Online payment company PayU announces that Google Pay is now available on the Romanian market, following a partnership with Google.
“With e-commerce on a strong upward trend, with the average annual online purchases per capita expected to exceed $308 in 2021, merchants will need to provide shoppers with more and more payment methods that assist the purchase process in the easiest, fastest, and most secure way possible,” a PayU release said.
Google Pay is a simple way to pay with a card, without the need to fill in card details, with users free to make payments with their phone, without the need for access to a laptop, card, or cash.
To make payments with Google Pay for online purchases, users need to save their card(s) details to their Google account at pay.google.com, or via the Google Pay mobile app.
Merchants implementing Google Pay will benefit from multiple advantages, including improved shopper experience, extended availability in terms of a number of cards saved, enhanced technical functionality, increased sales through the growing popularity of this payment method, along with increased payment security and therefore reduced risk of fraud.
“In Romania, the trend of making payments by phone had far outpaced online orders made from a laptop as early as 2019, with the difference between these two payment channels then being 63.6% via phone vs. 36.4% via laptop/desktop. At the same time, already 31% of all electronic payments were made via mobile or smartwatch, a trend that will surely increase with the launch of Google Pay”, said Elena Gheorghe, Country Manager PayU Romania.
Last year in Romania, around 9 million people used online commerce, which represents a penetration rate of 47%. According to estimates, this will grow to 10.7 million users and a penetration rate of 57% by 2025.
The partnership between PayU and Google not only boosts local e-commerce, but also offers new benefits to shoppers, who will be able to use the mobile payments they already use in traditional stores, but via the internet, directly from their phone or tablet.
“Romanian shoppers want to pay for their products and services quickly and easily. The time they spend with the steps to make the payment and the effort they have to put in to complete the payment are crucial criteria in their decision to come back and buy again. In the case of Google Pay, the procedure is so simple that when they are shopping and they are in the online application of the store or on its website, they just have to click on the <<Google Pay>> button, choose the desired card for payment and approve the transaction with the selected card”, said Elena Gheorghe.
Payment with the e-wallet via Google Pay can be made from Android phones, the most widespread in Romania, with a market share of 79% of all mobile device users.