How to reduce payment friction with smarter online credit card processing

Digital payments now account for two-thirds of global e-commerce transaction value, reaching $18.7 trillion in 2025 according to Gr4vy. Within that, Expensify reports that 69% of all credit card purchases happen online, with mobile accounting for 32% of those transactions.

Despite the clear move toward online digital payment processing, many businesses are still saddled with outdated checkout flows that create friction for users and lost revenue for the merchant. From cart abandonment to failed transactions, small inefficiencies compound quickly and have a big impact on the top and bottom lines.

What if you could resolve most of this friction without compromising on fraud protection or regional compliance? That’s what smart online credit card processing promises.

Let’s explore what’s causing friction, what it costs you, and how smarter solutions from Antom can help.

What is payment friction in online credit card processing?

Payment friction refers to the points in your online checkout where buyers hesitate, abandon their purchase, or experience errors. It can be visual, technical, or procedural. And often, it’s invisible until you start tracking the right data.

Common friction points in digital checkout

• Manual card entry with no autofill support
• Slow page loads and redirects
• Extra steps for 3-D Secure or OTP verification
• Repeated form fields, especially on mobile
• Limited payment methods for certain countries

The cost of friction: more than lost conversions

Every second added to your checkout increases the likelihood of a customer dropping off. But friction doesn’t just lower your conversion rate. It raises your cost per acquisition and inflates processing fees due to retries or declines.

Globally, the Baymard Institute found that the average shopping cart abandonment rate is over 70%. Many of these abandonments are linked to complex checkout forms, lack of preferred payment methods, and authentication delays.

Where does friction come from?

Even with the best-designed checkout flow, friction can still creep in from multiple sources. Often it’s not just one issue but a series of small blockers that add up. These come from both the visible user experience and the behind-the-scenes processes that drive how payments are verified, routed, and authorised.

Authentication and security checks

Measures like one-time passwords (OTPs), address verification, and 3-D Secure (3DS) were designed to reduce fraud. But if handled poorly, they can frustrate genuine users. Inflexible 3DS flows often cause unnecessary drop-off.

Poor user experience on payment forms

Friction often begins where your user interacts with your brand most directly: the checkout form. If that form feels clumsy or takes too long to complete, it creates hesitation. Fields that don't autofill, mandatory registration, or non-responsive layouts can discourage even the most motivated buyer. And on mobile, the stakes are even higher. Tap errors, zooming, and unnecessary scrolling all contribute to abandonment. Clunky mobile experiences, non-responsive design, and repetitive data entry are some of the main offenders. If your checkout isn't intuitive, customers won’t finish it.

Declined transactions and payment failures

Not all declines are equal. Some are due to expired cards or insufficient funds, but many are avoidable. Cross-border payments often get flagged by banks unfamiliar with the merchant's acquiring bank. Fraud tools that aren't calibrated to local norms can reject legitimate buyers. All of this adds up to missed revenue, often without clear signals for the merchant. 

Smarter online credit card payment processing solutions

Antom’s approach to card processing goes beyond basic transaction routing. Its tools are designed to remove unnecessary steps, prevent failures before they happen, and adapt dynamically to user and transaction risk. From tokenisation to smart authentication, everything is built to reduce friction without compromising on control or compliance.

Tokenisation and vaulted cards for repeat purchases

Storing card details securely using tokenisation means your customers don’t have to re-enter their information every time. Antom supports vaulted cards across multiple payment methods, reducing steps and improving conversion.

Adaptive 3-D Secure for intelligent authentication

Instead of triggering 3DS for every transaction, Antom evaluates risk signals to decide when additional verification is genuinely needed. That means lower friction without compromising on fraud protection.

Mobile and device optimisation

Whether your users are checking out via app, mobile browser, or WAP, Antom’s checkout adapts to the format. It supports native mobile SDKs and responsive components for smooth, device-friendly payment flows.

Offer the right payment methods for each market

Support for local and preferred payment methods

Not every customer wants to pay with a card. In many regions, wallets and bank transfers dominate. Antom supports 300+ local and global payment methods to match regional preferences.

Combine card acceptance with digital wallets

When you give users the option to pay using their preferred method (card, wallet, bank) you remove friction by default. Better acceptance mix = higher conversions.

Reduce cost while reducing friction

Payment method optimisation: cost vs convenience

Cards may be cheap to process but can result in higher drop-off. Wallets may carry slightly higher fees, but improve payment success rates. With Antom, you can track and balance this trade-off at checkout.

Minimise cross-border fees with local acquiring

Using domestic acquiring routes improves bank approval rates and avoids excessive cross-border interchange. Antom supports local acquiring in 40+ countries to help reduce costs and boost success.

Infrastructure and tools for smarter payment flows

Unified APIs and SDKs for deployment

Antom’s payment gateway supports web, app (for iOS and Android), and hybrid channels through a single integration. That means you can launch new methods faster and simplify maintenance.

Retry logic and Revenue Booster

Failed payments don’t have to be final. With tools like Auto Retry and Pay Evaluation, Antom helps you recover revenue by retrying at optimal times.

Support for recurring payments

With subscription billing and Auto Debit, Antom helps you reduce churn and failed charges by managing recurring transactions more intelligently.

Metrics that matter: how to track friction reduction

Knowing where friction happens is only useful if you can measure and act on it. The following metrics offer a clear view of how your checkout performs, what may be slowing payments down, and where to optimise next.

Best practices to reduce online payment friction

Once you've identified areas of friction, the next step is acting on them. Many improvements are low-effort and high-impact, particularly when they focus on how users interact with your checkout.

Below are several best practices that help reduce friction without overhauling your entire system:

• Pre-fill customer data where possible
  Use available customer information to shorten checkout. Returning users shouldn’t need to type everything again. Even pre-selecting country codes or card types can cut seconds off the journey.
• Enable autofill and one-click payments
  Support browser and wallet autofill tools, and store payment credentials securely with tokenisation to allow one-click repeat purchases.
• Offer local cards and wallets
  Accepting credit card payments is table stakes. You can level up by offering more local payment options to meet customer preferences in each market.
• Optimise for mobile-first
  Design checkout flows with smaller screens in mind. Ensure buttons are large enough to tap, forms scroll smoothly, and keyboards are context-sensitive (e.g. numeric for card numbers).
• Use adaptive 3DS
  Apply 3-D Secure authentication based on real-time risk assessment, not by default. This reduces disruption for low-risk transactions while still deterring fraud.
• Localise currency and language
  Display prices in local currency and ensure translations are clear and culturally appropriate. Users are less likely to complete payment if they're uncertain about terms or conversions.
• Continuously A/B test checkout variants
  Test different layouts, flows, and copy to identify what increases conversions. Even small tweaks—like changing the default payment method—can have measurable effects.