Dive Brief:

• Incognia, a location identity company, analyzed various retailer's mobile apps and found that more than 80% of retailers surveyed supported PayPal's in-app payment option, but only 20% supported Apple Pay, according to a report shared with Retail Dive.

• Incognia's research also found that two-thirds of retail apps surveyed provided BOPIS options for consumers.

• Among the apps with the lowest checkout friction for pickup purchases were Lowe's, Bed Bath & Beyond and Home Depot. Meanwhile, Sephora, Lowe's and Home Depot had the lowest checkout friction for delivery purchases, per the report.

Dive Insight:

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, retailers have pivoted to give consumers more choices via their mobile apps. Incognia examined multiple retailers, including Best Buy, Costco, Walmart and Target, for traits ranging from the number of clicks and fields required to complete transactions to the variety of payment and purchase options available to shoppers.

"The pandemic caused an influx of consumers to shop on their mobile phones, and top retailers responded by investing in their mCommerce apps. For retailers, the purchasing experience is critical to the customer experience," André Ferraz, founder and CEO of Incognia, said in a statement. Ferraz added that the level of checkout friction "can easily make or break customer satisfaction and retention."

Given that COVID-19 has complicated in-store shopping, more retailers, including Tractor Supply and Francesca's, have recently debuted mobile apps. Lowe's and Home Depot, which earned top marks in Incognia's study for frictionless checkout experiences, both saw a record-breaking spike in app downloads last year. 

Of course, a variety of payment options could be critical for retailers courting mobile customers. According to a Sensor Tower report, consumers spent more than $100 billion via mobile apps and games around the world in 2020, suggesting that mobile will be vital for the foreseeable future. And research from Finaria estimates that the mobile wallet market will reach $2.4 trillion in 2021 and increase to $3.5 trillion by 2023.

Meanwhile, both PayPal and Apple Pay have introduced features aimed at luring new customers. PayPal released an installment payment feature in September. And in addition to adding Kroger to its list of retailers last summer, in addition to many others, Apple Pay began accepting BitPay Prepaid Mastercard into its mobile wallet back in February.