Gen Z Online Shoppers 120% Likelier Than Millennials to Use Apple Pay

OneSource Virtual, payroll, digital wallets

When it comes to digital wallet adoption, the youngest consumers are outpacing older generations by a wide margin, PYMNTS Intelligence research reveals.

By the Numbers

The report “How Preferred Payment Availability Can Reduce Cart Abandonment,” a PYMNTS Intelligence and Adobe collaboration, draws from a survey of more than 3,500 U.S. consumers to understand their actions, choices and behaviors when shopping online.

The study found that, among online shoppers, 8.8% of those in Gen Z used Apple Pay as their most common payment method when making digital purchases — more than twice the 4% of millennials who did the same, and well above the 1.1% of Gen Z and 0.8% of baby boomers and seniors who did so.

Notably, however, millennials outpace Gen Z in Google Pay adoption nearly 3 to 1, opting for the digital wallet far more than any other generation.

The Data in Context

In fact, consumers demand their preferred payment options on eCommerce channels.

graphic, payment methods

Drew Olson, senior director at Google Pay, told PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster in an interview published in December that individuals shopping on Google — more than 1 billion times daily — are demanding more choice at checkout.

“Whatever calculus the user performs to determine the payment methods that they want to use, they want more options across more merchants,” he told Webster.

Merchants are noting the same, as Tamara Jarrar, founder and CEO of direct-to-consumer (D2C) children’s sleepwear brand Bellabu Bear, told PYMNTS in a recent interview.

“When [a given payment method is] not working, because we’ve had certain times where our site we had a few issues with the payments, customers immediately reach out,” Jarrar said. “They’re not really willing to pay with a different form. … Making sure that you have more platforms for them to pay will help push the sale and increase conversions on your site.”