Major credit cards team up to standardize online payments: 'New standards for the digital world'
Major credit card companies want to standardize how you pay for stuff online.
American Express, Visa, Mastercard and Discover announced Tuesday a "click to pay" checkout feature that's meant to make it more uniform across ecommerce websites and apps.
This new "click to pay" will be offered by certain companies now, and credit card companies hope it becomes normal business practice by 2020.
"When you walk in to a store today, there is one consistent payment method," Chaiti Sen, vice president of communications for Mastercard, told FOX Business." You walk out to the checkout desk – take out your card, then dip your card. ... Now if you think about online and think about guest checkout particularly, there is no consistency there – each retailer asks for different things and in different formats."
(Graphic: Business Wire)
Sen said the move will be good for retailers and consumers.
"This leads to terrible frustration and long, laborious key entry and a high rate of cart abandonment," Sen explained. "Also different merchants have varying degrees of security. So like we did for the physical store, we have developed new standards for the digital world."
Consumers won't need to create or remember a static password, Sen said, and online "tokens" tied to your credit card will allow you to pay, meaning your credit card number "is never stored anywhere."
Cinemark, Rakuten and Movember are the earliest to roll out "click to play." Papa John's Saks Fifth Avenue, SHOP.com, Tickets.com, BassPro and JoAnn Fabric and Crafts will be doing the same thing by December, the credit card companies said.
"We are always looking for ways to enhance the cinema experience, and providing a simpler, streamlined checkout for ticket-buying is a major part of that," Doug Fay, chief technology officer at Cinemark, said in a statement. "We think the added convenience and security will help build loyalty, grow our business and make for quicker checkouts, giving moviegoers the most enjoyable experience possible."
GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO BY CLICKING HERE
"Delivering solutions to merchants that enable greater levels of security and convenience for consumers is essential for enabling commerce," says Eddie Alberty, vice president of strategic partnerships, SHOP.com, "With Secure Remote Commerce, we aim to offer standards to merchants that reduce friction of guest checkout."