Aurora Pay: checkout conversion up 240%

The challenge

Aurora Pay had a problem that keeps fintech founders up at night: their checkout was leaking money. With 60% drop-off between cart and completed payment, every percentage point of conversion was worth real revenue.

The legacy checkout had grown organically over 18 months:

• 14 form fields (way too many for an MVP payment flow)
• Slow Stripe integration (full page reload between steps)
• No fraud scoring (manual review of every suspicious transaction)
• No analytics beyond basic page views
• PCI scope: they were touching card data, requiring full SAQ D

They needed a checkout that was:

• Fast: under 3 seconds median completion
• Conversion-optimized: 5-7 fields max, mobile-first
• Compliant: minimize PCI scope (SAQ A target)
• Observable: every step instrumented
• Safe to deploy: A/B testing before full rollout

What we built

Architecture

We rebuilt the checkout as a single-page app with Stripe Elements:

• Card data stays in Stripe’s iframe (PCI scope minimized to SAQ A)
• Our server only receives a payment method token
• One API call to Stripe to confirm payment
• Server-side fraud scoring with Stripe Radar

A/B testing

We implemented 6 variants of the checkout form:

• Field count: 5, 7, 9
• CTA copy: “Pay”, “Pay $X”, “Complete order”
• Trust signals: with/without security badges
• Mobile-optimized vs responsive

We measured: completion rate, time-to-complete, error rate, fraud rate. Statistical significance required p < 0.05 for 7+ days.

Fraud prevention

Stripe Radar evaluates every transaction with ML-based fraud detection:

• 0.01% fraud rate (down from 0.3%)
• Manual review only for high-risk transactions (0.5% of volume)
• Real-time blocking of known fraudulent cards
• Velocity checks (multiple cards same IP, etc.)

Analytics

We instrumented every step of the checkout:

• Page view → Add to cart → Begin checkout → Field complete → Submit
• Drop-off points visible in real-time dashboard
• Cohort analysis: do users who complete checkout in under 2s have higher LTV?
• A/B test results with statistical confidence

Results

After 8 weeks of work and 30 days of A/B testing:

• +240% in checkout conversion (from 40% to 94% completion)
• under 2s median checkout time (from 12s)
• 0.01% fraud rate (from 0.3%)
• PCI scope: SAQ A (from SAQ D — massive compliance win)
• Zero production incidents in 90 days post-launch

The business impact: Aurora Pay’s revenue went up 240% in the first quarter after launch. The checkout was the only change. They didn’t change pricing, didn’t change marketing, didn’t add features. Just made the existing flow work.

What we learned

1. Stripe Elements is the right choice for most fintech MVPs. Minimizes PCI scope, reduces compliance work, ships faster.
2. A/B testing is a feature, not an optimization. Building it from day 1 meant we could iterate based on real data, not opinions.
3. Fraud scoring is non-negotiable. Manual review at 0.3% was eating their team’s time. Stripe Radar at 0.01% freed them up to focus on product.
4. Instrument everything. When something goes wrong, you need data to debug. When something goes right, you need data to replicate.

What’s next

Aurora Pay is now expanding to B2B payments. We’re helping them build the platform for managing multiple merchant accounts, with multi-tenant architecture and granular permissions.

Want similar results?

If you’re building fintech and need a checkout that converts (and is compliant), book a free intro call. We’ll tell you honestly what we can do and what it’ll cost.