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There’s a lot of talk in the payments industry and across all of ecommerce about how to improve conversion rates. In a world where payments have to drive sales — in addition to saving money — better conversion is key.
There is also a lot of talk around how to define conversion. The problem is nobody can seem to agree on what the right definition is. Another challenge… without one uniform measure of conversion, how can you compare one provider to another, one payment method vs another, or one open banking solution vs another? You can’t.
Conversion rate, success rate and acceptance rate are all definitions that are widely used. Although all of these are useful for measuring performance in their own right, all have limitations and are often misunderstood. They don’t capture the full user journey, they often don’t clearly show when a user is actually successful, and all payment attempts are treated as equal – thus not reflecting real-life user behaviour.
Picture this; a user is trying to order a takeaway on a Friday evening using Pay by Bank. It’s entirely possible that they may need to retry or go away and top up their balance before returning to make the payment successfully. In this scenario, the definitions above would not accurately reflect the success of the payment, as they would include every payment attempt made into the overall conversion figure. Or they may only count the attempt after the user has gone a long way through the journey.
Our view here at TrueLayer is that this produces confusing metrics that don’t give ecommerce businesses a full and true view of their real user conversion.
I am here to tell you there is a solution. A better, more complete measurement of performance when it comes to conversion: session conversion.
It’s not a new measure of performance or something that we thought up in isolation. But we strongly believe it is something you should use to benchmark your own conversion rates and to compare different providers and payment methods.
Below, I’ll tell you why.
First, why are high conversion rates important to ecommerce businesses?
In simple terms, high conversion rates mean more sales at the checkout and more revenue.
They are intrinsically linked to a good user experience which means customer loyalty is boosted and the frequency at which customers return is higher.
We also see a strong correlation between high conversion rates and average order values (AOV) increasing. lastminute.com saw this with a 20% increase in AOV since launching with Pay by Bank, whilst reducing costs, which 30% of ecommerce merchants considered their top priority when implementing a new payment method.
What is session conversion?
Here at TrueLayer, we define session conversion as:
The proportion of users that made a payment successfully, within a ‘session’ (a reasonable window of time, we recommend ten minutes).
For example, if 100 users attempt to make a payment and 80 of them are successful the first time, and then another 15 are successful after retrying within ten minutes – we would calculate this as 95% session conversion.
The beauty of this definition is that it captures the reality of not only open banking payments, but payments in general. Sometimes users need to retry, especially if they are using a payment method like Pay by Bank for the first time – although 2 in 3 shoppers are now comfortable using this method, with 23% saying they’ve already tried it in TrueLayer’s Change at the checkout 2025 report.
Equally, users may need to go away and top up their balance (or expiry date, in the case of cards) before returning to make the payment successfully. It’s this real user behaviour that session conversion captures.
Why is it a superior way to measure conversion?
Session conversion focuses on whether the user checkouts with their basket successfully, rather than the number of payment attempts.
It addresses some of what we call here at TrueLayer ‘looky looky’ behaviour that you’ll see when you first launch a new payment method like Pay by Bank. It’s normal for the user to try out some steps, and then come back again once they understand and are more familiar with this new method. We found that 74% of 25-34 year olds particularly are comfortable using a new payment method if offered by a trusted brand. But it doesn’t mean they aren’t going to try it first.
It also allows ecommerce businesses leaders, product teams or analytics teams, to easily compare open banking conversion with card conversion. With cards, if the user inputs the wrong CVV code, you’d still count that as a success. Session conversion allows you to do the equivalent with open banking.
With 90% of ecommerce merchants interviewed in our most recent report already planning for Pay by Bank (60%) or considering adding it to their roadmap (30%), and 80% of those considering it planning to begin adding it to their checkout in the next 12 months, it’s so important that its performance after launch can be measured accurately.
Session conversion will help you do this.
What is TrueLayer doing to help merchants increase session conversion?
Currently, TrueLayer’s session conversion rates in the UK are around 85% for a first time user and 95% for returning users. Countries across the EU are also quickly catching up. This is especially true in more mature markets like Finland which actually exceeds the UK, or Germany where we see session conversion rates around 75% for a first time user and 90% for returning users.
How does this stack up against cards?
Card payments often come in at 80% or lower for first time conversion, meaning that users are finding it easier to step through an open banking flow than remember or find their card details. Returning user session conversion for open banking is typically on par or higher than cards too, given SCA requirements for cards leads to significant drop off.
The success we are seeing is partly due to the conversion optimisation initiatives we invest in and work on with our customers.
Session conversion optimisation initiatives
Consumer Incentives
Our research and experience shows that we can increase a consumer's willingness to switch payment methods once Pay by Bank is live on the checkout through rewards and incentives.
A good example of this is the partnership we have in place with JamDoughnut who now give their customers the chance to gain up to double the cashback or points when selecting Pay by Bank as opposed to the card payment option at the checkout.
This is a prime example of session conversion (which is well above 90% for JamDoughnut) really working as a performance metric. It accounts for a large proportion of their customers who demonstrate the ‘looky looky’ behaviour I referred to above when trying Pay by Bank for the first time.
Consumer education
Consumer education outside of the checkout screen also works. Think emails, social media, articles, in-app content and more. The combination of a) your own expertise around what will resonate with your customer base and b) our experience of what has worked for ecommerce businesses in the past, is a recipe for success.
Conversion rates go through the roof when this is done right as users feel much more informed and familiar with the new payment option that is presented to them. And again, session conversion is a perfect metric here as it focuses on whether the user checkouts with their basket successfully (as opposed to number of payment attempts) which is typically very often when a user feels this way.
UX/UI optimisation
And of course, UX/UI tweaks on the checkout pages are key to getting your customers to select Pay by Bank and increase session conversion rates. Not only is the presentation and positioning of Pay by Bank important, but the speed and security associated with the entire user journey. For example, we see priming working well for many of our merchants as a good way of building trust.
We work with each of our merchants, as we did with the likes of lastminute.com, Citizen Ticket, one of Europe’s leading food delivery companies as well as one of Europe’s largest airlines, to provide expert insights, learnings and recommendations based on the real-life experience we have.
The time to start measuring session conversion is now
My question to you is: do you want a payment metric that accurately captures and represents real user behaviour when buying something at the checkout?
If the answer is yes, you should be using session conversion.
Equally, do you want a metric that is easily comparable to cards to help you understand the success of an open banking solution like Pay by Bank?
If the answer is yes, you should be using session conversion.
Session conversion is the metric that will define the success of open banking for ecommerce businesses.
To find out more, speak to one of our experts here at TrueLayer. We can help you understand how measuring and optimising for session conversion will be a big win for your business.
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