The mobile checkout experience on Shopify is now far less tedious for shoppers browsing on their smartphones. The e-commerce company today announced Shopify Pay, a new feature that lets customers save their payment details, including shipping and credit card info, to quickly check out without entering payment details each time.
The e-commerce portal has whittled down its mobile checkout process from 16 steps to two taps, adding Shopify Pay as another payment option available within the platform, alongside Apple Pay, PayPal, and others. Satish Kanwar, VP of Product at Shopify, told PCMag that, for Shopify's 400,000-plus online merchants, more than 50 percent of total conversions are now coming from mobile devices despite the relatively high degree of friction at the checkout point. Shopify Pay is what Kanwar described as a ground-up redesign of that final stage in the mobile shopping user flow.
"We take mobile conversions very seriously and have been improving the foundations of our checkout experience," said Kanwar. "The goal of Shopify Pay is that we don't want anyone to fill out that checkout form again unless they have to. That's a reality of what shoppers expect as they interact with brands again and again online."
The Shopify Pay experience also comes with opt-in texting and security authentication features built in. As Kanwar explained, identity verification goes through the phone number itself. When a returning user with Shopify Pay enabled wants to check out, they simply enter their email address to receive a 6-digit order notification via SMS. Once authenticated, the user's saved payment info will be pre-filled and they can check out in a matter of seconds. The payment data is encrypted end to end and stored on Shopify's PCI-compliant severs.
"Shopify Pay is an invisible experience that we see as a complement to other payment options. It's there if users need it, and out of their way if it's not the right checkout option for them in that moment," said Kanwar. "Whether it's Apple Pay or PayPal or any of these options, we've partnered with each of those wallets to bring them into our checkout flows. But we feel confident that consumers are going to need flexibility in how they check out; for instance, if they don't have another mobile wallet set up or they've already started the checkout process."
Shopify has developed Shopify Pay over the past year, and tested the feature in the wild with more than 15,000 merchants. According to the company, the redesigned experience has increased mobile checkout speeds by 40 percent and has resulted in an 18-percent increase in mobile conversion rates for returning customers. Shopify Pay is rolling out over the course of May to all Shopify merchants, at no extra cost to retailers or consumers.
"The experience is extremely subtle. It's no different than when you buy a pizza online and your delivery address is there the next time you begin that checkout flow," said Kanwar. "It's like Amazon's assisted checkout option: you don't need to consciously think about it. This can be a foundational way to keep that merchant/shopper relationship healthy."