Chick-fil-A and Wyndham Hotel Group are among the latest businesses to adopt Visa Checkout in an attempt to eradicate cart abandonment on mobile as competition heats up between the card network and Apple Pay for dominance in mobile online payments.

Visa made the announcement yesterday during Shoptalk 2016 that its Visa Checkout partnered with retailers Alaska Airlines, Chick-fil-A, Cole Haan, Emirates and Wyndham Hotel Group, with plans to expand more into Europe and India by 2016. With now more than 12 million customers, the mobile payment service has the possibility to give Apple Pay a real run for its money.

“We want to meet consumers on the platforms where they are making transactions, and increasingly, that is on their mobile devices,” said Vish Shastry, senior director of digital solutions at Visa. “Visa Checkout was built from the ground up to address the need for a better way to pay online, particularly on the smaller screens of mobile devices.

“Visa Checkout offers mobile shoppers a safe, secure way to efficiently complete purchases on a mobile device without worrying about the security of their card information,” he said. “To optimize Visa Checkout for mobile consumers, we leverage technologies embedded in the mobile operating system, such as biometric authentication, which we’ve built into our Android and iOS SDKs.”

Checking out with Visa
ComScore recently revealed that Visa Checkout has produced a 51 percent higher conversion rate compared to traditional checkout methods online and on mobile, with 86 percent of transactions completed. The mobile payment service focuses on providing customers with as few steps as possible during checkout, which helps to reduce cart abandonment rates.

With such a wide range of retailers adopting Visa Checkout such as Alaska Airlines, Chick-fil-A, Cole Haan, Emirates and Wyndham Hotel Group, that span a wide range of sectors, Apple Pay has a strong competitor. Customers of Alaska Airlines, Chick-fil-A, Cole Haan, Emirates and Wyndham will now be able to check out with one click, after registering their credit card information.

Visa Checkout will also make its way to five additional countries in Europe, as well as India, by the end of this year.

The financial institution may have more of an edge over Apple Pay, as consumers are still concerned with security issues, a financial brand may feel more secure to users. Visa also has a significant customer base to tap into.

Retailer adoption
Walmart.com, Walgreens and NFL Shop were some of the few that implemtented Visa Checkout to drive mobile conversions in January, with 45 percent of the solution’s users completing purchases on mobile devices (see more).

Starbucks also recently maximized the number of users on its mobile payments application by extending its capabilities to include Visa Checkout, exhibiting the growth of Visa’s platform (see more).

“As digital commerce continues to evolve, Visa Checkout has a bright future,” Mr. Shastry said. “We will continue to add new merchant partners to our already robust list of retailers globally, helping our partners achieve their business goals while making the digital shopping experience easier for consumers.

“We are also constantly evolving and expanding the product experience with things like the new interactive button, which gives customers the ability to complete their purchases with one “swipe,” making mobile payments simpler than ever with Visa Checkout.”