Best Reviews logo
Best Reviews may receive compensation for its content through paid collaborations. See how we sustain our work & review products.
Accepting Digital Wallet Payments in Your Online Store

Accepting Digital Wallet Payments in Your Online Store

By István F. István F. Verified by Adam B. Adam B.Last updated: July 26, 2024 (0)
Table of contents

Mobile shoppingMobile payments are an attractive way to pay because they are secure, fast, and convenient. But they are still relatively new technology, with Square being the early entrant that changed the way merchants accepted payments in 2009. Square was quickly followed by Google’s Wallet service in 2011 and then PayPal Here in 2012.

But the breakthrough only happened when Apple launched its own mobile payments service, Apple Pay. Initially available in the U.S. only, Apple Pay hit the market as financial institutions and merchants were preparing to make a huge step toward secure card payments, migrating the payment infrastructure over to accept EMV (an acronym derived from Europay, Mastercard, and Visa) chip and PIN technology.

Additionally, high penetration of smartphones has prepared the ground for mobile ecommerce and mobile payments as more and more users use their handsets to checkout at online stores. In fact, Pew Research revealed that more than 60% of participants believe digital wallets will replace traditional payment methods such as card payments and cash by 2020. Combine that with mobile ordering, which is forecast to surpass $223 billion by 2020, and you have the perfect opportunity for mobile payment to become the de facto method.

After looking at the volume of mobile payments in the U.S. and where they are coming from, Forrester’s analysts noticed a 20% compound annual growth rate. So, in the Mobile Payments Forecast they predict mobile payments will reach $282 billion by 2021.

Apple was the first to ride that trend with Apple Pay on the web, which allowed users to pay for goods and services online and in stores that accept this payment method. Apple’s example was quickly followed by Google and Amazon and so ecommerce platforms usually integrate these three services by default, each of which have their own pros and cons.

Apple pay

While Apple Pay was introduced in 2014 and was therefore a latecomer to the industry, Apple’s branding power has contributed a lot to the widespread adoption of mobile payments. The basic concept of Apple Pay is not revolutionary: it uses the built-in NFC chip to connect the iPhone (iPhone 6 or later) to a point-of-sale terminal to pay using a virtualized credit card.

What Apple brought to the table was its use of Touch ID, the fingerprint identification technology, to verify the identity of the person making the purchase. Lately, Apple has switched to another identification system called Face ID, which scans the user’s face to verify identity.

Apple pay

Using the technology that it has built into its modern Macs, Apple developed Apple Pay for the web and invited online store owners to adopt this secure payment method. Mac users can pay on the web by authenticating themselves on their iPhone or, more recently, by using the Touch ID button built into MacBook Pros. Merchants looking to accept Apple Pay in their online store can either embed the payments service directly into the storefront or via a payment gateway that they work with. If integrating Apple Pay directly, then make sure that:

  • The website complies with Apple Pay guidelines as outlined by the manufacturer.
  • An Apple Developer account has been created and registration completed.
  • That all pages that include Apple Pay are served over HTTPS.

Accepting Apple Pay via a payment gateway such as Stripe makes things easier, and ecommerce platforms such as BigCommerceShopify, and the like tend to provide this option.

Google pay

First launched as Google Wallet, the mobile payments service offered by the search engine giant has gone through important changes over time. The initial idea was to allow people to send and receive money from a mobile device or desktop computer at no cost. However, ever since Google launched its mobile payment service, Android Pay, in 2015, things have changed, with the latter becoming the successor to the Google’s initial payments service.

Google pay

Android Pay has gradually gained traction worldwide as banks in countries such as the UK, Poland, Australia, New Zealand, and more have added support for this payment service. In 2018, the search giant announced that it would merge Google Wallet with Android Pay and rebranded the whole payments service into Google Pay.

This was also when Google Pay moved into web-based payments and was integrated with other Google and third-party services. Online business owners looking to accept Google Pay as a payment method can either integrate it by following Google’s guidelines or simply by enabling Stripe as a payment gateway.

Amazon pay

As an online payments processing service owned by the world’s biggest online retailer, Amazon Pay is built on the user base that the company has and focuses on giving them the option to pay with their accounts in any online store. Amazon Pay isn’t available for in-store payments, since it was explicitly developed for ecommerce.

The payments service works on both desktop computers and mobile devices, so retailers integrating this payment method won’t miss a sale. Customers paying with Amazon Pay will use their Amazon account and the credit card or direct debit bank account linked to it when making a purchase. Some ecommerce platforms such as Volusion allow businesses to accept Amazon Pay.

Amazon pay

Evangelists for mobile payments say that the days of plastic cards and cash are numbered. This won’t happen overnight, of course, so plastic cards will continue to play an important role in the financial system. However, there has been a noticeable rise in mobile payments as more and more smartphones are equipped with NFC and online stores start accepting these payment methods. If you haven’t thought about it already, now is the time to take a look at your store’s traffic and the types of devices it is coming from.

User feedback

 Leave a reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *


Best Reviews

Best Reviews may receive compensation for its content through paid collaborations and/or affiliate links. Learn more about how we sustain our work and review products.

©2012-2025 Best Reviews, a clovio brand – All rights reserved
Privacy policy · Cookie policy · Terms of use · Partnerships · Contact us