For years, retailers have focused on making checkout faster and easier. One-click payments, digital wallets and streamlined online experiences have all been designed to reduce friction, improve conversion and keep shoppers from abandoning their carts.
Now, a new generation of consumers is changing the conversation.
While speed and convenience remain important at checkout, Kris Zanuldin, Head of Konek at Interac, notes that many Gen Z shoppers also want something more: control over how they pay, along with payment experiences that reflect their expectations around privacy, security and data protection.
Zanuldin, who has more than two decades of experience in payments, e-commerce and fraud prevention, says retailers may need to rethink the final stage of the customer journey as Gen Z becomes a more influential consumer cohort.
A Generation With a Different Relationship With Money
Gen Z has become one of Canada’s most commercially active and influential consumer cohorts. At the same time, younger consumers are navigating economic realities that differ from those faced by previous generations, including higher living costs and changing definitions of financial success.
Many are embracing digital-first financial tools and treating money management as part of their broader wellness routines.
“How they pay isn’t just transactional, it’s deeply personal,” says Zanuldin.
That mindset is reshaping expectations around the checkout experience. For Gen Z consumers, the ability to choose how they pay, and to know their information remains protected, can influence purchasing decisions.
The Privacy Paradox
One of the more interesting aspects of Gen Z’s payment behaviour, according to Zanuldin, is an apparent paradox.
While some younger consumers share many aspects of their lives online, they may also be particularly mindful of how their financial information is collected, used and protected.
“A bank account is one of the most complete records of how a person lives their life,” says Zanuldin. “Gen Z gets it. They don’t want their sensitive financial data or card details tracking them across the web.”
That desire for control and security is creating new expectations for retailers.
“Financial data is like a personal boundary for many Gen Z Canadians,” he says. “When merchants respect that boundary, they’re more likely to win their trust. When they don’t, consumers may choose to shop elsewhere.”
For retailers, payment privacy and consumer trust are becoming meaningful competitive differentiators.
The Cost of Getting Checkout Wrong
For retailers, these changing expectations carry real financial consequences.
According to Baymard Institute, the average online shopping cart abandonment rate is approximately 70 per cent in North America and remains one of the most significant challenges in e-commerce. Consumers frequently abandon purchases because their preferred payment method is unavailable or because the checkout process feels too long or complicated.
For Gen Z consumers, the stakes may be even higher.
“The business risk is massive, and it directly hits a merchant’s bottom line,” says Zanuldin.
Retailers that fail to align their checkout experiences with evolving expectations risk losing both transactions and long-term customer loyalty. According to Zanuldin, younger consumers are often willing to move quickly to another retailer if the checkout process does not meet their expectations around convenience, privacy or payment choice. They are also digital natives and expect seamless, hassle-free online experiences.
Trust Is Becoming a Competitive Advantage
Retailers have long viewed convenience as a central goal of digital commerce. Zanuldin believes that mindset is evolving.
“It tells retailers that convenience is now table stakes,” he says. “Most payment providers today offer a relatively fast checkout experience. The new competitive advantage is trust.”
That trust can influence more than a single purchase.
“Retailers who build that trust don’t just win the transaction, they win the relationship.”
As Gen Z’s share of consumer spending rises, those relationships could become increasingly valuable.
Responding to Changing Consumer Expectations
Payment providers are responding to these evolving expectations by giving consumers more control and flexibility over how they pay online.
Konek, developed by Interac in collaboration with Canada’s leading financial banks, was designed around several priorities that Gen Z consumers value, including security, control and flexibility.
In addition to debit and credit payment options, Konek enables Canadians to pay directly from their bank’s chequing or savings account, subject to merchant acceptance, giving consumers more flexibility and more ways to pay at checkout when completing transactions online.
The digital wallet, that was created with Canadians’ preferences in mind, is designed to simplify checkout by enabling consumers to set up once, securely link their participating bank and authenticate future purchases using passkeys, using face or fingerprint. According to Zanuldin, the goal is to provide retailers with a payment experience that reflects the way consumers want to pay while remaining straightforward to implement.
“Konek is incredibly simple to integrate, platform-agnostic and built to evolve dynamically alongside Canada’s changing consumer landscape,” he says.
Preparing for the Next Era of Commerce
Checkout has long been viewed as the final step in the purchasing journey. For many Gen Z consumers, it has become another touchpoint where brands either earn trust or lose it.
As Gen Z’s influence on consumer spending continues to grow, retailers may find that payment choice, privacy and trust are becoming increasingly important drivers of loyalty and conversion.
“You’re not just offering a payment option that Gen Z wants right now,” says Zanuldin. “You are making an investment that can futureproof your business for the next decade of digital commerce.”
Sponsored by Konek. Konek is a digital wallet developed by Interac Corp. in collaboration with Canada’s leading financial institutions, providing Canadians with more ways to pay online while helping merchants deliver secure and flexible checkout experiences.
