As a Senior Product Manager in the Customer Success Group at Salesforce, I spend a lot of time with global retail brands, helping them enable and empower their business. One of the requests I get to help customers achieve that goal is expanded mobile payment support in Commerce Cloud.

It’s easy to see why. Digital payment options, pioneered by PayPal, have been a boon to ecommerce. That’s particularly true in mobile, where PayPal, Apple Pay, Android Pay and others greatly ease the mobile checkout experience. In fact, mobile payments via these methods will overtake credit cards as the primary mode of purchase on ecommerce sites by 2019.

To that end, we have made significant updates to mobile design as part of the Storefront Reference Architecture. Why? Mobile wallets make life easier for shoppers, which ultimately results in more orders for retailers and brands.

Our recent Mobile Shopping Report found that mobile sites that include a mobile wallet option saw:

• Mobile orders increase by 14%
• Buyers speed through the checkout process  85 seconds faster
• Conversion rate increase at twice the rate of sites without mobile wallets

Mobile wallets reduce mobile buying friction by eliminating frustrating steps in the checkout process; anyone who has struggled to tap in 16-digit credit card numbers in tiny form fields can relate. According to a 2017 comScore study, 82% of shoppers cite convenience as a key reason they select a particular payment source, second only to security, at 86%.

One-touch checkout, pioneered by Amazon, goes even further, eliminating manual data entry entirely. Mobile payment options are having a real impact on where consumers choose to shop; according to a 2017 WorldPay Global Payment Report, 78% of consumers say that the payment experience affects their willingness to return to a retailer’s website.

If you manage an commerce site, here is what you should know about the top mobile payment providers:

PayPal

• 210 million active users.
• According to PayPal, brands can gain a conversion rate increase of 43% after adding PayPal to their mobile solution as a checkout option.
• The new PayPal Checkout will personalize checkout and present the most relevant payment methods at checkout which include PayPal, Venmo and soon, local alternative payment methods.
• Salesforce Commerce Cloud has in excess of one thousand sites using it; it is the most popular payment alternative among Commerce Cloud customers. With dominant market share, retailers and brands should strongly consider adding PayPal; however, make sure it’s PayPal Express, so shoppers aren’t redirected off your site.
• Here is more information on Commerce Cloud’s PayPal integration.

Amazon Pay

• Gaining traction, with more than 30 million users since it was revived in 2013.
• The service mostly appeals to smaller merchants who benefit from the trust shoppers place in Amazon.
• Merchants aren’t eager to share too much with Amazon, which could compete with them to sell similar products.
• Salesforce Commerce Cloud has several hundred sites using it.
• If you are a small or luxury brand, which doesn’t have similar products on Amazon, Amazon Pay may be a good option.
• Here is more information on Commerce Cloud’s Amazon Pay integration.

Apple Pay

• Commerce Cloud customers using Apple Pay for mobile checkout see 2x conversion after implementation. One of these, Wolverine, saw a 19% increase in total mobile conversion and a 21% increase in iPhone conversion across all of its 13 brands.
• The integration was facilitated by several Payment Service Providers (PSPs), which have completed a certified integration with Commerce Cloud, including Adyen, CyberSource, WorldPay and others.
• Retailers considering Apple Pay must follow Apple’s iOS design and interface guidelines.

Google Pay

• Commerce Cloud has supported Google Pay since May 2017.
• Retailers considering Google Pay must follow brand guidelines.
• Benefits for the merchant include simple out-of-the-box set up and security, and the potential for increased conversion.

Peer-to-peer payments are also gaining momentum in digital commerce. Here are few to watch:

• Venmo’s social media aspects and ability to split a payment offers possibilities from a gifting perspective. And it’s a part of the PayPal family and included in the new PayPal Checkout. Brands targeting millennials, many of which are increasingly going cashless, should take note.
• Zelle has strong backing by US-based banks, though no fraud protection currently, which means consumers may be vulnerable.

Where to display payment options on your site

Payment options should be displayed on the shopping cart and payment page, and keep the user on the site vs take them off to a payment provider for most if not all of the checkout. Start with one payment option, and explore adding others based on your products and device usage, and make sure to track how each performs. Keep in mind, adding too many options may overwhelm shoppers,.  Also bear in mind that Apple Pay and Google Pay only work on mobile devices.

For a deep dive on UX best practices for checkout flow, check out this blog, UX Best Practices: The Checkout Flow, written by an expert who’s helped hundreds of global brands grow their online business with better design.