Bolt Financial Launches Single Store Account Creation and Payment for E-Commerce Merchants

Bolt Financial Inc. is betting its single sign-on checkout application, Bolt SSO Commerce, will make it easier for e-commerce stores to steer shoppers away from using guest checkout. Instead, they can open an account while at the same time saving their payment credentials in one click at checkout.

While anonymous checkout is important to e-commerce shoppers who are not comfortable saving their contact information at the merchant’s site, this deprives the merchant of data that can be used to communicate with the customer and send future marketing and promotional material. Indeed, email addresses collected at checkout can only be used to for shipping notification, as opposed to marketing.

Bolt says its SSO Commerce application enables e-commerce merchants to open an account for guest shoppers in one click at checkout as they enter their payment information, and save both sets of data. Once this account is open, shoppers can perform one-click checkout with future purchases without having to log in to their store account to be recognized by the merchant. 

Consumers opting to open a merchant account through SSO Commerce are sent a one-time password to access the account each time they make a purchase through one of the merchants in Bolt’s network. One-time passwords are intended to create a more secure checkout experience, says Greg Greiner, vice president of product for Bolt.   

“E-commerce merchants are already gathering all the data they need to create a customer account at checkout,” says Greiner. “By enabling the shopper to register an account with one click, it removes the friction around setting up an account and helps convert guest shoppers into long-term, loyal customers.”

Also, he adds, one-time passwords remove an attack vector for hackers, since the merchant does store that data.

Making it easier for guest shoppers to register an account across Bolt’s network of about 300 merchants could resolve another issue for shoppers who are interested in registering for a merchant’s loyalty or rewards program: having to do so with each individual merchant. 

A survey by Bolt found that 70% of shoppers in the United States have store accounts with up to six different retailers. Top reasons for opening store accounts are speed and convenience at checkout; discounts, rewards and exclusive product offers; and ability to view order history. 

While e-commerce plug-ins and alternative payment methods can allow shoppers to save their information for checkout across a network of retailers, none provides the ability to create an account on the retailer’s site concurrently, says Greiner. As a result, online shoppers have to log in to their store account to access their order history and their network or payment account to complete a purchase at checkout. Merchants using Bolt SSO Commerce see a 25% increase in store-account registrations on average, Bolt says.

“Bolt is creating a global commerce ID for log-in to retailers we work with,” Greiner adds. “If a consumer wants to enroll in rewards programs and track orders, she needs to register an account with the merchant and remember the password for that account. We integrate account registration with payment into a merchant’s existing tech stack to make account registration and payment possible in one click at checkout.”