Express checkout

New

Shoppers whose phone or browser already holds a wallet should not have to type their name, address and card. Express checkout puts Apple Pay and Google Pay buttons on the product page, the cart and the checkout. One tap opens the wallet, the shopper picks an address and a delivery option there, approves, and lands on your thank-you page with a paid order.

Where it shows

Under the buy box on /product/…, under Proceed to checkout on /cart, and under the pay button on /checkout

Configure in

The WooCommerce Stripe Gateway's express checkout settings, per page

Requires

WooCommerce Stripe Gateway, HTTPS, and a storefront domain registered with Stripe (the Companion plugin registers it for you)

Try it in Demo Mode

A Demo Express Pay button with preset shoppers and outcomes on all three pages

What shoppers get

1. They press the wallet button — on a product, in the cart or at checkout.
2. The wallet’s own sheet opens. They choose a saved address and a delivery option, and see the total for that choice.
3. They approve in the wallet.
4. They land on the thank-you page with a paid order.

Page	What the button buys
Product page	Just the product on show, in the chosen quantity and variation. The button stays unavailable, and says which option is missing, until every option is chosen. It does not appear for out-of-stock products or variations.
Cart	The cart as it is, including any coupon.
Checkout	The cart as it is, shown under the primary pay button after an “or” rule. An order note typed in the form travels with the order.

The buttons follow your storefront’s own colours and design, in light and dark mode. The Stripe plugin’s button appearance settings do not apply.

How it works

The storefront asks WooCommerce, for each page, whether express checkout is offered there and which wallets to show. While the sheet is open, the address the shopper picks is priced with your normal shipping zones and the total updates in the sheet. On approval the order is placed through the same checkout as any other order, so taxes, coupons and stock are handled exactly as usual.

• Accounts. A signed-in shopper’s express order belongs to their account. A guest’s is a guest order under the email their wallet provides.
• Addresses. The wallet’s address is used for that order only. It is not added to the shopper’s address book and does not change their defaults.
• Safe failures. Dismissing the sheet changes nothing. A declined payment, a total that changed in the meantime or a failed placement closes the sheet and explains on the page that nothing was charged. A changed total asks the shopper to approve again; a bank challenge (3-D Secure) runs as it does at checkout.
• Amount guard. WooCommerce refuses any order whose total no longer matches the amount the shopper approved, so no one is charged a figure they did not see.

Set it up

1. Install and configure the WooCommerce Stripe Gateway, and set the Storefront URL in the Companion plugin — see Payments and Connect the storefront.
2. In the Stripe plugin, enable the wallets you want and choose the pages they appear on: product, cart and checkout. Whatever the plugin shows there is what the storefront offers.
3. Serve the storefront over HTTPS. The Companion plugin registers the storefront’s domain with Stripe automatically and shows an admin notice if Stripe refuses it.

Note

Stripe keys are set in WordPress, in the Stripe plugin — never in the storefront’s environment.

Good to know

Caution

Express checkout is built and covered by the automated test suites, in Demo Mode and against a Stripe test store. The final hand checks on real Apple Pay and Google Pay sheets are still pending, and Link has not yet been verified end to end — keep Link switched off in the Stripe plugin until those checks are signed off. Run a test-mode purchase on your own devices before you announce express checkout to shoppers.

• A wallet shows only where it can work: over HTTPS, on a domain registered with Stripe, in a browser or device that holds that wallet. If Stripe reports no wallet available, no button is shown.
• The product page button replaces the cart. To buy just one product, pressing it empties the cart and adds that product before the sheet opens — the same way the Stripe plugin’s own product button works. A shopper who then dismisses the sheet finds only that product in their cart. A coupon already on the cart stays and applies.
• Quick view does not offer an express button.
• Wallets are offered through Stripe only. PayPal stays at checkout as its own button; Amazon Pay is not offered.
• The product and cart pages stay ordinary pages: your tracking scripts keep running there, and the wallet runs in Stripe’s own secure frame.

Related

Checkout and paymentsCards, PayPal, offline methods and payment safety.

Payments (admin)Configure the Stripe plugin for the storefront.

CartWhere the cart's express buttons sit.

Payments architectureHow express checkout rides the Port.