Improving the user experience is always our priority at ActBlue. We try to make it easier for donors to give to the causes they believe in, wherever they are. And in turn, that helps campaigns and organizations increase their conversion rate.
One of the biggest points of friction for donors has always been typing in their credit card number on a mobile device, and with mobile now representing 40% of our contributions, we are always trying to improve that experience. That’s why our tech team worked hard to roll out our newest feature: Apple Pay® on ActBlue forms!
Apple Pay has been around for a few years at physical merchants, where you might have used it to buy coffee or movie tickets. But in September, Apple updated its iOS on iPhones to be able to accept Apple Pay in browsers. We were excited to be a very early adopter of Apple Pay, and to be able to get it set up during crunch time, when it made a big difference to campaigns and committees.
Here’s how it works:
Apple Pay will only show up as a payment option on a contribution form when a donor has Apple Pay set up with a credit card on their device (the vast majority of the time this will be users on phones, but there are some ways to enable Apple Pay on your laptop, like with the new MacBook Pro that comes with a touch bar).
We tested having the Apple Pay option available during the contribution flow and saw a 6.5% increase in conversion rates among users with Apple Pay active. After that we quietly rolled it out to every federal campaign and committee in the fall. We rushed to give access to as many people as possible before the election, and a million dollars (!!) ran through Apple Pay from the initial roll-out through Election Day.
Our developers have been working to expand Apple Pay’s availability since then. Right now, Apple Pay is available for all federal campaigns, federal PACs, 527s, and c3 and c4 nonprofits. Our team is working hard to clear state and local jurisdictions one by one in the coming months, so candidates at every level of the electoral process will have access to this tool.
This is just another way that ActBlue’s infrastructure is a shared resource for Democrats, progressives, and nonprofits across the country, and for the donors who want to support them.
What this means for campaigns and organizations using ActBlue:
You don’t have to do anything to enable access to Apple Pay on your contribution forms, because we’ve done that automatically. In fact, your donors may have been using it for months already. We’ve already helped raise $2,532,776 from 82,904 donations through Apple Pay!
You’ll notice a new pie chart on your Dashboard, which shows you what percentage of donations are coming in via Apple Pay. And when you download a .csv of your contributions, you’ll be able to see which donors are using Apple Pay, just like with PayPal™.
Your Apple Pay percentage might look small now, but as more folks adopt Apple Pay, we expect that to grow. And most importantly, Apple Pay will play a big role in giving donors another easy, fast way to chip in and make an impact on the critical progressive work taking place right now.
If you have any questions about Apple Pay leave a comment or shoot us an email at info@actblue.com.
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