Merchants Still Underestimate the Checkout Walkout

Payments are crucial to businesses’ bottom lines. But despite their importance, the bottom line is traditionally where payments have fallen on the hierarchy of business priorities.

But as Rob Gatto, chief revenue officer at Paysafe, told PYMNTS, that assumption is one that’s out of date.

“You’re beginning to see more folks involved in the decision making looking at payments from a revenue growth perspective in addition to the operational piece,” he said.

The shift reflects a broader rethinking of how businesses define the customer journey. What happens at checkout is no longer the end of the funnel, but where revenue can be won or lost.

And for a growing number of companies across eCommerce, travel and digital entertainment, this means that payments are emerging as a powerful, data-rich lever for revenue growth.

From Cost Center to Conversion Engine

At the heart of payments’ ongoing strategic shift is conversion. The mechanics of how a transaction is processed, what payment methods are offered, how quickly a user moves through checkout and whether a transaction is approved have come to shape whether revenue materializes.

“Conversion is huge. Do you have the right preferred payment methods? Location matters for the consumer. Consumer choice has never been more diverse,” Gatto said.

That diversity can be deeply regional and increasingly fragmented. A Brazilian shopper expects Pix. A Polish user looks for Blik. In the U.S., Apple Pay and Google Pay are table stakes.

“You used to have one checkout page, and it worked for everybody,” Gatto said. “Now, the checkout page has to be localized and tailored to the area of the world that the person is buying from.”

“When the site is tailored to me and where I live, I feel much more comfortable,” he added, noting that beyond improving convenience, localization can help build trust.

But if localization drives conversion, friction can erode it. A checkout experience that feels unfamiliar or mismatched to a user’s geography can inadvertently raise immediate concerns about legitimacy.

“If I get to a site and it doesn’t take Apple Pay, I’m gone in a minute,” Gatto said.

This erosion of tolerance reflects a broader behavioral shift. Consumers are less loyal to brands and more sensitive to experience quality. Security perceptions and realities also play a role. As digital fraud grows more sophisticated, both consumers and merchants are recalibrating their expectations. A checkout experience must feel not only seamless but safe.

Payments as a Retention and Acquisition Tool

Payments are unlikely to ever become a glamorous function. But their role is undeniably expanding.

Gatto pointed to emerging models like agentic commerce’s AI-driven purchasing ecosystems as an extension of earlier affiliate marketing paradigms.

“It’s an opportunity for you to make sure you are available no matter where the consumer is,” he said. “All those places become a feeder for you from an acquisition standpoint.”

Retention, meanwhile, is increasingly tied to payment experience. In sectors like online gaming, Paysafe’s own research shows that payment capabilities can outweigh traditional product factors.

“Players choose their provider more based on the payment stack than anything else,” Gatto said. “They want speed, multiple formats, and they want to get paid out.”

Underlying all these shifts is data. Payment systems generate a continuous stream of behavioral, operational and financial signals. The challenge and opportunity are translating that data into actionable insight.

“You can begin to use payment data to drive your front-end marketing,” Gatto said, “to understand who’s likely to transact and who’s likely to succeed through the transaction.”

As businesses compete on fine margins of experience and efficiency, the companies that treat payments not as infrastructure but as strategy may find themselves with a decisive edge.