Spiffy Checkouts
How Spiffy Checkouts helped businesses build custom checkout pages, reduce friction, and generate over $1 billion in client sales.
The Challenge
Businesses lose sales when checkout flows are rigid, confusing, or too slow. Existing tools lacked the flexibility customers needed for upsells, payment plans, mobile optimisation, and branded checkout experiences.
Our goal was to create a highly flexible, user-friendly checkout system that would enable businesses to:
- Reduce cart abandonment.
- Increase conversion rates through tested improvements.
- Provide customisable, branded checkout experiences tailored to specific business needs.
Research & Discovery
Initial Research: Compared external checkout research with our own product data, including conversion rates, checkout behaviour, and customer feedback.
Customer Feedback: Reached out to existing and potential customers through surveys, interviews, and direct feedback to understand their needs.
Behaviour Analysis: Used heatmaps and session recordings to find where users hesitated, got confused, or dropped off.
Moving Fast with Purpose
Prototyping
Rapid Prototyping: Created fast, scrappy prototypes to test design ideas with users as early as possible.
User Feedback: Ran usability sessions with selected users, then adjusted the designs based on what we saw.
Collaboration with Engineers: I also contributed to the front-end implementation using HTML and CSS, which helped designs move into code with fewer gaps.
Collaboration Across Teams
Beyond Design: In a small FinTech SaaS startup, my role went beyond screens. I helped shape the customer experience across documentation, support, and marketing so product launches felt joined up.
Customer-Centred Processes: I created product release processes that kept customer needs visible from early ideas through rollout and post-launch support.
User Testing
Direct Engagement: Spoke directly with customers through interviews, user testing sessions, and support feedback.
Behavioural Insights: Analysed user behaviour to find friction in the checkout process.
Features with Direction
Shipping quickly only works when the team has a clear direction and a way to learn from users. That structure helped us focus on the features customers actually needed.
Quality Shipping
As the founding designer at Spiffy, I've been directly involved with hundreds of features and releases that affected customers' day-to-day businesses. Each update used product data, customer feedback, and direct collaboration with the team.
Process Leadership: I developed product release processes that kept design, development, and customer support aligned from early concepts through rollout.
Cross-Functional Collaboration: I worked closely with documentation, support, and marketing so each customer touchpoint, from onboarding to ongoing support, matched the product direction.
Checkouts:
- Single-Step Checkouts: Designed a streamlined, single-step checkout process to minimise friction and reduce the number of steps required to complete a purchase.
- Mobile-First Design: Optimised the checkout experience for mobile devices and smaller screens.
- Embedded Checkouts: Enabled businesses to create branded checkouts that can be embedded directly into their websites.
- Conversion Optimisation: Applied best practices from extensive e-commerce research to optimise checkouts for higher conversion rates, including fast page load speeds and minimal required fields.
Upsells and Payment Plans:
- One-Click Upsells: Developed logic-based post-purchase offers that increase revenue by presenting relevant upsell options based on user behaviour.
- Payment Plans: Introduced flexible payment options that allow customers to choose between one-time payments, instalment plans, and subscription models.
- Bump Add-On Offers: Enabled simple on-checkout add-on offers to boost revenue with minimal effort.
- One-Click Upgrades: Incentivised subscription upgrades from monthly to annual or to another subscription product.
Automations:
- CRM Integration: Integrated with top CRM and marketing tools to automate customer follow-ups, billing events, and personalised marketing campaigns.
- Custom Webhooks: Allowed for custom automation actions based on purchase behaviours.
Customer Management:
- Customer Portal: Provided a self-service portal for customers to manage subscriptions, update payment methods, and access billing information.
- Dunning Management: Automated the recovery of failed payments with built-in customer notification emails and self-service options.
Analytics and Reporting:
- Performance Tracking: Enabled tracking of key business metrics such as Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR), Average Revenue Per User (ARPU), and subscriber growth.
- Failed Payment and Ageing Reports: Offered detailed reports on failed payments and customer ageing to help businesses manage revenue effectively.
Subscription Management:
- Flexible Payment Options: Provided multiple subscription frequencies.
- Free and Paid Trials: Allowed businesses to offer trial periods to attract new customers.
- Upgrade and Downgrade Options: Let customers upgrade or downgrade their subscription plans without contacting support.
and 100+ more features
Impact
$1 Billion+
in client sales facilitated through Spiffy's checkout system
10%+
Increase in sales conversions
~80%
Reduction in failed payments
+
Preferred partner of leading payment processors
30%+
Increase in Average Order Value (AOV)
You can create stunning checkouts without having to be a coder or developer. I'm able to create checkouts that convert in minutes.
Sarah Laws, Founder of Laws Marketing
I've never seen anything that is this flexible yet this simple. Adding bump offers, payment plans, and one click upsells is incredibly intuitive.
Chris Thompson at Mike Mandel
2,500+
Businesses trust Spiffy
Learnings
Iteration Matters: Rapid prototypes and regular feedback helped us refine the checkout experience without drifting away from real customer needs.
Engineering Collaboration Matters: Working closely with engineers kept design decisions grounded in what we could build well.
Focus Wins: Prioritising features tied to user pain points and business goals helped us keep the product lean while still making it more powerful.
Looking Ahead
Spiffy Checkouts keeps evolving as customer needs change. As a founding designer, I'm involved in the next phase of the product, including:
AI-Powered Personalisation: Exploring checkout personalisation through recommendations and dynamic pricing options.
Global Expansion: Supporting more markets, payment gateways, and currencies.
Better Analytics and Reporting: Giving businesses clearer data on revenue, payment issues, and checkout performance.
Summary
Spiffy Checkouts addressed the biggest points of friction in the checkout process: rigid flows, limited payment options, poor mobile experiences, and weak reporting. Through customer feedback, rapid iteration, and close work with the team, we built a customisable checkout system that has supported $1 billion+ in client sales.
Design that makes a difference. Together.
I work with ambitious teams on products that need to be clearer, faster, and easier to use. If that sounds like your project, I'd love to hear about it.