Why we designed a three-step checkout (and what it taught us about deal hunters)

The moment we understood speed wasn't optional

When you're building an app for flash deals, checkout design becomes existential. A deal hunter scrolling through our app at 11 p.m. on a Friday isn't in a patient mood. They see a last-minute flight to Barcelona at a price that makes them pause. They want it. But only if they can claim it before the deal vanishes.

Our original flow had them enter payment details, then verify their address, then confirm their phone number, then review the booking. Four separate screens before confirmation. On mobile, even on a decent connection, that's 45 seconds of tapping and typing. By the time step three loaded, half our flash deals had expired. We watched our conversion rate and winced.

The insight wasn't complicated, but it was decisive. Our users aren't buying a holiday. They're hunting. And hunters need a clear shot, not an obstacle course.

Three screens, one mission

We rebuilt it with three steps. That's it.

First: confirm who you are. Email, password, done. If you're already logged in (and most repeat users are), this step vanishes entirely. You skip straight to payment.

Second: your payment details and delivery address. Bundled together. We pre-fill what we can from your previous bookings, so a returning user enters almost nothing here.

Third: review and confirm. You see exactly what you're paying, including the buyer fee (8 percent for free users, 5 percent for Premium members, zero for Pro subscribers). You see the deal timer. You tap confirm.

Three steps. Ninety seconds end to end, often faster. The difference in our conversion data was immediate. We saw a 34 percent lift in completed bookings in the first week after we shipped it.

What three steps revealed about our audience

Designing the checkout taught us something valuable about who uses FlashSeat. These aren't casual browsers. They're deal-conscious, time-aware, and they've already made the emotional decision to buy. They're just waiting for friction to get out of the way.

We also learned that trust matters, even at speed. In our second month, we added a small detail: on the review screen, we show the exact flash deal conditions. How many tickets or seats are left. When the deal expires. What the full price would normally cost. It took two extra lines of text, but it cut our support tickets about refund disputes by half. People weren't abandoning deals because they felt rushed; they were abandoning them because they were unsure. Clarity at speed, it turned out, beats speed alone.

The three-step checkout is also why we require everyone to register before they can book. Free tier, Premium, Pro. No guest checkout. It feels counterintuitive when you're chasing speed, but it means step one is often already done. And it means we can remember your details for next time. A deal hunter who books with us once and finds us again three weeks later doesn't want to re-enter their address. They want to book the moment they see the deal.

The buyer fee stays visible, even when it stings

One decision we held firm on: we never hide the buyer fee in a footnote or bury it at the last moment. Free users see 8 to 10 percent clearly marked on step three. Premium members see 4 to 5 percent. Pro members see zero, because they're paying monthly and getting everything else without transaction fees.

We tested a version where we rolled the fee into the total and showed it only on the receipt. Conversion actually dropped. Our users aren't naive. They expect a fee, and they respect clarity more than surprise savings. The fee is part of the deal. If it stings, they can switch to Premium for £7.99 a month or Pro for £14.99 a month. But they decide that fully informed, on the review screen, with the deal timer still running.

One feature that almost didn't make the cut

The QR code in the app. For event tickets, we generate a max brightness QR right in FlashSeat that you can present at the venue. Works offline. No screenshot needed, no second app. It's embedded in the checkout confirmation, sitting right there on your phone the moment you complete step three.

We nearly cut this because the engineering was messy. Event ticketing APIs are fragmented; some partners required us to redesign our verification logic twice. But we kept it because it answered a question we heard repeatedly from early users: 'Can I just show my phone at the door, or do I need to print something?' Removing friction at the moment of use, not just at purchase. That's where real deal hunters live.