Recently, express checkout became a major trend in online and mobile shopping. Speedy checkout services allow shoppers to make payments in online stores with as little as one click which sends payment authorization from their accounts with pre-stored payment information. Payment companies embarked on the trend trying the offer the most low-friction checkout experiences. Visa launched Visa Checkout in a number of countries in 2014 and planned to expand to 16 new countries this year. American Express launched its version, Amex Express Checkout, while PayPal rolled out the express payment service One Touch in the USA and Amazon pushed its Amazon Payments service.

As technology advances, this trend becomes more feasible. Smartphone penetration especially is a great contributor. But is the speed what the consumers really want from the online payment process? Recent surveys suggest that payment data security is a more demanding concern: over half of the shoppers asked worldwide in 2014 indicated that they were worried about their personal data when using a mobile payment app. And yet precisely this factor could give a boost to express checkout services, as they not only allow to make a speedy checkout, but also to keep payment details with the trusted provider without having to enter them on the shopping websites which might be less trusted. In the USA, a 2014 survey revealed that nearly three quarters trust their bank or credit union with their payment information the most, followed by PayPal and Amazon. In this case, the fact that credit card companies, PayPal and Amazon now each offer an opportunity to safely store payment details once and use them wherever possible is good news for online shoppers.

More information on global online and mobile payment trends, as well as market statistics can be found in the “Global Online Payment Methods: First Half 2015” here. Further free insights are available in our media section.