Google Pay for Merchants: How to Get More Orders from Mobile Devices

According to Statista, a retail business can lose up to 70% of all potential customers at the checkout due to an inconvenient payment procedure. One of the reasons for an incomplete purchase is that customers don’t trust your payment system and are afraid to disclose their personal data and private information.

So before you integrate any payment system to your ecommerce website, you should ensure that the solution is convenient, used by your target market, and secure. Google Pay, formerly known as Google Wallet, is one of the best ways to make payments directly from your smartphone; it’s a quick, highly secure, and easy way to pay online. So what is Google Wallet and how does it work? Let’s dive in and find out!

Google Pay: a must-have payment system for ecommerce stores

In 2018, the old Android Pay and Google Wallet merged into the unified pay system called Google Pay—a digital wallet and mobile payment system that enables merchants to accept fast and easy payments for physical goods and services everywhere they do business, including in stores and online (both in-app and on the web).

With Google Pay, customers can use their smartphones or wear OS watches to make payments quickly with a simple tap of a button in the mobile app or on the ecommerce website. Google Pay stores a customer’s credit, debit, gift card, and loyalty information in their Google Account, allowing them to handle fast payments online. It’s noteworthy that Google Pay is free of charge for both merchants and customers.

 

Google Pay. Credit image: 3dcart

Google Pay is compatible with Android-based mobile devices (KitKat 4.4+) and smartwatches and is available in 28 countries. New countries are added all the time, so check the latest list of supported banks for each region here.

Last year, Google Pay collectively carried out about 860 million transactions for business, so it’s not surprising that it is becoming more and more popular.

How does Google Pay work on the web? 

Google Pay is a server-side wallet, which means that all of a customer’s data is stored on Google’s system rather than on the customer’s device. Financial operations are carried out between Google’s servers and the merchant’s existing payment gateway, offering a one-touch checkout experience for millions of Google users.

 

Google Pay on the web. Credit image: bgr

 

Furthermore, Google Pay does not submit to merchants the customer’s real card numbers when they pay online; instead, Google Pay simplifies a payment process for ecommerce businesses using tokenization in which a token stands for a customer’s real credit and debit card numbers.

Here are the basic stages of how payments work online:

1. A customer adds a credit or debit card to their Google Pay app. Google Pay requests a token to represent the customer’s real credit from the bank that issued that card.
2. As soon as the token is issued, this card is now ‘tokenized’, meaning that it has a unique identification number associated with it. Google Pay encodes the recently tokenized card and it is ready to be used for financial transactions.
3. The card network verifies the encryption and correlates the token with the customer’s real card number.
4. Your acquiring bank and your customer’s issuing bank use existing customer data and decoded customer-billing information to finalize the financial operation.

The benefits of Google Pay for ecommerce business

Implementing Google Pay for ecommerce websites isn’t just about keeping up with the latest payment solutions. There are a number of solid reasons to add Google Pay as a payment system for both you and your customers:

• Multiple layers of security 

Google Pay and Apple Pay are some of the most secure payment systems for ecommerce websites. They enable payments without explicitly sharing sensitive information. Google Pay enables your customers to check out on your ecommerce website in seconds while keeping their data safe in their Google Account with multiple layers of advanced security. Google takes multiple measures to protect card payment info. For instance:

Password Protection: Google Pay has a four-digit PIN code that must be entered before making a purchase, restricting unauthorized access.

Distance Control: Google Pay comes with all the required security features, including a way to disable your phone from making purchases if the device has been stolen or lost, which makes identity theft impossible.

Google Pay makes it simple for users to control their Google Pay account remotely. Users just need to log into their Google Pay account and they can smoothly find, lock, reset, or erase the phone information so that sensitive data cannot be accessed.

Encryption: Credit and debit cards stored on your Google Pay account are encoded on secure servers. The system uses tokenization, so the payment information that is communicated to merchants is never the customer’s actual card numbers.

Card Numbers Hidden: When Google Pay is used as an online payment option, only the card’s last four digits are displayed.

• Faster checkout

Similar to Apple Pay, Google Pay enables merchants to speed up the checkout time. By accepting Google Pay, your customers can breeze through checkout as there’s no need for customers to search for their cards and enter personal data.

An easy, quick checkout experience means customers are more likely to return and purchase again. With Google Pay, customers can pay with a few clicks on the web, which is beneficial for merchants as fast checkout can reduce cart abandonment.

• Simple to integrate

Google Pay is easily and quickly integrated with existing payment gateways like Stripe and Braintree. It only takes a little time to add the payment system to your ecommerce store, and in just a few steps you can operate with Google Pay and effortlessly accept millions of customer payments.

• No extra fees

In terms of money, Google Pay is a win-win situation for both sides. A payment system is free for customers to pay for products and services online. Moreover, Google Pay comes at no extra costs to the merchants, making this payment solution a great option for the retail business.

• Smarter loyalty

Google Pay also offers a loyalty program, deals, rewards program, and cashback benefits on smartphones. The app enables customers to automatically sign up and log in across digital devices. This makes it much simpler to save ongoing offers and get updates about new ones and gives customers real-time reminders to apply for their loyalty cards.

However, Google Pay restricts how much money can be transmitted within specific time frames. The restrictions are:

• Single transaction: up to $10,000
• In seven days: up to $10,000 (Florida citizens are limited to $3,000 every 24 hours)
• For financial operations of​ more than $2,500, the transferee must add a bank account to claim the money.

Integrating Google Pay into a Magento store

There are few payment gateways (Braintree, Stripe) that support Google Pay as a payment system, and there are various Magento extensions that can simplify the integration process of Google Pay with your existing Magento online store.

How to integrate Google Pay through Braintree

1. Sign up with Braintree Google Pay for the web.
2. Install the Braintree Payment Extension for Magento module in your codebase.
3. Log in to the admin panel and choose Google Pay from multiple payment options.
4. Connect the extension with your Braintree account and click ‘save settings’.

Now you should be able to accept financial transaction via Google Pay in your Magento online store!

What to do if your payment gateway doesn’t support Google Pay

In case your payment gateway doesn’t accept Google Pay as a payment option, you should place a Google Pay button on the checkout or shopping cart page by writing code.

 

Google Pay payment buttons. Credit image: google

Next, you need to integrate JavaScript code to get the information regarding financial operations from the Google Pay service. After that, you have to implement a code for transaction confirmation with your payment provider to validate if the transaction has been approved. Right now you should be able to accept payments with Google Pay in your Magento ecommerce website.

Wrapping up

Google Pay is a secure, fast, and flexible mobile payment service that enables you to make payments more convenient for your customers and thus expand your income from online sales.

We’ve provided you with detailed instructions on integrating Google Pay into your Magento store. If you require any further information on integrating Google Pay or any other payment system on your Magento store, please feel free to contact us.