Mobile checkouts are projected to account for 50 percent of online sales within the next three years.
CREDIT: Getty Images
More and more consumers are integrating their smartphones with digital wallets, thanks to the simplicity of tools like Amazon Pay. With mobile digital wallets, consumers can more quickly complete purchases without having to spend time filling in billing data during checkout processes.
And today, digital wallets are becoming more common and widely-used than ever before. Data from Statista shows that we can expect to see as much as 50 percent of all online sales made through a mobile device by as soon as 2020.
It seems to be working, too: Brands like Couture Candy have found that adding a digital wallet produces a noticeable boost in sales. The company’s CEO Eric Jones said, “We saw an immediate increase of 15 to 20 percent in our site conversion rate by integrating Amazon Pay into our checkout process.”
Stats like these are making retailers stop and consider if and how these tools might make sense in their own business operations. Here are some of the main things to keep in mind when considering adding a digital wallet payment option to your online store.
1. Overall, the mobile commerce environment is still fairly new, and there is progress to be made.
While smartphones represented about 46 percent of global online traffic in 2016, data from Criteo indicates that only about 27 percent of mobile traffic converted into actual sales. And to date, online sales still perform better when completed through traditional devices like computers. Monetate research shows that while about four percent of shoppers will complete a purchase using a computer on average, only 1.3 percent will complete a purchase on a smartphone.
2. Your checkout process needs to be mobile-friendly.
Checkout processes with many steps and long forms create can create a poor user experience on a mobile device. As the shopper tries to tap buttons and navigate forms on a small smartphone screen, they can easily get frustrated and navigate away to a different site before completion of the checkout process. When integrating a digital wallet, be sure to optimize your checkouts for mobile.
3. The fewer steps, the better.
Enabling guest checkouts that don’t require shoppers to create an account and log in result in faster checkouts–and that’s good news. Paired with a digital wallet, speedier checkouts mean buyers have less time to second-guess a purchase. It works, too: Brandon Chatham, owner of NatoMounts, found that when he added Amazon Pay to his checkout process, one of his mobile website visitors was able to go from browsing to purchase in just 43 seconds.
Overall, digital wallets like Amazon Pay offer some unique benefits, but it’s important to remember that they still have a long way to go when looking at the big picture–largely in terms of mass-adoption. A study from February 2017 shows that only 20 percent of consumers age 55+ has tried a digital wallet.
The takeaway: We’re still early in the digital wallet trend, but getting on board and experimenting with their effectiveness is worth exploring. Each business has a unique audience, so you may want to find out if yours has been longing for a faster, easier way to pay–or if digital wallets aren’t really their thing.
The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.