Apple Pay for Ecommerce: How to Capture More Orders from Mobile Devices

Mobile commerce is a subsector of ecommerce and describes all purchases made on a mobile device, like a smartphone or tablet. With smartphones an integral part of daily life and rarely more than an arm’s length away, mobile commerce has become a huge driver of overall online shopping and mobile sales in the U.S. alone are set to hit over $418 billion by 2024. 

As with all things mobile, consumers’ greatest concerns when it comes to mobile commerce are speed and convenience. A faster, smoother shopping experience is the goal and frictionless checkout is a big part of that experience. Unsurprisingly, many mobile shoppers using Apple devices have begun turning to Apple Pay to ensure the fastest, most secure checkout possible.

The Buying Journey of a Mobile Apple Pay User

Apple Pay improves the buying experience by completely replacing the traditional checkout process with a highly secure, self-contained payment system that enables users to go from browsing to payment confirmation in a matter of seconds. 

Payment begins when a user clicks the Apple Pay payment button, which can be automatically displayed on both product pages and a store’s shopping cart. Unlike clicking through to a traditional checkout which requires users to either log in or enter their payment information line-by-line, clicking the Apple Pay button automatically pulls all of the user’s relevant payment data directly from their Apple Wallet. 

Apple Wallet is an app native to all Apple mobile devices, as well as all new MacBooks. It replaces a user’s physical wallet and allows them to securely store digital versions of all of their payment (and some loyalty) cards. When users click to pay with Apple Pay, the payment data from their pre-selected default card is automatically filled into the on-site Apple Pay checkout fields. 

With a single click the buyer can access and transmit their payment data to the online merchant, offering the ultimate in convenience. Apple Pay also aims to offer the ultimate in security, and the user has to quickly swipe their thumb or finger across their device’s Touch ID sensor or perform a quick face scan before the checkout can be completed. Biometric verification all but eliminates the potential for fraudulent purchases made on stolen devices, making Apple Pay arguably the most secure mobile commerce payment solution currently available.

The Benefits Apple Pay Offers for Mobile Commerce

Apple Pay is an easy choice for ecommerce businesses, as it offers myriad benefits to both merchant and customer. From convenience to speed, to security, to choice, Apple Pay checks off all the boxes modern consumers demand in an online shopping experience. 

Convenience

Apple Pay offers mobile and online shoppers unmatched convenience. Apple Pay stores all payment details in the user’s Apple Wallet, so the checkout process becomes effectively identical on every Apple Pay-enabled website. The need to create multiple accounts across different retailers and to manage multiple usernames and passwords is completely eliminated, removing a point of friction that could lead to lost sales.

Speed

Paying with Apple Pay takes a matter of seconds, offering some major benefits to both mobile shoppers and merchants. First and foremost, modern consumers have no time to spare and they demand speedy checkouts. A fast checkout also aids in facilitating purchases – especially impulse buys – and helps minimize shopping cart abandonment, which is one of the biggest problems ecommerce merchants face.

Security

Apple Pay’s biometric identity verification makes fraudulent purchases all but impossible, but Apple Pay also offers an additional level of security by keeping the user’s payment information completely under their control. With traditional user accounts on ecommerce sites, payment information is stored on the merchant’s servers where the user has no influence over security. Apple Pay enables users to personally ensure the security of their payment data by keeping it in their possession at all times, without having to worry about third-party data storage. Merchants also benefit from Apple Pay’s security as much or more than their customers, as reduced exposure to fraud helps eliminate the potential costs associated with everything from fraudulent purchases to data breaches, and beyond. 

Choice

Today’s consumers want the option to pay how and when they want, and if their favorite payment option isn’t available, they won’t hesitate to take their business elsewhere. With Apple Pay set to handle up to 10% of all card transactions by 2025, offering it ensures many users will have access to their payment method of choice, helping ensure they don’t wander to a competitor. 

Setting up Apple Pay in an Ecommerce Store

Most modern ecommerce platforms are designed with easy Apple Pay integration in mind. Adding an Apple Pay button to product pages and checkout is often as easy as going into a platform’s settings and enabling Apple Pay with a click or two. The following popular ecommerce systems all offer easy built-in Apple Pay integration:

• BigCommerce
• WooCommerce
• Shopify
• Stripe
• Volusion
• 3dCart

Some systems, like the native ecommerce platform built into Wix, do not offer Apple Pay as a built-in payment option and in those cases, Apple Pay can be manually integrated using Apple’s developer tools and integration guidelines.  

The ideal first step for merchants who are looking to accept Apple Pay but unsure of where to start is to reach out to their merchant services provider. A merchant’s account representative will be able to analyze their ecommerce technology (and any in-store payment hardware) in order to determine the easiest Apple Pay integration route. BAMS merchants have access to our expert support team, who know Apple Pay inside and out, as well as a variety of payment gateway, ecommerce software, and EMV payment hardware options that make accepting Apple Pay a breeze. Best of all, BAMS’s interchange-plus pricing model guarantees the lowest transaction fees in the industry, simultaneously trimming the fat from monthly merchant statements while boosting sales through digital wallets like Apple Pay. 

To find out more about how a BAMS merchant account can help you give your customers the payment options they want while minimizing your monthly merchant statement, get started with your custom five-point price comparison today.