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One way to capture buying customers is by making the checkout process simpler--and quicker.

So it should come as good news for business owners who use the composable e-commerce platform Commercetools--which is based in Munich--that they now have the option to use PayPal's one-click payment option, Fastlane. On Wednesday, the two companies announced their partnership, which aims to accelerate the checkout process for Commercetools' 500 million users. The tool will "help enterprises boost sales, attract new customers, and foster lasting loyalty," Frank Keller, PayPal EVP and general manager of the large enterprise and merchant platform group, said in the press release.

Fastlane creates customer profiles by securely storing their payment information, such as card details and shipping addresses, separately from PayPal. When customers shop with a participating store, Fastlane prefills the information at checkout and asks the customer to verify that everything is correct before making a purchase; that process entails entering an email, typing in a texted verification code sent from PayPal, and then officially placing the order.

Businesses that use Commercetools, like Adobe and Peloton, now have access to those capabilities, which will enable their customers to make purchases quicker than before.

Collaborations like this potentially rival Shop Pay, which is Shopify's accelerated checkout option. Similar to PayPal's Fastlane, Shop Pay is a third-party platform that allows customers to save their payment information to be later verified either in the Shop Pay app or the Shop app, depending on which interface they're shopping on. Upon reviewing an order, customers must verify their identity with a six-digit authentication code sent to their email or text, or with a Shop passkey. After entering the code, they're redirected to Shop Pay and asked to verify their personal information, before returning to checkout to confirm their order.

Businesses that sell on Shopify can activate or deactivate Shop Pay within their account settings. There aren't any fees associated beyond Shopify businesses' existing plans, and customers don't pay a fee when they use Shop Pay, however merchants could have to cover transactions fees up to 6 percent.

Commercetools and PayPal aren't alone in their efforts to innovate payment processing capabilities. Squarespace, a New York City-based website-building company, updated its payment security and invoicing services this week, making it freely available to users of all plans. Until then, invoicing was a premium feature only Business and Commerce users could access. It specifically enables users to customize the invoices they send to clients and vendors for just the single fee of payment processing, and accepts a range of payment methods such as debit, credit, Afterpay, and Apple Pay. It also is available in English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, and Portuguese globally and on any plan.

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