Apple and Google Web Pay

Tuesday 3rd September 2019

(Updated: June 2020)

Mobile payments are diverging a path towards reducing the 72.86% of global cart abandonment rates and resulting friction within checkout flows across the world.

With the rise of m-commerce, the integration of Apple and Google pay into your facilitated payment options will not only target this, but increase conversions and foster cross-channel and cross-border retail shopping with mobile to desktop transactions.

Currently, online checkout frictions cost global sales £257bn annually, with the lack of cross-channel buying accounting for £93bn and the lack of payment options; £212bn.

With more than 93% of customers owning a smartphone it’s time to revise the checkout flow. Currently, although the mobile browsing of retail sites dominates, the completion of payments more often takes place via a desktop. The safest and easiest way to facilitate this flow is via Apple and Google Pay.

**Apple Pay**

When focusing on facilitating convenience, context and control online, Apple has become a conglomerate for its users within its own pseudo-universe. The same goes for its checkout flow. With Apple’s users long-used to making payments through Apple’s iTunes and app store – albeit not through Apple Pay – the provider had established some sense of credibility through its system.

However, with Google’s supporting platform Android supporting a multitude of brands across the globe, Apple only makes up 33.5% of smartphone users – a 15% market share across more than 41 countries.

Of the 383 million + Apple users across the world, 43% have enabled Apple Pay – up 20% from December 2017. However, only 27% have currently used it since its founding in 2014, (8% weekly) with 23% of users unsure on how to do so.

With 90% of users estimated to have made a mobile payment by the end of 2020, Apple Pay’s cash flow is set to increase with emerging generations growing up with smart technology.

**Case Studies**

Numerous case studies conducted by third parties and Apple, not only assessed conversion rates, but the reduction in time at the checkout and the origin of browsing traffic. In analysing CocoWeb, Stripe, Lulu Lemon, Zinhome and J Crew, conversions at desktop with Apple Pay were increased by at least 15% and at mobile, by 20%. In the case of Stripe, conversion rates were cited as more than doubled.
Stripe also reported that when integrating and using Apple Pay, checkout payments were 58% faster.
In a case study of SpearmintLOVE, mobile traffic increased to 80% after integrating Apple Pay - which took 10 minutes to implement.

CocoWeb felt that “as a small e-commerce business they feel the brand of Apple Pay will surely help their credibility as customers checkout”.

In a case study of Zinhome, not only did mobile conversions increase by 20% but their average order values increased by 10%.

**How it Works:**

Supported on and within Apple’s Mac operating system from versions Sierra and up, Apple Pay can now be used on the desktop within the Safari browser.

Instead of launching into payment forms that require the customer to manually enter data sometimes redundantly and multiple times, Apple Pay replaces this process with a minimal and native interface.

This payment form allows the customers to pick shipping and payment options, and confirm the transaction with the Touch ID sensor. With more recent MacBook pros, the Touch ID sensor is built into the touch-bar feature of the device itself.

With this feature, the Apple Pay option is also enabled within the app store.

**Security:**

Not only do Apple Pay users have the added security of biometric, two-factor security behind Touch ID and Face ID, but Apple Pay uses device specific numbers and unique transaction codes with each transaction to ensure that no card data is ever stored on a device, nor is it ever shared with a merchant.
Apple Pay is easily integrated with Apple’s software developer kits (SDKs).

**Google Pay**

Founded in 2011 and formerly known as Android pay before changing to Google pay in its many iterations in 2018; Google pay (excluding Samsung devices) is used in more than 41 countries. Across the many devices that support Google Pay, are the security protections that include pattern or PIN, password, touch and Face ID.

Excluding Samsung Pay, 13.3% of Android users have previously used and continue to use Google Pay.

Google Pay supports payments via credit, debit, loyalty schemes and gift cards, via their wallet as well supporting PayPal payments.

Unlike Apple, the open-platform nature of Google Pay on the Android OS is supported on Google Chrome, Safari and Firefox browsers; working across 340,000 sites with VISA checkout at both mobile and via mobile to desktop.

Google Pay supports peer-to-peer payments within the UK and the US. Users can request and send money via their google accounts within their browser.

**Case Studies**

A case study involving online wholesaler BOXED – conducted by Google – revealed that the use of Google Pay resulted in a 20% faster transaction time. Where 30% of new Google Pay users through this platform had previously used a different payment method, they now prefer to use Google Pay for repeat purchases.

Whilst integration time for Google Pay is 1-2 weeks longer than that of Apple Pay, a case study of jClub; a discount e-tailer, revealed a 7% increase in conversions. Similarly, 35% of those using a previous payment method now repeatedly use Google Pay instead.

In a study of Thrive Market’s membership-based delivery service for wholesale healthy food, the company saw a 27% increase in monthly sales orders for existing members and a 4% increase in free trial members. This shows that quicker transaction times and a reduction in friction in the checkout flow, leads to higher order volumes and more conversions when the opportunity to doubt is reduced. In fact, the average monthly spends for existing members increased by 17%.

When studying Hotel Tonight, potential customers had a 65% greater likelihood of completing a booking option when utilising Google Pay’s payment sheets and payment options.

Similarly, Spot Hero saw a 20% increase in their conversions when Google Pay was offered as the default payment method to new users.

Popular booking engine Fandango also saw a 50% faster checkout time within their native app, when Google Pay was integrated as a payment option for their users.

Google reports that in their own assessment of a top global retail partner, a 55% reduction in cart abandonment rates was reported.

**How it works:**

Google Pay can be used on Android devices with software installs of Kit Kat 4.4 and higher.

As described with Apple Pay, the process of utilising Google Pay on the desktop works similarly but within the browser rather than adjusting operating software preferences.

Google Pay can also be used by customers to purchase apps and media from Google’s app store. Like Apple, Google does not store or send card details to the merchant; nor keep them on the device.

**The Future Of Payments:**

By 2021 e-commerce will account for 17.5% of all retail sales. This is up 6% from 2018’s global insights.
As currently, only 2.86% of e-commerce site visits will actually convert to a sale, this statistic speaks to the rapid growth to e-commerce and cross-channel payments.

As 65% of customers browse retail sites via their mobiles before completing their purchases via the desktop (61%); integrating mobile to desktop payments goes beyond reducing friction at the checkout or conversions. Instead, it calls for the retention of the desktop itself and the facilitation of device choice, without the laborious entering of information and doubt of the security levels of differing devices.

In 2018, 1 in 2 shoppers abandoned an e-commerce purchase because of the manual data entry required. With the native payment sheets available in both Apple Pay and Google Pay, this information is available from the initial set up and available remotely everywhere – on almost any device - for customers. As a default, the aforementioned biometric and tokenised security resulted in 73% of millennials agreeing that phones would eventually be able to facilitate all of their payments. 70% believed that mobile payments would overtake the 60% of people who prefer to use cards by 2030.

Additionally, as 50% of consumers actively try to avoid entering their payment details at the checkout, Apple and Google Pay are great facilitators in this projected statistic: that by 2021, more than 50% of all online checkouts will be made via an alternative payment method over card.

To speak more of security, the integration of Apple Pay and Google Pay at the desktop, is an alternative and combatant to the £197bn in the past 6 months globally, that has accrued in false positives; where 2 in 5 customers were falsely declined when making a transaction. This led to cart abandonment, and repeated cart abandonments where 1 in 5 continued to have this experience repeated within this same time frame.

**The consideration of integrating APMs such as Apple Pay and Google Pay are worth it when:**

Your site’s mobile traffic exceeds 75%.

Your demographic matches that of Apple’s and Android’s.

You have limited APM options.

You have a native app.

Accounting for more than 50% of global online payments, whether they are at the desktop or through smartphones,
m-commerce is significant option for creating conversions at the checkout.

To sum this up, Stephen McGee of New Business Sales, Sanderson Multi-Channel Solutions, says;

‘Gone are the silo methods of retailing. Everything now has to be integrated, seamless and cohesive’. As UK banking is set to rise to 36.2 billion users by [the end of] 2020 – more than doubling since 2014 – he continues; ‘the internet and the development of mobile devices has revolutionised the retail sector’.

There is an increased opportunity for conversions when we consider the current statistics surrounding Apple and Google Pay versus their potential.

In fact, 1 in 2 OEM payments (payments made by Original Equipment Manufacturers such as Apple, Android and Samsung) by 2024 will be made by Apple Pay, with a total 10% of all global card payments being made at both Web and POS by Apple Pay’s service; speaking to its increasing worth in the market – estimated to reach over 250 billion USD by 2024.

According to Similartech.com, Google Pay Web is actually only used across 3,800 of all UK websites. Unable to catergorise 83.53% of this usage into anyone sector; there is a suggested diversity in its use cases. There is however a definitive 6.21% usage across the lifestyle sector and a known use on big name retail site Next.co.uk; who have 23M monthly visitors to their site.

Performing better but with a road of opportunities ahead, Apple Pay Web holds a place across 18,116 e-commerce websites in the UK. Similary undefined, Apple Pay Web holds diversity across 88.18% of the online sector and 1.94% of the retail sector. Populary used on etsy and wayfair; both sites pull in over 218 and 81.6 million visitors a month.

Discover more on APMs and our services by getting in touch today!

**Sources:**

https://www.pymnts.com/mobile-wallet-adoption-statistics/

https://www.bigcommerce.co.uk/blog/apple-pay-tips-mobile-payments/#cocoweb-increases-conversion-rate-15-across-devices

https://other.media/five-ways-apple-pay-changes-ecommerce/

https://www.imore.com/how-use-apple-pay-mac

https://www.getelastic.com/the-truth-about-apple-pay-for-ecommerce

https://towardsdatascience.com/how-to-reduce-abandonment-rate-during-the-e-commerce-checkout-stage-a-b-testing-e-payment-methods-8818506a353c

https://www.adyen.com/blog/5-steps-to-increase-your-checkout-conversions

http://info.localytics.com/blog/how-to-decrease-mobile-cart-abandonment-get-personal

https://www.3dcart.co.uk/apple-pay.html

https://www.icaew.com/-/media/corporate/files/technical/information-technology/technology/185-the-future-of-payments.ashx