When was the last time you opened your wallet? Not just tapped a card, but opened it: unfolded the leather, dug past old receipts, and pulled something out?
As of 2025, 4.5 billion people use digital or mobile wallets to pay, according to Juniper Research. That number’s expected to grow another 35% by 2030.
For most shoppers, it’s already routine: Tap the phone, hear the chime, walk out.
Merchants, however, lag in their adoption of this new technology, with one survey finding that while 68% of consumers prefer to use mobile wallets, only 56% of merchants accept them. Many stores still run point-of-sale (POS) systems that can’t read mobile wallet taps.
Ahead, learn how mobile wallets work, what technologies power them, and how to start accepting mobile wallets for your business.
What is a mobile wallet?
A mobile wallet is exactly what it sounds like: a virtual wallet built for your phone.
The wallet stores digital versions of your credit and debit cards, loyalty passes, IDs, boarding passes, and event tickets, letting you tap to pay, verify your identity, or enter data a quick scan.
Unlike physical wallets, mobile wallets also encrypt the information they hold. Each transaction uses a unique, one-time code instead of your actual card number, protecting sensitive data.
Digital wallet vs. mobile wallet
Digital wallet is a universal term for software that lets you store loyalty cards, debit cards, and credit card details in the cloud and then access them from a smart device, such as your mobile device or laptop.
Digital wallets like Shop Pay have several uses:
- Storing default payment details for online purchases
- Transferring funds between accounts
- Making payments through a mobile wallet
A mobile wallet is a specific typeof digital wallet that’s available through an app on a smartphone device. So, while every mobile wallet is a digital wallet, not every digital wallet is mobile.
How mobile wallets work
When someone pays with a mobile wallet, three things happen in less than a second:
- The phone authenticates the shopper through a facial ID, fingerprint, or passcode.
- The phone and POS system communicate via near-field communication (NFC).
- A unique payment token is sent and approved.
Most importantly, tapping to pay does not reveal a customer’s card number. Contactless payment services such as Apple Pay and Google Wallet generate unique tokens instead. The merchant gets paid, and the card gets charged.
The key technologies powering mobile wallets
NFC, tokenization, and point-of-sale systems are all integral technologies for mobile payments.
NFC
Near-field communication works best within about an inch and a half of the payment terminal—the closer the better—which is why you bring your phone right up to the card reader.
Once it’s that close, the two devices exchange payment data over a secure radio frequency.
Because the signal doesn’t travel far, NFC is less subject to spoofing or phishing than longer-range technologies such as QR codes or Bluetooth.
Tokenization
Instead of sending the shopper’s actual card number, the wallet creates a temporary token, a random string that stands in for the real data. Even if someone intercepted that token, it would be meaningless outside the secure payment system, and they couldn’t convert it back to the real card number.
The role of the point-of-sale system
The Shopify POS Terminal consists of a handheld reader and a dock. Together, they create a dedicated countertop terminal that connects over wifi or Ethernet. When a customer holds their mobile device near the reader, your terminal uses its built-in NFC antenna to pick up the encrypted payment token. The POS system then routes that token through your payment processor, where it’s verified, authorized, and settled.
Older terminals can’t do this. They rely on magstripe or chip readers that don’t have NFC antennas, so a tap never registers. That’s why some merchants still turn customers away when wallets should, in theory, just work.
But the right equipment fundamentally changes the in-store experience. Modern, NFC-enabled systems, like Shopify POS Terminal and Shopify Tap to Pay on iPhone, handle wallet transactions automatically.
Top 3 benefits of accepting mobile wallets
For merchants, mobile wallets offer three main advantages:
1. Enhanced security
Password protection technology, such as biometric verification (facial or fingerprint ID), make it difficult for anyone but a mobile device’s owner to use their wallet, limiting the potential for fraudulent purchases.
In turn, this can save business owners money by reducing chargebacks, or reversed charges stemming from disputed transactions. A report produced in partnership with Google states that digital wallets generate 99.6% fewer chargebacks than standard physical card transactions.
2. Unmatched convenience
Rigid payment options can lead to abandoned carts, but when you accept mobile wallets, you remove a potential payment barrier. Data from Shopify’s digital wallet, Shop Pay, shows up to 50% higher conversion rates compared with guest checkout.
3. Faster checkout speed
Research from Visa shows contactless payments can complete in as little as 0.5 seconds, up to seven times faster than chip-and-PIN transactions. Faster checkouts reduce staff bottlenecks and, studies say, increase customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Alexa Allamano, Shopify merchant and owner of jewelry store Foamy Wader, agrees that speed matters. “Mobile wallet checkout is lightning fast and sidesteps the often awkward card handling process as customers navigate the payment process on a device they already trust.”
Popular mobile wallets your customers use
The most popular mobile wallets in the US are Apple Pay, Google Wallet, and PayPal. To accept them, you need an NFC-enabled POS system like Shopify POS.
Apple Pay
Apple Pay is the leader for in-store contactless payments, according to 2025 data from Capital One.
Shopify merchants can enable Apple Pay on their Shopify store to offer faster, one-tap checkout for iPhone and Apple Watch users.
Google Wallet (formerly Google Pay)
Google officially discontinued Google Pay in the US in June 2024, making Google Wallet its primary mobile payment app. Representing 15% of the US digital wallet market, it’s worth including in your digital payments options.
Google Pay is available to all Shopify merchants using Shopify Payments.
PayPal
With 434 million active consumer and merchant accounts in about 200 markets, PayPal leads online checkouts, making it an attractive option for your ecommerce store.
PayPal Express Checkout is automatically enabled whenever you create a Shopify store.
Samsung Wallet
With a similar function as Apple Pay and Google Wallet, Samsung Wallet (formerly Samsung Pay) holds a 42% share of mobile wallet app transactions in South Korea, and is gaining ground in India and Europe.
Customers can use their Samsung Wallets on Shopify POS systems with Tap to Pay on Android.
💡Pro tip: Skip the manual entries and reconciling for online and in-store purchases with Shopify’s integrated payment processing. Accept credit, debit, and mobile payments and track online and in-store sales and payments from the Shopify admin.
Other notable wallets
Person-to-person wallets like Venmo and Cash App started as ways to split bills, but they’ve evolved into full-fledged checkout options for millions of consumers.
- Venmo: Primarily used to transfer money between friends and family, data from Venmo owner PayPal shows that of 95.4 million active US accounts, roughly 68% belong to Gen Z or millennial users.
- CashApp: Another social payment app, Cash App is also used for borrowing and investing, with over 57 millionmonthly active users in the US in 2024, according to SEC filings.
- Zelle: Touted as a valuable payment tool for small businesses, in 2024 Zelle surpassed $1 trillion in total transaction value. It was, according to the company, the most money ever sent in a single year by a peer-to-peer payment service.
- Alipay and WeChat Pay: Although it’s difficult to verify their precise value using official government sources, it’s well established that together, social payment platforms Alipay and WeChat Pay dominate Chinese mobile payment transactions. If you do a lot of business with customers based in China, you might consider enabling these virtual wallets on your systems.
Whatever your preferred digital wallets, Shopify Payments is fully integrated and secure, so you can choose which ones to accept (with some regional limitations).
How to accept mobile wallet payments in your store
Here’s how to accept mobile wallets successfully:
Get an NFC-enabled POS system
All you need to start accepting mobile wallets as a payment method is a POS system with the right technology.
The best POS system enables you to accept multiple payment methods, like mobile wallets or NFC cards. This technology is often built in, so it may be a case of simply activating the feature.
Additionally, look for POS systems that can help you track key sales data, create detailed customer reports, and manage inventory. Shopify’s POS system comes with the hardware you need to process purchases and accept mobile payments, streamlining the checkout process and reducing customer wait times.
💡 Pro tip: Shopify POS has a fully customizable checkout experience. Create shortcuts to keep your most-used apps, promotions, and products at your fingertips so you can fly through checkout.
Advertise your new payment options
Inform customers that they can pay with their mobile wallets. Advertise in your physical stores by adding retail signage at the payment terminal explaining which mobile wallet types you accept. Do the same for your window display to attract foot traffic.
Also, remember the importance of customer engagement at the time of payment: ask if they’re interested in paying with a mobile wallet. And consider posting a simple contactless logo alongside the names of the mobile wallets—it just may be enough to encourage customers to use them when paying at checkout.
Start accepting mobile wallets today
As mobile wallet use continues to grow, merchants have the opportunity to expand their reach and customer base while retaining the loyalty of existing customers. By meeting customer expectations of added security, quick and seamless payments, and convenience, you are better poised to drive business growth and embrace the efficiencies of accepting this type of digital payment.
Given that mobile wallets are simple, intuitive, and secure for smartphone users, it’s worth exploring how you can use the tech within your retail business. All you need is the right POS system to start accepting mobile payments from customers.
📌 Get started: Explore POS offerings from the Shopify Store.
Mobile wallets FAQ
How do you use a mobile wallet?
- Download a mobile wallet app from your phone's app store.
- Create an account and add your credit or debit card information.
- Use the app to make payments in stores or online; simply scan the QR code or tap your phone against the payment terminal.
- Confirm the payment, and you're done!
What are the most popular mobile wallets?
Popular mobile wallet examples include Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal, and Samsung Wallet (formerly Samsung Pay).
What do I need to accept mobile wallet payments?
All you need is a POS system or an online checkout that supports NFC or digital wallet integrations.
For in-person sales, that means using an NFC-enabled reader or terminal, like Shopify POS Terminal or Tap to Pay on iPhone, so customers can tap their phone or smartwatch to pay.
For online stores, simply enabling Shopify Payments lets you accept major wallets like Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal, and Shop Pay with no extra setup.
