Nearly 40% of Consumers Want Payments and Credentials Vault

In today’s modern commerce landscape, convenience-driven shoppers increasingly desire a frictionless checkout experience and are embracing the ability to use stored credentials for seamless payments.

In “Payments And Credentials Vaults: Gauging Consumer Interest,” PYMNTS Intelligence drew on a survey of more than 2,000 consumers to examine how consumer preferences for stored payment credentials management have shifted.

According to findings detailed in the joint PYMNTS-FIS study, 80% of consumers have stored their payment information online, whether on merchants’ sites or applications, and most trust numerous eCommerce platforms with their details in exchange for a seamless payment experience.

Additionally, the study found that more than six in 10 consumers have recently used stored payment credentials to pay for online products or services. Millennials and high-income consumers are particularly enthusiastic adopters of convenience-focused payment technologies, with 69% of millennials and 66% of high-income consumers utilizing stored credentials for their subscriptions or online purchases.

However, the survey highlighted that 55% of consumers who store payment credentials have experienced checkout disruptions, such as expired or stolen cards, highlighting the need for a more modern iteration of stored credentials, such as a credentials vault, to address these issues.

The idea behind a credentials vault is to provide consumers with a secure app that stores and encrypts their payment credentials. This allows consumers to safely provide the information to merchants at the time of payment, eliminating the need to repeatedly enter payment details. Additionally, the vault serves as a central point for consumers to update their personal or account information without directly providing it to merchants.

Consumers surveyed identified several features and benefits that would encourage them to use a payments and credentials vault. The top motivator was strong data security, followed by the requirement for consent before enabling third-party services and faster payment processing.

Against this backdrop, the survey found that 40% of consumers are highly interested in using a payments and credentials vault that securely holds and updates payment information. This interest is especially strong among consumers who store at least 10 credentials, those who have experienced issues with stored credentials, and connected-tech consumers — individuals owning seven to eight devices on average — 59% of whom expressed strong interest in using this type of vault.

Overall, 58% of all consumers are at least somewhat likely to switch to merchants that provide a link to a payments and credentials vault, and more than half of consumers who have experienced issues and have more than 10 stored credentials are highly likely to switch to merchants that offer this service.