of suspicious transactions.
Not ideal for certain transactions: Many customers may be happy to make a quick purchase when buying a low-value product. However, they may avoid making purchases so quickly if they’re buying something of significant value. One click checkouts can be perceived as riskier by consumers buying expensive items.
Mistakes: With a one-click checkout, customers aren’t encouraged to check and validate their information before making a purchase. This could mean they end up supplying you with the wrong payment information or address, often without realizing it.

How to Use the Shopify One Page Checkout

If you’re interested in using the Shopify One Page checkout, getting started is relatively simple. If you don’t have a Shopify Plus plan already, Shopify will have already switched you to the One Page checkout layout by default.

If you do have a Shopify Plus plan, you can switch back and forth between the one-page and multipage checkout from your Shopify admin page.

Shopify Plus users should head to their Online Store page, then click on “Settings” followed by “Checkout”.

In the “Checkout Customizations” section, click on “Customize” to open the checkout editor. Next, click on the cog icon to access your Checkout profile settings.

In the “Checkout Layout” section, click the layout described to access “three-page checkout” and “one-page checkout”. Select the option you want and click “Save”.

Once you’ve enabled your one-page checkout, you can also customize various language elements on your page, for shipping, billing, payment, and customer account details. You can find a full guide to all of the language elements you can customize here.

If you want to see an example of how the one-page checkout works, you can check out the Supreme store, or the Shopify Supply store.

Learn more about Shopify One Page checkout in this video below:

Can You Revert to the Three-Page Checkout?

Unfortunately, if you’re not on a Shopify Plus plan, you won’t have the option to simply switch back to the old multi-page version of the Shopify checkout. Shopify has migrated all other users to the one-page checkout by default, as of October 2^nd, 2023.

However, Shopify Plus merchants can switch back to the multi-page checkout using the same method mentioned above. You can also customize your checkout more extensively using CSS and HTML with the help of Shopify experts and developers.

Alternatives to the Shopify One Page Checkout

If you’re not entirely happy with the functionality of the Shopify One Page Checkout, or you want to access more customization options, there are alternative methods you can consider. There are various apps on the Shopify app store that allow you to alter your checkout experience.

Some of the most popular options include:

Instant checkout: An instant checkout solution with a buy-now button, to allow customers to bypass the cart page and purchase products with saved information.
Sweet Checkout: A one-click sale solution that bypasses the add-to-cart and allows customers to visit the checkout straight away.
BeSure Checkout Rules: A solution built for Shopify that allows companies to set up conditional rules for checkout extensibility.
Checkout Buddy: A simple tool that allows companies to customize the checkout page with upsell options, extra fields, rules, and components.

If you want to bypass the one page checkout entirely, and don’t want to upgrade to a Shopify Plus plan, you can always look into more advanced e-commerce platforms outside of Shopify.

There are various other solutions out there that may allow you to use API tools, or built-in solutions to design different kinds of checkout, and post-purchase pages.

The Shopify One Page Checkout: Finishing Thoughts

For many merchants, the new Shopify One Page checkout is a positive step forward. It allows companies to create purchasing experiences that adhere to current ecommerce trends, such as mobile shopping, and the desire for simplicity and speed.

Shopify’s previous multi-page checkout hadn’t changed much over the years, and there wasn’t much companies could do to optimize it without a Shopify Plus plan.

Still, a one page checkout isn’t the best option for all merchants, or consumers. Unfortunately, there’s not a lot you can do to move back to the multi-page alternative, unless you’re willing to switch to Shopify’s most expensive plan.

This could mean some companies need to consider switching to a different ecommerce platform if they want more checkout templates and solutions.