Blink or You'll Miss It

Friction in Consumer Experiences

Reducing friction is critical to consumer experiences, and this is especially true for commerce. The average shopping cart abandonment rate is over 73% globally. Additionally, 86% of 18 to 34 year olds say they would be more likely to choose retailers with Scan and Go shopping options, while 57% of shoppers as a whole prefer to use self-checkout. 

There are several levers to pull in minimizing friction such as reduced steps, personalization, and effectively leveraging data and feedback. We can observe these levers being pulled by the likes of Amazon and TikTok, for example, who have partnered up to enable users to purchase items from Amazon without ever leaving the TikTok app - simplifying the shopping experience for users. Furthermore, TikTok Shop has also gained significant traction from users. In 2023, TikTok Shops generated over $11billion in gross merchandise volume, and young consumers have said they discover new brands largely through social media platforms - TikTok and Youtube - over in-store or other legacy means. 

The integration of advertising, commerce, and payments directly into social platforms has incredible value as 65% of TikTok users say they rely on creator reviews and recommendations to decide what to buy. The growing integration of services into social feeds highlights the same value of bringing onchain experiences directly into existing online platforms and apps. For example, Frames are an effort to build onchain in-app functionality for the Farcaster protocol, while Solana Blinks serve as a protocol to integrate onchain actions into any online experience. Ultimately, reducing UX friction is key to leveraging online consumer behavior.

Simplifying Solana Interactions with Blinks

Developed by Dialect, Actions are APIs that return Solana blockchain transactions to be signed and sent in various contexts, including links, QR codes, buttons, and more. Blinks, or blockchain links, turn any Action into a shareable link. Blinks enable Action-aware clients (browser extensions, apps) to unfurl these links into usable interfaces directly within the web or app experience. This integration framework is highly generalizable. As of today, Actions and Blinks have been integrated by a few wallet providers for use on Twitter/X. Some simple Blink examples include buying tokens, minting an NFT, or staking SOL with a validator.