How to reduce payment friction in your user flow

Understanding the cost of payment friction

Payment friction is anything that slows, confuses or interrupts a user trying to complete a transaction. Reducing payment friction isn’t just about revenue—it’s about improving the overall customer experience, and brand reputation too.

Reducing payment friction is all about removing the small interruptions, hurdles or steps that make it harder for users to complete a payment. These aren't always obvious: a confusing button label, an unexpected login prompt or a laggy screen transition can all chip away at momentum. One extra click may seem trivial, but if each delay costs a second, those seconds compound—and they cost sales.

Consider this: if your checkout flow adds just five unnecessary steps, each taking two seconds, you've already added ten seconds to the process. In e-commerce, that could be the difference between a completed purchase and an abandoned basket. That’s why focusing on UX design for payments isn’t something you do ‘when you have time’, it is absolutely fundamental to business success.

Key takeaways

• Payment friction isn’t always visible—it’s in seconds lost, clicks added, and decisions delayed
• Small UX adjustments often produce large revenue shifts
• Focus efforts on what the user actually experiences, not what the team assumes
• Guest checkout, responsive design, and smart form behaviour are proven friction reducers
• Use metrics and tests to guide each iteration—guessing rarely wins

Where friction hides in the checkout flow

Friction often creeps into checkout flows unnoticed, concealed in standard design decisions that go unchallenged. Spotting it early can save time, money, and your users’ patience.

Common sources of friction:

• Forced account creation: Users want to check out quickly. Offer a guest checkout option to remove any barriers that can hinder that purchase.
• Unclear or inconsistent payment options: Label payment methods clearly and use icons where appropriate. Ambiguity invites confusion.
• Overly complex forms: Minimise required fields. Ask only for what's essential to process the transaction.
• Poor mobile layout: Buttons that are hard to tap, fields that jump on input—these design gaps matter more on small screens.
• Inconsistent form behaviour: If one field auto-advances and the next doesn’t, it disrupts flow. Maintain consistency.
• Disruptive modals and popups: Modal windows that interrupt checkout or reset data when closed can derail progress.
• Lack of inline guidance: Users shouldn't need to guess the format for entering a card number or expiry date.
• Long page loading times: Every extra second increases the risk of drop-off.

Quantifying friction to prioritise fixes

Mapping your user journey reveals where things get sticky. Start by drawing the complete checkout flow from start to finish, capturing every screen, prompt, and input. Then assign friction scores to each interaction.

Sample friction scoring model:

• 1 point for every extra click or scroll
• 2 points for any field lacking clear guidance or label
• 3 points for unexpected page reloads, slow transitions or modals that require user dismissal

This kind of scoring system helps move friction from an abstract concept to a measurable one. You’ll quickly identify hotspots—places where small changes might deliver big wins.

Using tools to validate scoring:

Pair your map and scores with:

• Heatmaps to see where users pause or click repeatedly
• Session replays to understand decision-making in real-time
• Funnel analytics to isolate high-dropoff steps

Track baseline performance—say your checkout screen takes users 45 seconds on average. After making changes based on your scoring model, re-measure. A drop to 30 seconds is meaningful. That time savings often equates to measurable ecommerce conversion lift.

This isn’t about perfection. It’s about prioritising the changes that make a difference—and proving it with data.

Design principles that ease the path to payment

Small interaction details often carry the largest weight. Make every field, click and transition work in favour of your user.

Design optimisations to consider:

These small UX details accumulate into a checkout UX that feels responsive and respectful of your user’s time.

Reducing steps without losing context

Reducing steps doesn’t mean stripping away necessary information—it means structuring it so users don’t feel like they’re jumping through hoops. Your goal is to maintain clarity without requiring excess effort.

Streamlining tactics:

• Minimise dropdown use: Where choices are limited, replace dropdowns with radio buttons. They’re faster to scan and select.
• Eliminate optional fields: If it’s not required, consider removing it entirely. Each extra field invites delay.
• Group related fields: Placing billing and shipping info side-by-side with a “same as” toggle makes completion feel easier.
• Flatten your flow: Avoid nesting modals or sending users through secondary confirmation screens that could live inline.
• Inline validation: Confirm entries in real time. For instance, “this field is required” or “CVV must be three digits” should appear the moment the user finishes typing.
• Reorder for logic: Arrange fields in the order users expect to encounter them—personal info, delivery, payment. Don’t make them scroll up to fix mistakes. 
• Minimise redirects: Payment flows will sometimes require unavoidable redirects (e.g. risk management, KYC, fraud prevention steps). Antom's EasySafePay helps streamline multiple wallet payments and minimise redirects. Better yet, it ensures secure payments with AI-driven risk tech.

Fast doesn’t mean rushed. It means removing all friction that doesn’t earn its place. When your flow is lean but complete, users are more likely to finish what they start.

Trust and transparency during payment

Trust is as much about what's visible as what’s implied. The smallest signs of reliability and clarity shape how users feel during checkout—and whether they choose to proceed.

Build confidence with transparency:

• Display full costs early: Total price, taxes, fees and delivery should be visible before the final click. No surprises.
• Clarify refund and return rules: Link to policies at the point of purchase. This reassures hesitant buyers.
• Explain shipping timelines: When will the product arrive? Show estimated dates and dispatch details.
• Use clear field labels and real-time verification: For sensitive inputs like card numbers and CVVs to reduce errors and support trust.

Reinforce legitimacy visually:

• Security icons and seals: Use recognisable trust marks (SSL badges, card network logos, known payment processors). These visual cues not only reinforce legitimacy but also help users feel protected from fraud.
• Field-level security cues: Mark payment fields with padlocks or brief security notes (e.g., “256-bit encryption secured”).
• Real-time feedback: A subtle “processing payment” animation tells users the system is working.

Post-payment guidance:

• Confirmation screen: Thank users clearly and include what’s next—delivery updates, tracking links, support contacts.
• Follow-up email: Immediately send a receipt and reiterate key details. Include a contact option for peace of mind.

When transparency is structured, subtle and user-first, it removes second-guessing and builds lasting confidence. It’s not just about getting the payment—it’s about how users feel when they do it.

Offering payment options that match buyer expectations

Your payments system should be able to support a range of methods without introducing delays or limitations.

Limitations cost conversions. Some customers expect wallets, others prefer cards. Include local payment options where relevant. This small detail reduces cart abandonment and supports a frictionless experience.

Today's e-commerce buyers come with varied expectations, often shaped by mobile-first platforms or regional norms. A checkout page that defaults to only one or two methods feels incomplete.

Broader acceptance means broader appeal:

• Digital wallets:Alipay, Apple Pay and Google Pay
• Buy now, pay later: Billease, Kredivo, or local equivalents
• Bank transfers: Popular in regions like Europe and Southeast Asia
• Prepaid options: Especially relevant for younger or credit-averse audiences

Functionality that encourages flow:

• Auto debit: Reduces the effort for returning users. Works well for subscriptions.
• One-click reorder: Keeping tokenised payment details on file means users can make repeat purchases without re-entering payment details.
• Guest payments: Keep it optional to save accounts but let first-timers pay without friction.

Ultimately, payment flexibility reinforces your UX. The more tailored your offering is to your actual users, the fewer reasons they’ll find to hesitate.

Guest checkout, flexible payments, and recurring billing—all of these contribute to user flow improvements.

Testing and iterating with metrics that matter

Knowing where users struggle is the first step. Acting on it with precision is where the gains come. Testing shouldn’t be reserved for major redesigns—it works best when baked into the rhythm of your product iterations.

What to monitor:

• Checkout abandonment rate: Your primary indicator of friction
• Retry and failure rates: Pinpoint issues with form logic or payment processing
• Time to complete checkout: The shorter, the better—without sacrificing clarity
• Mobile vs desktop conversion: Friction often varies by device

What to test:

• Labels: Try action-driven text vs neutral
• Field order: Rearranging form elements can reduce pause time
• Error handling: Test inline vs modal vs passive indicators
• Microcopy: Change messaging around discounts, payment or security

A consistent test loop:

1. Hypothesise a change that will reduce friction
2. Run a simple A/B or multivariate test
3. Measure impact over time—don’t rely on day-one results
4. Keep only what proves a clear user benefit

Testing is less about validation and more about discovery. When your changes align with what users actually need—measured, not guessed—every iteration pays forward.

Embedding friction analysis in your product workflow

Make it routine. Friction reviews shouldn’t wait for a roadmap item—they should happen every time the team touches checkout. Every experiment, bug fix, or design tweak is a chance to measure flow.

Practical steps to embed this thinking:

• Build reusable journey maps: Maintain them alongside your design files or product docs.
• Tag friction points in your analytics tools: Not just what happened, but where and why.
• Add friction indicators to QA checklists: Every test case should ask: "Does this create unnecessary effort for the user?"
• Use shared dashboards: Not just for performance, but for user flow—completion times, scroll depth, exit rates.
• Assign friction owners: Rotate responsibility across teams to normalise accountability.

The goal is shared visibility. When product, design and engineering all speak the same language about friction, it becomes easier to solve.

Friction analysis isn’t a one-off project. It’s a habit that sharpens with repetition. A culture where every release is a chance to remove just one more barrier.

Make less feel like more

Product managers should continually ask: where is effort being asked, and is it worth it? Can something be removed without reducing clarity?

Fast, familiar and focused experiences are often invisible, but they’re felt. When things just work, users remember nothing. And that’s the point.

Antom’s payment platform supports fluidity and business growth needs through flexible orchestration, flexible APIs and built-in UX tools. Speak with us and learn how you can start reducing payment friction today, one interaction at a time.