NZ's online merchants can now offer Google Pay

Online merchants based in New Zealand now have the opportunity to offer Google Pay as a form of payment for customers.

Google and Paymark are behind the effort. Paymark says it's the first homegrown New Zealand payments processor to offer the capability, and it worked closely with Google to offer the service.

While merchants have been able to offer Google Pay in store for a while now, this is the first time online merchants have been able to offer it.

"We want to make it easier for businesses like Paymark to offer a simpler, faster payment solution for their customers. With Google Pay, customers will be able to speed through checkout with just a few clicks," comments Google Pay group product manager Prasenjit Phukan.

Google Pay allows customers to use saved payment details in their Google account to pay for goods and services online.

Paymark says shopping online is all about convenience and making the payment process as easy and frictionless as possible. By selecting Google Pay at the checkout, customers avoid typing in credit card details, and instead use the card credentials linked to their Google account.

"As New Zealand's original financial tech start up Paymark has always looked to the next innovation, to the next way to make payments easier," comments Paymark head of eCommerce, Darren Hopper.

"With more consumers using mobile devices to make online payments, the easier we can make the process the better. Our objective is to completely remove the need to type long and tedious credit card numbers into websites. Who wants to do that?"

Paymark is also working with fintech startups, banks, and New Zealand merchants to design and build the future of payments in New Zealand.

Paymark's Open Payments Enabled Network (OPEN) will allow innovations to be born both online and in-store.

"The future as we see it is to create a payment experience that is largely invisible and one that is fully integrated into the overall customer experience," says Darren.

Google Pay is one of many payment innovations Paymark expect to launch over the next 12 months.