Despite our ever-approaching transition to a cashless world and more consumers than ever who want to pay for online goods using their mobile phones, brands are still coming up short when it comes to mastering the mobile payment experience. Brands are stuck deploying solutions that might have satisfied yesterday’s shoppers, but in our current culture of convenience, just don’t cut it, according to the recent report.

The research, carried out by L2, measured mobile payment performance of 100 brands with a specific look at mobile sites, apps, and marketing. The findings reveal that by not nailing down the mobile payment experience and making it as convenient as possible, brands are all too often missing out on cherished conversions. In particular, e-commerce brands are failing to expedite the mobile payment process and aren’t providing a seamless user experience.

And when you consider the numbers, e-commerce brands are missing massive profits by not having their mobile payment experience up to snuff. In 2016 alone, US consumers bought just under $50 billion worth of goods using mobile payments while over a third of US shoppers said they would use mobile payments more if more stores and apps accommodated it. Mobile wallets are set to surpass the use of both credit and debit cards by the year 2020. And what’s more, in the US, the key demographic using mobile payments as a means to purchase online products spend twice as much money shopping as non-mobile pay users.

An inconvenient experience

Of the 100 direct-to-consumer brands evaluated, only 14 have a mobile-optimized single-page checkout, meaning a simple one-click checkout system that eliminates page reloads. Another 40 percent has single-page checkout but those require reloads and the other 46 percent have multiple-page checkouts.

Of the analyzed brands in the study, on average users must navigate through three checkout pages and 12 form fields before making a purchase. On top of this unfortunate statistic, well over half of brands (61%) aggravate the problem by not implementing autocomplete features into their checkout forms and, in turn, adding another obstacle between the customer and purchase.

Another area where the mobile checkout experience falters is by failing to incorporate expedited payment options like PayPal, Apple Pay, and Samsung Pay in an optimized manner. Although PayPal sees wide adoption of among brands, and Apple Pay is surging of late, they routinely fail to advertise them prior to the final checkout page. And on top of that, of the 11 payment partners used by the brands in the study, over half (55%) only host one during mobile checkout. According to the report, the most successful e-commerce brands used multiple payment partners to boost conversions.

Convenience equals conversions

The main remedies that e-commerce brands should look at to increase convenience and conversions, the L2 authors say, are a true one-page checkout system that doesn’t require reloads and the integration of established payment partners like PayPal with burgeoning ones like Pay with Venmo. But brands should also be wary of overwhelming shoppers with too many payment options. Therefore, they would be wise to follow the lead of top brands who advertise different payment options incrementally as the consumer gets closer to purchase.

Lastly, brands should capitalize on the fact that over 70 percent of Millennials identify loyalty rewards and discounts as the main factors when determining whether or not to make a purchasing decision using mobile payments. Leading online retailers exploit this by regularly marketing loyalty programs and offers at the final step of checkout to increase sign-ups and conversions.

According to the report, it is abundantly clear that e-commerce brands are nowhere near perfecting the mobile checkout experience and, hence, are losing vital conversions. However, building a user-friendly and, above all, convenient experience is a matter of priority and thoughtful innovation, with the end goal removing barriers to purchase. Not only is convenience the most important factor in e-commerce, but it is also the lifeblood of our digital age.