Google is withdrawing Google Checkout and placing its payment processing future solely on Google Wallet. They have 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. This new API is designed to make it easier for users to buy physical goods and services. The Wallet Objects API also allows merchants to integrate their loyalty programs and offers into Google Wallet. 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 many big names 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 which already selling their products and services through Google (Google Play, Chrome Web Store, Offers Marketplace) will be transitioned 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 products. The update of Google Wallet can also be interpreted as Google’s desire to compete with another online payment processing giant, like PayPal.
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