Digital wallets: The most convenient way for your customers to pay

Australia’s retail industry has seen very large and significant changes over the past 2-3 years. From the dramatic rise of eCommerce to Near Field Communications (NFC) payments (Paywave, Masterpass) to pin-based transactions taking over from signing for credit card purchases in brick-and-mortar stores.

All of these changes have made it far more convenient for your customers to purchase from you. The next big trend for convenient payments is Digital Wallets.

What Are Digital Wallets?

Digital Wallets are electronic devices that securely hold your card data and information (not unlike your regular wallet). The big advantage with digital wallets is that once your card data is securely stored and saved on the server, you will be able to make payments using just an email and password, shrinking the checkout time on websites and at EFTPOS terminals in traditional brick-and-mortar stores.

Digital wallets are not a new thing. In fact, if you have ever made a purchase through a PayPal account you have used one before. But with the rise of smartphones, Digital wallets are now a lot easier to use and are accepted in more places than ever before.

Are Digital Wallets Secure?

Yes, and, they are in fact a more secure way of paying than the conventional method of manually entering the card details on your website. And not just for your customer but also for you!

For your customers, they have to log into a secure server before paying, making it hard for fraudsters to make a payment with a stolen card.

For you, the payment is performed and hosted on the digital wallets server, meaning that at no point will any card data or information be held or passed through your server, decreasing your risk.

Who Runs Digital Wallets?

Several different companies operate digital wallets, and each has their own slightly different way of handling the process. Most of these are large IT organisations including:

• Click to Pay – Brings together Visa Checkout and Amex Express Checkout into one seamless checkout experience, with Mastercard Masterpass coming soon. The solution is designed to mirror the consistent experience in-store with one button to accept all cards.
• PayPal – One of the first and most well-known digital wallets, it’s history started as a digital wallet service for eBay and it has continued to grow from strength to strength ever since.
• MasterPass – Run by Mastercard, it allows Mastercard cardholders to store payment data with Mastercard for quick payments.
• Apple Pay – It allows you to store your AMEX proprietary card, ANZ AMEX companion card or ANZ Visa card* data securely on your iPhone, so you can quickly and easily make payments from websites, apps and even EFTPOS terminals at brick-and-mortar stores using Fingerprint ID. This is the most secure digital wallet on the market, as you use fingerprint identification and the card data is encrypted and stored directly on your device. Not even Apple is able to access or see the data.

Is Set-up Easy?

It is. In fact, digital wallets come pre-installed in a lot of payment gateways, but it’s a good idea to have a quick check with your gateway to see if it’s already available for you.

If it doesn’t come pre-installed, don’t stress, you can manually add these to your website or app by adding just a few lines of code (you may need to check with your developer if this is possible on your website).

A Final Thought

I cannot recommend adding a digital wallet to your site enough. Much like card payments surpassed cash and cheques due to higher security for both customers and business owners, digital wallets could eventually surpass direct card payments for similar reasons.

We really have only just started to scratch the surface of the true potential of digital wallets, for instance, if and when you will be able to add other cards (loyalty, store cards, etc.) and especially when you are able to add ID cards into your wallet (driver’s License, 18+ Card etc.) it will be able to check age and automatically restrict the purchase of 18+ goods. The sky is really the limit for digital wallets potential.

Having Digital Wallets on your site will put you ahead of the game from other competitors in your industry and help you increase your market share and revenue.

*Apple Pay is currently only available to customers with American Express proprietary cards, ANZ American Express companion cards and ANZ Visa cardholders but Apple has plans to expand and accept all Visa and Mastercards in the future.