Google Pay: what do you need to know as a developer?

Learn what is Google Pay and how can you integrate it into your website or app.

In the last six years, e-commerce has multiplied threefold in Latin America, bringing in revenues of 40B dollars. In 2018, Mexico was the country that grew the most in this sector (27%), followed by Peru, Colombia, Chile, Argentina, and Brazil.

In e-commerce, offering a variety of payment methods can be an element that differentiates you from the competition. In recent years, different technology and financial companies have developed their payment methods: Apple Pay, Visa Payment, MercadoPago or PayPal are some examples.

Since 2015 Google has joined the competition with Android Pay. Since January 2018 Android Pay changed his name to Google Pay. Google Pay allows you to make payments online and in stores with Android devices, tablets or even watches.

Google Pay allows you to make payments at stores with banking terminals that accept QR codes. For this, users need to have a tokenized card approved by a bank. In online payments, customers can pay with any card they have registered in Google Pay.

José Ugía, Google Developer Program Engineer, wrote on the Google Developers blog what should be taken into account to integrate Google Pay into your site or app.

Why integrate Google Pay?

Google Pay seeks to reduce friction when paying to increase conversions. Among the advantages that Ugía exposes are:

  • Simplification of checkout
  • Greater security
  • Allows payments from multiple sources
  • Increase conversions of new users

How to integrate Google Pay into your site?

The integration of Google Pay to the website only requires a few lines of code. You can follow the following tutorial:

To check that your site meets all the requirements, follow this checklist that will help you test the API. Once you have verified your website, you request production access and follow the final steps for integration.

Payment Request API

The payment request API is a W3C web payment standard. However, it does not work on all browsers. For this reason, Ugía recommends using the Google Pay JavaScript library.

The Google team integrates new options according to the needs of users, such as payments through PayPal, so no development work is necessary afterward.