How Apple Pay Revolutionizes Online Conversions
3. Remembering passwords: In cases where account and credit card details have been stored by the merchant, conversion rates are significantly higher simply because the user doesn't have to enter shipping and billing addresses along with their credit card info. It all depends on being able to remember a password, however. Consumers struggle to remember passwords, and as a result often end up with multiple accounts at the same merchant. Going through a password recovery process on a mobile device isn't ideal, causing more users to bail.
Apple has solved all of these problems in a single stroke. By making the screens bigger on the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, mobile conversion rates will increase simply because it's easier on a larger screen. That will make searching and selecting products much easier.
Apple Pay also bypasses data entry and form filling completely by storing payment details on the phone itself in PassBook. Sign up is simple — a single button press will use the payment details already stored in your iTunes account. And to crown it all, there's no need for a password; thumbprints replace passwords completely using Touch ID.
To quote Apple: "Checkout can happen with a single touch, so there's no need to manually fill out lengthy account forms or repeatedly type in shipping and billing information, and card details are kept private and are not shared with the online merchant."
Many companies have adopted a "mobile first" strategy where e-commerce design is focused on the requirements of the small screen. Until now, mobile first has been primarily about finding and searching for products. Checkout optimization has been limited due to a reluctance by many retailers to store payment details because of the increased security risk.
Alternative payments (e.g., PayPal, Google Wallet, V.me) have been dogged by slow adoption by merchants, a lack of familiarity, and in the case of PayPal, consumer mistrust about hidden charges. Amazon.com recently also entered the payments market, but there's a different trust issue which has gotten in the way — retailers are reluctant to put Amazon Payments on their sites since in many cases Amazon is a competitor.
- Companies:
- Amazon.com