Ownit Says Its Connected Checkout Will Help DTC Brands Lift Conversion Rates

Ownit Commerce Inc. is betting the release of its new Connected Checkout service will give direct-to-consumer brands the ability to improve conversion rates by embedding Connected Checkout links anywhere they place URLs. The links enable one-tap purchase of any product.

The effort is aimed at combatting shopping-cart abandonment as e-commerce booms. Indeed, many brands are seeing abandonment rates of 75% or greater dure to friction at checkout, according to Ownit. “Today’s checkout flow is still cumbersome,” Ownit chief executive and co-founder Payman Nejati, says by email. “Even today’s modern checkout flows typically require more than five steps, and the average checkout takes over 70 seconds.” By contrast, he says Ownit’s checkout can be completed in fewer than three seconds.

Brands can insert Connected Checkout links in paid ads on Facebook or in email or texts retargeting campaigns, and even in a YouTube video, for example. This lets brands enable checkout at the point of discovery for a product, as opposed to sending shoppers to a checkout page or another Web site through an affiliate link. 

KitavaMD, a direct-to-consumer brand of skincare products, said conversions are up since installing Connected Checkout. “The checkout flow is now a breeze, conversions are up triple digits, and our decreased CAC (customer acquisition costs) allows us to offer better deals to our customers,” KitavaMD chief executive and co-founder Julian Cheng says in a prepared statement.” It’s a no-brainer for any DTC multi-channel brand.”

Ownit Connect says it can present shoppers with live pricing and delivery options through integrations with commerce platforms such Shopify and Amazon, as well as checkout options, such as Apple Pay, Google Pay, Shop Pay, and PayPal. This capability, it says, is aimed at growing sellers’ business on social platforms like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok.

“Ownit brings together some of the biggest companies that generally do not work together, and, unlike other one-tap checkout companies, Ownit doesn’t require user signup or login, and instead integrates with the largest commerce and payment platforms where shoppers already are,” Nejati says.

Ownit says it instantly delivers recommended buying options based on price, shipping cost, delivery time, promotions, loyalty programs, and return policies. This, it says, enables shoppers to quickly make a purchase decision without manually researching and comparing all available shopping options. 

“Ownit believes that checkout is proving to be the ultimate battleground, with over $3 billion [in] investments in the past 18 months alone,” says Nejati. “We believe the next frontier is checkout at the point of discovery, and Ownit Connected Checkout links are our first product to pioneer this vision.”

In addition to the launch of Connected Checkout, Ownit announced it received $8 million in seed financing from Caffeinated Capital, SciFi VC, GGV Capital, Abstract Ventures, and angel investors. The company plans to use the capital to accelerate hiring and brand onboarding, and deepen its relationships with social, commerce, and payment platforms.