Since instituting Google Wallet Instant Buy in 2012, Rockport has seen 90% of consumers who begin a mobile purchase using the application to complete it, compared to just 3% for mobile purchases overall, a company executive told retailers at IRCE 2014.
Mobile transactions using the application represent 10% of total mobile purchases for Rockport, said Kimberly Correa-Hunt, the company’s director of global ecommerce.
“It’s extremely easy to use, and customers have provided us with very positive feedback,” said Correa-Hunt. “If they have a Google account they’re already logged in. Our average order values are 2% to 3% higher, and we’re seeing conversions go from strength to strength.”
Wilson Kerr, vice president of sales and business development for Unbound Commerce – which helped Rockport set up its mobile payment system – talked about how Google Wallet Instant Buy helps retailers overcome the “friction” of mobile checkout.
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“The average desktop cart checkout conversion rate is 28%, but the average mobile checkout is just 3%,” Kerr said, citing studies from SeeWhy and others. “Most m-commerce purchases are not completed. It’s not easy to type into the fields, and consumers don’t have a lot of time to complete them. According to Jumio, abandoned mobile shopping carts represented $15.9 billion in lost sales in 2013.”
Kerr said implementing Google Wallet Instant Buy via a free API doesn’t involve any changes to payment processing or existing infrastructure, there are no additional fees and no effect on chargebacks. “It’s a very smooth process,” he said. “Close to 200 retailers are using it, including Hilton, 800 Flowers, Priceline, GNC and Rockport.”
According to case studies from Google, Ru La La’s mobile conversion rate lift has quadrupled with Google Wallet Instant Buy and a 50% increase in mobile traffic, while Newegg has seen a doubling of its mobile conversions, Kerr said.
While Kerr said many retailers may wonder how broadly Google Wallet has been adopted, he said anyone who has posted to a YouTube account, has an Android phone, uses Gmail or Google Docs is already set up to use the application, representing about 1 billion accounts globally. Going by an unscientific show of hands, about 75% of the people in the IRCE 2014 session had one or more of these hooks into Google Wallet.
Kerr added Google hasn’t released numbers on how many credit cards have been connected to Google Wallet.