The news: Diverse payment options, including digital wallets, are in high demand among consumers, and a lack of options to support them could cost retailers sales.

Nearly 56 million US consumers, or 21% of shoppers, have abandoned an online cart in the past month because their preferred payment method wasn’t supported, per a PYMNTS and PayPal survey. That includes 36.1% of Gen Zers, 30.8% of millennials, and 14.6% of Gen Xers.

In the past month, 33.1% of US consumers have used a digital wallet, such as PayPal (18.1%), CashApp (9.7%), and Apple Pay (9.4%). Around 36 million, or 13.7% of shoppers, walked away from a cart, or would do so, if their preferred digital wallet wasn’t available, rising to 28.2% of Gen Z consumers.

What it means: Checkout is acting as a filter that determines whether a nearly completed sale will survive. Shoppers who reach the payment screen have already cleared the steps of searching, comparing, and cart-building. Losing them at the last step is a preventable failure.

Gen Z and millennial shoppers will drive the next era of spending growth and Gen X shoppers hold the highest purchasing power. Serving both audiences is crucial to maximize future revenues and build brand loyalty across generations.

Recommendations for retailers: Apple Pay, PayPal, CashApp, and Google Pay have all substantially grown their share of mobile wallet users over the past two years, per PYMNTS, and a single-wallet checkout strategy is no longer sufficient. Treat digital wallet support and multiple payment options as a need-to-have support system, not a backup option for traditional cards.

• Audit checkout flows and look for gaps and points of friction.
• List available payment options early in the shopping journey for clarity.
• Dig into cart abandonment to distinguish technical failures from customer preferences.

This content is part of EMARKETER’s subscription Briefings, where we pair daily updates with data and analysis from forecasts and research reports. Our Briefings prepare you to start your day informed, to provide critical insights in an important meeting, and to understand the context of what’s happening in your industry. Non-clients can click here to get a demo of our full platform and coverage.