# Evolution of Hosted Checkout Solutions 
source: https://developer.mastercard.com/blog/evolving-hosted-checkout-solutions/index.md

Authors: Mike Genovese. Changes in consumer payment preferences have impacted how businesses and development teams respond to consumer demands. The immediate need for seamless digital payment alternatives, brought on by the shift from in-person transactions, requires businesses to move fast or fade away. Quick go-to-market development technologies, such as hosted checkout, are leading the way for abbreviated development times for both small and enterprise businesses. Changing demands As the market continues to grow, how is hosted checkout integration changing? Compared to the technology of today, hosted checkouts in their infancy could be viewed as painful at best. URL redirects were clunky and far from seamless, branding was inconsistent, payment methods were limited. Now when we think of today's consumer, we can't imagine them finding satisfaction in the original, limited solution. Like the industry, hosted checkouts were ready for the next evolution. Beyond consumer needs, let's consider our own changing development landscape and timelines. Development cycles are becoming shorter while the intricacies of payment technology are becoming more complex. Add in the ever-changing payment landscape, new global strategies with local payment methods and regional acquirer integrations and we may never be able to leave our computer chairs. Improving hosted checkout solutions is a way for us to satisfy our business needs, balance regional consumer payment method expectations and combat both fraud and the growing rate of cart abandonment. Our vision for hosted checkout With the ever-increasing shift to ecommerce and varied demands on global development teams, we are looking to revamp the hosted checkout processes to make them more intuitive and inviting for both small and enterprise merchants. In the new integrated hosted checkout platform businesses across the globe can provide a single payment experience with diverse and flexible payment options. Secure, PCI compliant checkout One of the main historic reasons hosted checkout became a popular payment integration strategy was because it put the burden of PCI compliance on the payment gateway and not the merchant. Just as consumer payment behavior is evolving, we are seeing a rise in card-not-present (CNP) fraud and new security regulations, and technologies are adding complexity to the development process. Beyond basic security, hosted checkouts require additional layers of transaction security to mitigate fraud and to reduce declines. By payment gateways shouldering the complexities of EMV 3DS 2.0 standards, fraud technology and trusted checkouts, it removes the burden from merchant development teams. Managing these security challenges is just one of the many reasons development teams, for all merchant sizes, will continue to turn to hosted checkouts for a better integration solution. Payment flexibility To add to the complexity of integrating a payment gateway, there are now a variety of local and new payment methods that businesses need to consider. While card payments still dominate, businesses are already looking to diversify their payment options. Some considerations include: Open banking continues to increase across Europe and elsewhere New payment methods such as Click to Pay, Crypto currency and local options including GiroPay are being adopted Installment options become more widely accepted In developing countries many consumers remain unbanked yet need to pay for goods online due to the pandemic As these trends change, businesses need the flexibility to choose, test and optimize their payment method line up. Adding diversity to your checkout won't just help attract new customers. Reducing shopping cart abandonment rates is a troubling problem for merchants across the board. Expanding your checkout line up also helps combat cart abandonment for returning customers whose payment preferences have changed. Customer and developer user experience The user experience for both developers and consumers is important to us. For a developer, the hosted checkout integration experience should be flexible to meet your branding goals and match your website experience. This means instead of offering just one way to integrate, hosted checkouts need to be redesigned to offer off-the-shelf functionality and the ability to design your own custom experience through either full-page redirects or embedded checkouts where consumers either go to a cart functionality or pay on the same product page. For consumers, the optimal hosted checkout experience drastically reduces the time it takes for them to checkout and ensures they have all the localized content they need; from language to payment, it is all in one place. In the end this customer experience can help reduce cart abandonment and drive-up revenue. Learn more about Payment Gateway Services and be sure to watch this space for the next phase of our ever-evolving hosted payment checkouts.