Mobify and Google collaborate on online shopping engagement platform

Vancouver’s Mobify, which helps companies build mobile-friendly eCommerce sites and apps, is teaming up with Google, whose PaymentRequest technology will become an integrated part of the Mobify Mobile Customer Engagement Platform.
Google’s PaymentRequest technology is part of a long-term plan to ultimately eliminate checkout forms from the online shopping process entirely, while also enabling merchants to accept different payment methods and make existing checkout forms less onerous.
Mobify and Google will be hosting a webinar, entitled “RIP Checkout Forms: Google and Mobify Present the Future of Online Buying”, on Wednesday July 27, 2016, at 9:00 a.m. PT / 12:00 p.m. ET / 5:00 p.m. BST / 6:00 p.m. CEST, hosted by Mobify vice president of platform Anthony Nicalo and Google product manager Zach Koch.
The webinar will cover topics relating to the Mobify/Google integration, including:

• Google’s PaymentRequest API and how to get started
• How it is different from Android Pay, Apple Pay and PayPal
• How app-style payments will improve the customer experience, boost conversion rates and recover millions in online revenue

Mobify’s Mobile Customer Engagement Platform is the first mobile commerce solution to leverage the web capabilities of Google’s Progressive Web App (PWA) technology.
Google unveiled PWA at the Google I/O developer conference in May, touting it as an attempt to adapt web apps to mobile, making web apps feel and perform more like native apps, and to create an environment for a future of streaming apps on the web.
Progressive Web Apps combine an app-like development approach with other browser technologies, including offline mode, sensor and camera access, beacons, web push notifications, splash screens, and instant or animated page transitions.
PWAs approach the functionality and performance of native apps without the need for consumers to install an app, with the side effect that they get closer to full customer engagement than simply a web page viewed on a smartphone.
According to Internet Retailer, 46.1% of cart abandonment occurs at the payment stage, a figure that doesn’t vary between desktop and mobile, making optimization of the checkout process imperative to combating the loss of those customers.
Only one of the five reasons for users bailing out during the checkout process had to do with money, shipping costs, while the other four are attributable to the logistics of entering information through desktop or mobile checkout forms.
Other retailers, notably Amazon’s 1-Click Ordering process, are working to keep some of that transaction money on the table, but online retailers are still tentative to adopt currently available solutions.
In February, Mobify raised $10 million, its first round of funding, led by Munich-based Acton Capital Partners.
Mobify now employs more than 150 people, and counts more than 150 retail companies among its clients, including BT, Crocs, Carnival Cruises, Bosch, Superdry, Eddie Bauer, Matalan and Tommy Bahama.
You can register to participate in the webinar here.