The Chrome team is always looking for ways to make people’s lives easier, from securely managing your passwords to automatically organizing your tabs. And if you’re a business owner, autofill is one feature that can help you provide a smooth, stress-free online checkout experience. In fact, new Google research shows that autofill may help reduce abandonment and completion time, which can then lead to better sales. Keep reading to learn how autofill works, along with how it’s helping both shoppers and the businesses they support.

Autofill takes the hassle out of checkouts

Autofill is a feature built into Chrome that allows the browser to automatically fill in a website’s form fields with a customer’s saved information, such as contact information, passwords and payment details, across all their devices.

Autofill lets shoppers complete an entire form with a single click, saving them time on things like online checkout or creating a new account. It also helps reduce errors like typos and keeps their personal information secure.

Google research shows autofill helps both shoppers and merchants

Recent Google research has shown that autofill can be a gamechanger for both online merchants and the shoppers they serve. To conduct the research, the Chrome team analyzed contact and payment forms aggregated from users who consented to share that information. After looking at this data across thousands of the most visited websites in Chrome in the U.S., the researchers found an interesting correlation.

Website visitors who used autofill had significantly lower form abandonment rates and spent considerably less time completing forms: The average website saw a 75% reduction in abandonment and, on the shoppers’ end, a 35% reduction in completion ¹. While many factors contribute to a positive checkout experience, the data suggest autofill can play a sizable role.

This means simpler, faster checkouts for shoppers and more sales for ecommerce businesses of all sizes.

Shopify helps its merchants drive 45% more conversions with autofill

One such business is our partner Shopify, a global commerce company that powers more than 10% of U.S. ecommerce and more than 644 million customers in 175 countries on its platform.

One of Shopify’s key metrics is Checkout Conversion Rate (CCR), which measures the rate of successful checkouts completed over a period of time. Through testing, Shopify found that removing unnecessary steps led to more customers completing their checkouts. Guest checkouts using autofill had a 45% higher CCR than guest checkouts without autofill. Basically, the customers who didn’t have to spend time filling out forms were more likely to actually buy something at the end of their online shopping trip.

Making the web a little more helpful

The Chrome team continues to roll out global improvements to autofill, such as supporting more country-specific address fields and providing better detection and understanding of address fields in multiple languages. These features will help simplify and speed up checkouts for shoppers and merchants around the world.