Google is putting Google Checkout out to pasture and placing its payment processing future solely on Google Wallet. The company has announced it will retire Google Checkout in six months.
The news comes a week after Google announced several new features for the Google Wallet platform. The new Instant Buy Android API is designed to make it easier for users to buy physical goods and services in native Android apps in as few as two clicks.
The Wallet Objects API allows merchants to integrate their loyalty programs and offers into Google Wallet. And a new integration with Gmail will enable users to send money to friends and family within Gmail using Google Wallet.
Current Google Checkout merchants can accept payments until November 30, 2013. Google has partnered with Braintree, Shopify and Freshbooks to offer integration discounts to merchants that do not have their own payment processing. U.S. merchants with their own payment processing can apply for Google Wallet Instant Buy.
Developers already selling through Google properties (Google Play, Chrome Web Store, Offers Marketplace) will transition automatically to Google Wallet in the next few weeks.
Launched in 2011, the Google Wallet platform was originally designed to make user’s cell phones function as their wallets for in-store purchases. Google Wallet’s recent integrations with Chrome, Gmail and Google Play are an example of the company’s broader shift toward better product synthesis. It also signals Google’s desire to compete head-to-head with payment processing behemoth PayPal as well as mobile processors like Square.
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