The Mobile Payments Race – Stripe Unveils Relay API

Even though mobile devices now represent a majority (60 percent) of Web browsing traffic, they account for a much lower percentage of purchasing in the digital realm.
There are, of course, plenty of payment processing solutions available for app developers and mobile-minded brands to consider currently, but now there’s another and it’s from a company that is fast making a name for itself among those selling goods both online and off.
Digital payments solution Stripe, which Website Magazine has covered repeatedly over the past few years, this week released Relay – an API that will make it possible for developers to include direct purchasing capabilities within their own as well as third-party native apps. Through Relay, otherwise complex processes including accessing product feeds, selling products for other businesses, and accepting payments, are reduced to simple and direct API calls.
The Relay API is already generating quite a bit of interest. Twitter, for example, is now using Relay to enable retailers to start selling within tweets (see the Warby Parker image below) and a long list of native apps including ShopStyle and Spring are using the offering as well.
Stores using the API will be able to provide product information to Stripe through the dashboard, the API, or by linking their existing e-commerce system. SAP Hybris is the first e-commerce integration being announced by Stripe, but the company did indicate that they expect other solutions to be added in the future.