Dennis Jones, CEO of payment services provider Judo Payments, looks at what the imminent arrival of Android Pay will mean for app commerce and the UK’s high-street retail industry.

Given Android’s 53 per cent share of the UK smartphone market, Google’s upcoming launch of Android Pay, announced last week, is set to transform the way we purchase in-app and on UK high-streets forever.

Forget fumbling through your wallet and handing over a card in store. With Android Pay, you’ll be able to simply unlock your phone, place it on a contactless terminal and its Near-Field Communication (NFC) chip will make the transaction. You don’t even need to open an app. Just tap and pay. When it launches here in the UK, users will be able to download Android Pay from Google Play and it’ll come pre-installed on all new NFC-enabled Android phones.

Due to the way the Android Pay service is built – allowing for an API that can be coded into sup-ported apps – the service can also access loyalty card information and include it in each transaction, thus further reducing the need to carry around a purse or wallet. The UK retail industry can’t wait for this more accessible way for people to pay using their phones. And after last week’s announcement, it’s set to make its UK debut within a matter of months.

The roll-out of Apple Pay across the UK has already significantly increased the amount of interest in contactless payments. But with Android’s superior market share and its simple integration with existing NFC terminals, contactless payment adoption will now accelerate and SME businesses everywhere will benefit.

Customer relationships
For SMEs that are primarily selling physical goods and services in store, but that also have mobile apps or are considering them to enhance the customer experience, supporting Android Pay is a must to take full advantage of the improved customer relationships and valuable data that comes from supporting mobile apps and in-app payments. It is not about app downloads any more, but about apps being at the heart of payments. This is becoming increasingly relevant to the new digital high street retailers and restaurant chains, as well as high growth ‘on demand’ start-ups disrupting traditional industries like taxis.

Still don’t believe that mobile payments will make a significant change to sales? In the US, Staples saw a 109 per cent increase in overall conversion over nine months after accepting Apple Pay, and Apple of course only has an 18 per cent share of the smartphone market.

With Android’s dominance in the UK, businesses will see much higher rates of mobile device traffic supply valuable customer data while looking to make purchases through a more efficient and easier payment system.
As far as bank and card support goes, most banks that already support Apple Pay will back Google’s service, since both use similar NFC technology for payments. And with MasterCard, Visa and American Express already supporting Android Pay in the US, it’s likely to be the same here.

App developers will embrace Android Pay because of its simplicity and added value to the user ex-perience. If you’re buying something in-app, with Android Pay you’ll never have to enter your ship-ping and billing address for online checkout again. Just select ‘Buy with Android Pay’ and your payment will be processed quickly and securely.

Many apps in the US, where Android Pay has been live since September, currently offer incentives to pay using Android Pay such as $20 off on OpenTable dining, or $10 off your Lyft ride, so we’re sure we’ll see the same happen this side of the Atlantic.

Security is another plus point. Like Apple Pay, Android Pay doesn’t send your actual credit or debit card number with your payment. Instead, it uses a virtual account number to represent your account information, so your card details stay safe.  As soon as a purchase is made, the consumer sees a payment confirmation that shows where the transaction happened, along with the retailer’s name and number – making it easy to catch any suspicious activity.

And if a phone is ever lost or stolen, there’s no more frantically trying to cancel every card. You can just use Android Device Manager to instantly lock your phone, secure it with a new password or even wipe it clean of your personal information.

Contactless payment systems from the likes of Apple and Samsung have so far only scratched the surface of how mass adoption will benefit businesses and app commerce. Here in the UK, we need to be ready for the mammoth of the technology and smartphone world to introduce Android Pay – as it will change everything.

Dennis Jones is CEO of payment services provider Judo Payments