Wallets Deserve a One-Click Checkout

Payment wallets have become a pillar of the digital financial ecosystem in many emerging markets. From Indonesia to Nigeria to Brazil, wallets are helping users skip traditional banking hurdles and access fast, mobile-first payment options. In-person payments have seen meaningful UX improvements, often using QR codes or NFC to create a seamless tap-to-pay experience.

But the online experience hasn’t kept pace.

Despite wallet adoption surging, online checkout flows remain cumbersome. Users are frequently redirected between merchant and wallet apps, forced to wait for one-time passwords (OTPs), or left hunting for a push notification that may or may not appear. These steps not only introduce friction but also create vulnerabilities for social engineering and phishing attacks. In high-volume or time-sensitive transactions, even a few seconds of delay can lead to abandoned carts or failed conversions.

This is a missed opportunity. As mobile-first consumers increasingly turn to wallets for everyday payments, the expectation is clear: a checkout experience that’s as smooth online as it is in-store.

A true one-click wallet checkout should meet a few key criteria:

• The user remains in the merchant context – no app switching or disjointed flows
• Security is preserved silently in the background – no OTP fatigue or risky shortcuts
• Authentication is fast and invisible – mirroring the fluidity of Apple Pay or Google Pay

Ideam enables this through a secure, device-bound two-factor authentication flow embedded directly into the merchant’s app. A lightweight webview slides up, verifies the user in the background, and slides away - without requiring any interaction. The user stays in context, and the transaction completes in a single step.

This approach not only simplifies the user journey but also reduces fraud risk by eliminating vulnerable channels like SMS or email-based OTPs. And for wallets, it means faster checkouts, higher conversion, and a better brand experience.

As wallets continue to expand their footprint in e-commerce and digital marketplaces, delivering a seamless and secure checkout is no longer a nice-to-have. It's an expectation.

Sources:

1. Bain & Company, “Digital Wallets: The Future of Payments in Emerging Markets”
   https://www.bain.com/globalassets/noindex/2023/digital-wallets-in-emerging-markets.pdf
2. TechCrunch, “QR code payments continue to thrive in Southeast Asia”
   https://techcrunch.com/2023/07/18/qr-code-payments-southeast-asia/
3. World Bank, “The Global Findex Database 2021: Financial Inclusion, Digital Payments, and Resilience in the Age of COVID-19”
   https://www.worldbank.org/en/publication/globalfindex
4. FIDO Alliance, “One-Time Passwords (OTPs) Are No Longer Enough”
   https://fidoalliance.org/one-time-passwords-are-no-longer-enough/
5. Stripe, “Why users abandon carts and how to fix it”
   https://stripe.com/blog/checkout-optimization-guide