In the world of modern eCommerce, one of the most impactful factors in conversion is the experience during checkout. A beautifully designed website, compelling product catalog, and strong marketing strategy can bring a customer all the way to the cart—only for them to abandon it when friction arises during payment.

For many consumers, especially on mobile, the checkout process can feel like a chore. Typing in contact, fulfillment, and payment details on a small screen is a surefire way to introduce hesitation. That’s why digital wallets like Apple Pay and Google Pay have become essential tools in optimizing the buyer journey. They’re fast, secure, and already trusted by millions of consumers worldwide.

Broadleaf Commerce has partnered with Stripe to make enabling these payment methods straightforward for merchants—regardless of whether you’re running a direct-to-consumer site, a B2B portal, or a multi-site enterprise platform. This blog post walks through the value, approach, and implementation best practices for supporting Apple Pay and Google Pay on a Broadleaf storefront using Stripe.

Why Apple Pay and Google Pay Should Be on Your Roadmap

Consumers are shifting toward mobile-first and app-based shopping, and their expectations have followed suit. According to Stripe, businesses that add digital wallet support often see a measurable lift in conversion, particularly among mobile shoppers.

The key benefits of supporting Apple Pay and Google Pay include:

• Express checkouts: These methods autofill billing, shipping, and payment details, dramatically reducing the number of steps required.
• Higher trust and security: Payments are authorized using biometrics or device passcodes, and card numbers are never shared with the merchant.
• Reduced cart abandonment: Reduced friction in the customer’s final steps can make the difference between a completed purchase and a lost opportunity.
• Improved mobile performance: Digital wallets are optimized for mobile devices and provide a native-like experience across platforms.

In short, Apple Pay and Google Pay not only benefit your customers, but they can also deliver meaningful business impact in the form of increased revenue and repeat purchases.

Broadleaf and Stripe: Designed for Modern Payment Experiences

At Broadleaf, flexibility and extensibility are foundational principles. That’s why our integration with Stripe is designed to support modern checkout flows—allowing merchants to offer seamless experiences without rebuilding their existing checkout process.

Broadleaf leverages Stripe’s Payment Request Button, which intelligently displays the appropriate digital wallet based on the shopper’s device and browser. For example, customers using Safari on iOS will be prompted with Apple Pay, while those on Android or Chrome may see Google Pay.

The front-end integration is handled using Stripe Elements, a library of pre-built UI components. These components not only manage the rendering of Apple Pay and Google Pay buttons, but also handle secure tokenization and data collection—ensuring PCI compliance and a consistent look across devices.

Once the user confirms a payment, Stripe returns a PaymentMethod ID. This ID is passed to Broadleaf’s PaymentTransactionServices, which manages the downstream transaction processing through the Stripe gateway. The entire flow is clean, modular, and secure.

Integration Options

When introducing Apple Pay and Google Pay to your cart and checkout experience, you have two options:

1. Surfacing Apple Pay and Google Pay as express checkout options from your cart or checkout UI.
2. Surfacing Apple Pay and Google Pay as an additional payment option within the payment section of your checkout UI.

Express checkout via Apple Pay or Google Pay can often be the quickest route to a conversion, while using Apple Pay and Google Pay as available payment options within your checkout UI gives your business safe and easy access to the customer’s payment method, with little effort from the customer.

Express Checkout with Apple Pay and Google Pay

As an alternative to your typical checkout flow UI, express checkout takes on the responsibility of gathering the customer’s contact, fulfillment, and payment details, all via an Apple-hosted or Google-hosted UI.

When it comes to your integration, this means that the frontend takes on the responsibility of coordinating the transfer of information between the Apple or Google UI and your Broadleaf-based commerce services. This includes providing fulfillment options, storing customer selections on the cart, repricing the cart as selections are made or changed, and ultimately producing a payment representation in Broadleaf’s PaymentTransactionService. Upon the completion of this interaction, the customer’s cart is ready for checkout submission.

For more detail on introducing this integration to your Broadleaf ecosystem, review the “Express Checkout” portion of our Stripe Apple Pay and Google Pay documentation.

Surfacing Apple Pay and Google Pay as a Payment Option within Your Checkout UI

Within your checkout UI, the Stripe Elements library handles the Apple Pay and Google Pay interactions, just leaving your frontend to create a payment representation in Broadleaf’s PaymentTransactionService with the Stripe payment method ID. From there, Broadleaf is able to coordinate the execution of payment transactions against this Stripe payment method. For example, executing an Authorize or AuthorizeAndCapture transaction upon checkout submission.

For more detail on introducing this integration to your Broadleaf ecosystem, review the “Within the Checkout Flow” portion of our Stripe Apple Pay and Google Pay documentation.

Supporting Saved Wallets and Future Use

Beyond reducing checkout friction for guest customers, Broadleaf’s Stripe integration supports saving Apple Pay and Google Pay based payment methods for future use with registered customers—a crucial feature for subscription-based models or customers who prefer a “one-click” checkout experience on future purchases.

To enable this feature, include the shouldSavePaymentForFutureUse flag in your payment creation request to PaymentTransactionServices. Stripe will handle the storage and future-use consent, while Broadleaf stores the necessary identifiers to retrieve and use the saved method later.

You can also include the SETUP_FUTURE_USAGE property in your payment’s paymentMethodProperties to declare if the saved payment method can only be used in the checkout flow in the future. Use “on_session” if you intend to only reuse the payment method when your customer is present in your checkout flow. Use “off_session” if your customer may or may not be present in your checkout flow (e.g. for subscription billing).

Final Thoughts

Incorporating Apple Pay and Google Pay into your checkout experience is no longer a novelty—it’s a necessity for any business serious about mobile commerce and customer experience. Broadleaf’s Stripe integration offers a powerful and flexible framework to help you implement these modern payment methods with confidence.

By reducing friction at the point of purchase, you empower your customers to act on intent, which ultimately drives higher conversion rates, customer satisfaction, and brand loyalty.

If you’re ready to take your checkout to the next level, Broadleaf makes it easier than ever to get started.

Interested in implementing Apple Pay or Google Pay on your storefront? Contact us to learn how our Stripe integration can help you create a frictionless, mobile-friendly checkout experience.