How One-Click Checkout and Digital Wallets Reduce the Pain of Paying and Increase Spontaneous Buying

This review shows that one-click checkout and digital wallets reduce the pain of paying by making the act of spending faster, easier, and less emotionally visible, consistent with the mental-accounting and decoupling frameworks that underpin this literature (Thaler, 1980; Prelec & Loewenstein, 1998; Soman, 2003). As a result, consumers are more likely to buy spontaneously, especially in online and mobile settings where checkout friction is low, and the scale of this shift is visible not only in controlled studies (Unal & Park, 2023) but in national payment data showing hundreds of billions of small, frictionless UPI transactions each year (Worldline, 2026). The evidence also shows, however, that the effect is not automatic: trust, brand familiarity, habit, rewards, and consumer age all shape how strongly it appears, and at least one controlled study finds that checkout simplicity alone is not sufficient without accompanying trust cues (Han, 2023). The key conclusion is that payment design now functions as a behavioral force in modern retail, not merely a technical or usability feature. When payment becomes nearly invisible, spending tends to feel lighter, and lighter spending, compounded over millions of small transactions, can add up to substantially more spending overall. Frictionless payment systems therefore deserve to be studied — and regulated — not only as technological conveniences but as design choices with real behavioral and welfare consequences. For marketers and platforms, they offer a genuine and repeatedly documented improvement in conversion and engagement; for consumers, they can quietly erode the moments of reflection that ordinarily support financial self-control. A balanced approach, informed by the boundary conditions this review has identified, is needed so that continued innovation in digital payment supports both convenience and responsible spending.

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