RIP Google Checkout: Google Pushes Merchants Towards Wallet

By Tinuiti Team

May 21 2013

Google announced today that Google Checkout is going to be phased out over the next six months to be replaced by Google Wallet.

Out With Google Checkout: What This Means For Merchants

For online merchants using Google Checkout, you have until November 20th to transition to Google wallet or another payment system:

“What this means for Checkout merchants
Merchants can continue to accept payments using Google Checkout until November 20, 2013.

If you don’t have your own payment processing, you will need to transition to a different solution within six months. To make things easier, we’ve partnered with Braintree, Shopify and Freshbooks to offer you discounted migration options.
If you are a U.S. merchant that does have payment processing, you can apply for Google Wallet Instant Buy, which offers a fast buying experience to Google Wallet shoppers.

We invite merchants to join us for a live webinar on May 23, 2013 at 10AM PST to learn more. Or, you can visit the Help Center for more details.”

Owen Thomas breaks down the announcement and muses on the impact for Google and online shopping as a whole, particularly in terms of Google’s competition with Amazon:

“The real prize for Google in being a player in the payments world is data—data about what advertisements and experiences lead to transactions. The risk is that Amazon and PayPal, by handling more kinds of transactions than Google is willing to do, including traditional e-commerce, will attract more merchants. Or that merchants will simply sign up with a payments processor and leave Google out of the equation altogether.”