Fearlessly Building Bolt’s One-Click Checkout

<p>You may have noticed that Bolt has become very popular in the media these past few months. We’ve had great stories highlighting our growth and go-forward strategy, and we’ve had some negative stories questioning our ability to scale from here. None of this comes as a surprise. It’s something of a rite of passage in tech: As soon as an insurgent is successful enough to challenge the status quo, the status quo fights back. Like any startup, we’ve had our share of ups and downs. Throughout our growth journey at Bolt, one thing has remained constant: our focus on customers, technology, and products.</p><p>I grew up in the hills of Southern India, where my family built their businesses from the ground up. Commerce is in my roots, and my journey from there to Amazon executive to Bolt has made me confident in our mission and path to success. I’ve been Bolt’s CEO for about three months now, and I wanted to take this moment to share some updates on our business and why we’re so optimistic about the path forward.</p><h2><strong>Bolt’s results speak volumes</strong></h2><p>Part of the reason I wanted to lay all this out is that we’ve achieved the kind of scale that draws attention. It also means that people can miss crucial elements of our business. Those who know me know that I have a soft spot for numbers, and that I appreciate the rigor and clarity they can bring. These are Bolt’s most important north star metrics that we obsess over every single day:&nbsp;</p><ul><li>13.8M total Bolt shopper accounts | <i><strong>131% YoY increase</strong></i></li><li>836 total Bolt active merchant accounts across all product lines | <i><strong>192% YoY increase</strong></i></li><li>29% of transactions are one-click checkout | <i><strong>31% YoY increase</strong></i></li></ul><h2><strong>Our mission</strong></h2><p>We’re taking on a universal problem: <i><strong>making checkout faster and easier for everyone</strong></i>. There was a time when retailers could win on price, selection, or convenience alone. But that time has come and gone. As one of the first businesses to realize the importance of experiential commerce, we are leading the pack by helping our customers offer their shoppers best-in-class buying experiences.</p><p>Our focus on decentralized commerce means we’re building tools that scale—without the needless restrictions that Amazon, Shopify and Stripe use to trap people in their ecosystems. We are focused on decentralization because we know what they don’t: The era of lone marketplaces is over. Brands and merchants are having their day, and we are empowering them by building tools that help them convert shoppers, learn about their consumers, and benefit from our growing network.</p><h2><strong>The Bolt network</strong></h2><p>Our technology wins major enterprise settings on all fronts—fraud, security, ease of use, and implementation. We've beat top industry competitors, including legacy players, on several enterprise deals. Investors and merchants across the board see the true value of Bolt in the beating heart of our business: our ever-expanding network.</p><p>Today we have 13.8 million shoppers in our network and every day we see the network effects in practice:&nbsp;</p><ul><li>Bolt merchants see 47% higher rates of completion on Bolt checkout versus guest checkout.</li><li>63% of Bolt account holders are more likely to repeat purchases compared to guest checkout.</li><li>Bolt account holders complete checkout 40% faster than guest checkout.</li></ul><p>At Bolt, we are laser focused on growing our Bolt shopper network and accelerating the network effects. Other businesses in our industry choose to operate differently. They chase short-term boosts at the expense of long-term trust, staying power, and product longevity. We’re in a different race—one that rewards patience, execution, and discipline.&nbsp;</p><h2><strong>CheckoutOS—the industry’s first headless checkout solution</strong></h2><p>One of our key tools for building that network is CheckoutOS—the first and only <a href="https://www.bolt.com/blog/what-is-headless-commerce">headless system</a> that connects all aspects of the complex checkout function. It allows us to be the default checkout button on a Bolt merchant’s site and can bring the magic of a one-click network to every merchant, irrespective of their technology stack. In fact, our valuable commerce partnerships now allow many merchants to flip Bolt on in under two minutes.</p><p>As our shopper accounts have grown into the tens of millions, our customers are taking advantage of the Bolt network as a commerce identity provider. <a href="https://www.bolt.com/blog/redefining-the-login-layer-for-commerce">SSO Commerce</a> is an industry-changing functionality that unifies disparate account systems and creates a single digital identity for shoppers. Since launching this last year, <i><strong>merchants using SSO Commerce have seen their store account registrations almost triple</strong></i>.</p><h2><strong>Shopping at the point of inspiration</strong></h2><p>Consumers want to buy at the point of discovery, no matter where that may be. That is why we <a href="https://www.bolt.com/blog/bolt-acquires-tipser-and-launches-remote-checkout">acquired Tipser</a> at the end of 2021 to realize the creator economy’s commerce opportunity. Today, merchants are able to access our <a href="https://www.bolt.com/creators">Checkout Everywhere</a> solution, and we are enabling shoppers to make purchases anywhere they are—on media sites, social platforms, surfaces, in the metaverse, and in person—with Bolt’s seamless, simple, and elegant one-click checkout experience.</p><h2><strong>The future is one-click crypto</strong></h2><p>We have entered into an <a href="https://www.bolt.com/blog/bolt-wyre">agreement to acquire Wyre</a>, the most comprehensive API stack in crypto, with one goal in mind: We will make it possible for merchants and their shoppers to use cryptocurrency without having to wade through a thicket of clearances and jargon, or stress about fraud and user inexperience. Bolt is in the business of fixing broken, cumbersome systems. That’s what Bolt did with checkout, and it’s why we are going to build one-click crypto.</p><h2><strong>How we do it—Conscious Culture</strong>&nbsp;</h2><p>All of this happens because we’ve built a culture of incredible people who execute—a culture that itself becomes stronger over time. The old way of doing business is just that: the old way. New ways to work are emerging and we innovate in the workplace, in addition to our product. As we continue to build <a href="https://conscious.org/">our playbook for a more conscious working culture</a>, we will continue to treat everyone as people first, and employees second.&nbsp;</p><h2><strong>The road ahead</strong></h2><p>We have an opportunity to be one of the most impactful companies in ecommerce and fintech. It’s been reinvented by major players like Visa and PayPal in the past few decades. We’re confident that we can still change the game. We’re narrowly focused on solving checkout in order to improve conversion because it’s critical to a merchant’s bottom line. I’m passionate about building technologies that have a massive impact on people's day-to-day life. At Bolt, we have the opportunity to change checkout forever. No one said changing commerce would come easy, and I’m excited about the road ahead.</p>