Digital Shoppers Say They Want ‘Stored Credentials Vaults’ to Remove Friction at Checkout

Shoppers want a frictionless checkout experience and are increasingly interested in stored credentials solutions.

That’s according to the latest research in PYMNTS’ “Payments and Credentials Vaults: Gauging Consumer Interest” report, done in collaboration with FIS, which found that four in 10 consumers would be “very” or “extremely” interested in using a payment and credentials vault — as long as it can properly and safely store and update their payments information.

That percentage rises among younger consumers including millennials (more than five in 10), bridge millennials (52%) and Generation Z (45.2%).

Older cohorts including baby boomers and seniors are less interested, with a hair under half (49.9%) saying the prospect of using a secure payments vault doesn’t necessarily appeal to them.

This tracks with broader trends around general generational proclivities as they relate to online behavior and digital purchasing patterns.

The ability to use stored credentials has transformed modern commerce and evolved the customer journey. According to the research, 80% of consumers have saved their payment details online, either across merchant websites or on apps.

While the majority of shoppers trust their details to multiple eCommerce sites and apps in order to allow for a friction-free checkout experience, PYMNTS found that most (55%) have experienced friction during checkout — with data theft and outdated payment information being the two biggest root causes.

Credentials vaults, which are secure apps that store and encrypt consumers’ payment credentials, are being turned to as a modern solution for safe and seamless payments.

More than 77% of consumers said strong data security is a major factor influencing their willingness to use a payments and credentials vault, and 58% said they are at least “somewhat likely” to switch to merchants that link their services to a payments and credentials vault.

Faster payment processing is also a popular draw for using a stored credential vault, with nearly 65.9% of consumers reporting they would be swayed by the feature.

While it is difficult to provide specific usage statistics for stored credential vaults among retail customers as it varies depending on the source and the time frame of data collection, in general, the usage of password managers has been increasing in recent years as people have become more aware of the importance of strong and unique passwords and the risks associated with password reuse.

Additionally, the increase in remote work and the need to access a larger number of online accounts from different devices has also driven the adoption of stored credential vaults. There are many password manager software tools available in the market, and many of them are free, which also could be a reason for their widespread use.