Google to pull the plug on payment processing service Google Checkout, to transition users to Google Wallet

Technology giant Google Inc will shut down its online payment processing service, Google Checkout in six months, as per an official blog post on Tuesday. Merchants can accept payments using Google Checkout till November 20, 2013. In the meantime, the firm will transition users to Google Wallet, a mobile payment system.

The sellers of digital goods on Google properties (such as Google Play, Chrome Web Store and Offers Marketplace) will automatically transition to Google Wallet in the next few weeks and will not be affected. However, merchants selling physical goods would need to switch to third-party alternatives for which Google has partnered with Braintree Payments for payment processing, Shopify for email invoicing.

The shoppers will continue to use Google Wallet for purchases on merchant apps and sites, as well as on Google properties such as Google Play and Chrome Web Store. Google Checkout's key competitor is PayPal.

Google Checkout was started in June 2006 as an alternative to PayPal, Zong and Boku. Last year Google added India to the list of countries from which developers can register as Google Checkout merchants.