Feb
09
2022
February 9th, 2022 by Admin

John Stewart
January 17, 2022
https://www.digitaltransactions.net/trends-like-open-banking-and-bnpl-will-sustain-e-commerces-hot-streak-a-report-says/

Open banking, single-click checkout wallets, and the hot buy now, pay later trend will all help drive e-commerce volume worldwide in the coming five years, predicts Juniper Research in a report released Monday. This momentum is likely to push online sales long after the short-term impetus from the pandemic subsides, Juniper says.

E-commerce volume totaled $4.9 trillion globally in 2021, a figure the United Kingdom-based research firm forecasts will reach $7.5 trillion in 2026, when China will control a 37% share. Wider availability of multiple e-commerce channels, including mobile devices, will propel the overall growth worldwide, Juniper says. But along with the boom in e-commerce will come a corresponding growth in fraud via identity theft, account takeovers, and fraudulent chargebacks, the report warns. China, for example, will account for more than 40% of fraud losses worldwide in 2025, at more than $12 billion, Juniper forecasts.

Open banking is a trend by which fintechs can verify balances in consumers’ accounts and transfer funds to pay for online purchases. As standards bodies work to promulgate standards for this business, e-commerce payment providers “should … partner with specialists in … specific emerging payment areas to keep pace with changing merchant expectations around acceptance types,” the research firm says in its release, referring to digital wallets and crypto as well as open banking.


Open banking has taken on a higher profile in the global payments market with efforts by both of the global card networks to acquire firms that specialize in this area. Visa Inc. has acquired Tink AB, while Mastercard Inc. bought Aiia and Finicity Corp.

Physical goods will continue to dominate e-commerce spending, the report says, accounting for 82% of payment value by 2026. To tap into the trend, Juniper advises, payments providers should support buy now, pay later plans, which allow consumers to split purchases into four equal installments paid over a six-week period at no interest. BNPL is becoming more controversial, however, as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has launched an investigation of the option and as reports emerge that consumers with multiple accounts are more likely to miss a payment.

While still a big trend, e-commerce sales in the U.S. market cooled significantly last year as the pandemic effect lost some of its force. Third-quarter sales in 2021 reached $214.6 billion, up 6.6% year-over-year, according to the Census Bureau, which tracks retail sales. That follows an 8.9% rise in the second quarter and three straight quarters with increases of 32% or more. Fourth-quarter 2021 results are not yet available.

Posted in Credit card Processing, Credit Card Reader Terminal, Credit Card Security, Digital Wallet Privacy, e-commerce & m-commerce, Financial Services, Mail Order Telephone Order, Merchant Account Services News Articles, Merchant Services Account, Mobile Payments, Mobile Point of Sale, Point of Sale, Small Business Improvement, Smartphone, Uncategorized, Visa MasterCard American Express Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Mar
17
2016
CVC/CVV Code
March 17th, 2016 by Elma Jane

A bank in Mexico is the first in the world to publicly experiment with this technology. With their mobile wallet application, cardholders are able to use dynamic CVC/CVV codes, which are generated every twenty minutes.

If somebody is using credit card information stolen from a data intrusion and the merchant accepting payment online asks for the CVV, it likely would have changed by that time, they would enter the wrong CVV and the transaction would be declined.

Cards with CVV code display that randomly changes will ensure that users making orders online are who they say they are. Many e-Commerce sites already ask shoppers for the CVV code during online transactions or over the phone.

The technology is an intuitive solution, but costly to issuers. Cards with displays that enable a dynamic CVV code are 10 times more expensive than chip cards.

As mobile banking, e-commerce, and m-commerce is growing, something had to change sooner or later in the online payment industry.

 

 

Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, Credit Card Security, e-commerce & m-commerce Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Jul
14
2014
July 14th, 2014 by Elma Jane

French financial services company LCL has introduced a service that securely issues payment card PIN codes to customers via SMS texting. The programme has been introduced initially for cardholders who forget their confidential code when out shopping or withdrawing cash. In a second phase, the bank intends to extend PIN issuance to coincide with the mail-out of newly-created cards.

LCL is using Gemalto’s Netsize platform, which offers direct connections to more than 160 mobile operators globally for message delivery. LCL recognizes the mobile channel as a new opportunity to support their continued drive to optimize card activation rates and be the top-of-wallet choice for payment. Enabling cardholders to get their PIN code on their mobile phone prompts them to start using their banking card as soon as they receive it.

Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, Mobile Payments, Smartphone Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Jun
16
2014
June 16th, 2014 by Elma Jane

Credit card companies are racing against tech giants like Apple and Google to create what would thin our wallets forever. The race, which started to replace paper with plastic, is now entering a new phase of combining our cell phones and credit cards. Credit card giant American Express is working on developing a next generation app, which would let consumers shop using their virtual credit cards just like virtual boarding passes on an iPhone Passbook. Amex doesn’t stand alone in the race. Google, Square and Apple are some of the many companies in Silicon Valley, which are working on taking the leap. While Google Wallet and PayPal are some of the available products providing customers with a virtual wallet experience. The credit card companies still continue to benefit being the point of sale for these products. This puts Amex in a unique position, as it doesn’t have to struggle becoming the card customers choose to use. Amex is just a jump away in moving from customers’ wallet to cellphone.

Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, Visa MasterCard American Express Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Dec
30
2013
December 30th, 2013 by Elma Jane

Google

Google

With New Debit Card, Google Admits Digital Isn’t Everything

The maker of all things digital is introducing a debit card for accessing Google Wallet accounts. Google is getting physical.

A debit card alone is not a platform, or at least not a new one. In this case, it’s the payments version of comfort food: an everyday, easy-to-use technology to drive greater adoption of the less familiar Wallet platform.

This isn’t a new concept for a digital wallet. PayPal itself has a debit card. The significance for Google is more in its apparent acknowledgment that its business needs to play in the physical world. Earlier this week, the company ramped up its Google Shopping Express service with a partnership with Costco, further expanding its presence in the buying and selling of physical goods. Its self-driving cars are another way the company is reaching beyond digital, though never losing sight of the digital-derived lesson that the real business opportunity is in platforms, not just products.

The MasterCard-branded card is swipe-able at stores, and it can be used to withdraw cash at ATMs, Google said. The company pitched its new plastic in a blog post today as a way to pay for things offline without waiting for the money in your Google Wallet to transfer to a bank account.

This should sound familiar to users of PayPal or any other digital wallet, where the lag time between receiving money and being able to spend it makes such services marginal in the brick-and-mortar world, where most consumer dollars get spent.

That it took Google this long to make such a card available shows just how hard it is for the company to re-imagine itself as expanding beyond digital. For years, Google has supported NFC tap-to-pay technology that lets users of the few phones with such chips use their handsets to pay by Wallet at the few merchants with point-of-sale systems that support NFC. With the release of a debit card, Google seems to be acknowledging that battle is lost for now. In a world Google is trying to remake in its digital-first image, plastic still prevails.

 

Posted in Digital Wallet Privacy, Mobile Payments, Mobile Point of Sale, Near Field Communication, Point of Sale, Smartphone Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Dec
30
2013
December 30th, 2013 by Elma Jane

Alternative Payments and Ecommerce Conversions

There’s no shortage of alternative payment choices: eBay’s PayPal, Google’s Wallet, Visa V.me, and MasterCard MasterPass, to name a few.  There is also a proliferation of alternate contenders, as mobile shopping threatens to disrupt traditional methods of payments.

Alternative payment companies each claim that their payment method increases conversions. My company, SeeWhy, performed an independent analysis and confirmed these claims.

In this study data shows significant increases in conversion compared with credit cards, peaking at a 101 percent increase on smartphones.

But this is not the whole story. While these increases are impressive, they only applied to around 15 percent of traffic, so the impact on your site’s overall conversion rate will be much less. Depending on the characteristics of your site you will probably see somewhere in the region of 5 to 10 percent improvement in your site’s overall conversion rate, which is still significant enough not to be ignored. As mobile commerce grows, then alternative payments will become ever more important.

However, before embarking on an alternative payment implementation, there are three important considerations you need to take into account.

1. How Many Alternative Payment Methods?

Choosing only one alternative payment method might be tough, so why not implement several, and cover the market more thoroughly? This may be a valid approach, but think carefully before choosing this option.

For example, RunningShoes.com has implemented PayPal, Google Wallet, and MasterPass as alternative payment options.

The problem is that offering payment choices can create four different competing calls-to-action, as you can see. Whenever consumers are faced with too much choice, indecision tends to follow.

This is also problematic when you consider the whole page. There are lots of visual distractions to the primary call to action, which in this case is the red Secure Checkout button.

Before embarking on implementing multiple calls-to-action, consider how you are going to solve this issue. One route you could consider is to suppress the alternate payment methods for returning customers if the customer always pays by credit card, for example. Or if the customer always purchases by PayPal, show the PayPal button most prominently, and hide the others under a Show alternate methods of payment  link.

2. How to Implement

Not all sites will see significant increases in conversion when implementing alternate payment methods. The main reason for this is that implementations can be done badly. One of the primary benefits of these payment methods is that they enable visitors to bypass the billing, shipping, and card entry steps on an ecommerce site. This is especially important for mobile sites, where entering these details using fingers and small screens defeats all but the most determined.

However, many sites implement these payment methods as an alternative only to entering the credit card number. You can see this here on Barnes and Noble ‘s site, where you are forced to enter shipping and billing information before being presented with the PayPal button. This may be a simpler implementation to do than providing an alternate checkout path, but it is frankly a waste of time, and surprisingly prevalent in PayPal implementations.

The correct method is to implement the alternative payment method as a button at the start of the checkout process, probably on the cart summary page. You can see a good example here of this at PacSun.com, an apparel site, but note the competing calls-to-action problem here as well.

PacSun deals with this slightly differently on mobile devices by not offering V.me. as a payment alternative. This avoids having a four choice vertical list of competing calls-to-action.

Alternative payments can undoubtedly result in higher conversions. However, to be effective they need to be implemented correctly to provide an alternative checkout flow, not simply a payment alternative to credit cards. This takes more effort to implement, but it is worth it. Implementing one payment method properly is a better route than superficially implementing multiple payment methods. This is especially true for mobile sales where the goal is to eliminate data entry as much as possible and alternate payments can do this very effectively. As mobile commerce becomes more important, so will alternative payments, for all merchants.

3. Which Payment Method?

Since there are multiple choices, the obvious route is to adopt PayPal. PayPal claims over 30 million U.S. mobile customers, and over a 100 million active accounts…which is a larger base than any of its competitors. SeeWhy found that 34 percent of U.S. consumers shopping online had PayPal accounts as of July 2013.

However, PayPal also carries some baggage. Having grown up as a payment method of choice for eBay, its reputation is not always considered positive. Some consumers are wary about PayPal, having had negative experiences in the past, probably with smaller merchants on eBay. In fact, according to SeeWhy’s analysis, two thirds of PayPal account holders state that their preferred payment method is a credit card.

Merchants selling luxury items might want to consider alternatives before implementing PayPal because of its reputation issues. Google Wallet is an alternative that is growing fast in part because of the growth of Android smartphones where a Google Wallet account is required to use the Play store, the Android equivalent of the app store. Google Wallet can also be linked to Google+ social sign on, so if you are considering implementing social sign on as well this might be a route to consider.

Both Visa’s V.me and MasterCard’s MasterPass both hold significant potential but the companies are only just beginning to roll out their service. It’s also worth noting that both Visa and MasterCard are rolling out their services through the acquiring banks. This will cause a proliferation of payment choices, leading to complexity and confusion for the shopper. You can see this already with MasterPass where having selected the Buy with MasterPass option, you are then presented with an array of different MasterPass wallets to choose from. Currently there are only six options, but what happens when there are hundreds?

Posted in e-commerce & m-commerce, Electronic Payments, Mobile Payments, Smartphone Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Oct
18
2013
October 18th, 2013 by Elma Jane

All Alerts, All The Time

Will mobile payment apps hail the arrival of mobile interruptions that never let up? Consumers worry that adopting a mobile wallet app will open them up to a barrage of alerts, sounding the alarm every time the local supermarket has toilet paper for half-off. The services can even track your purchases, opening the floodgates for targeted ads. Frequent alerts could be a deal breaker.

Battery Woes

As smartphones gets bigger, badder and more powerful, battery technology is struggling to keep up. That’s a problem if you want to make a call — but it could be an emergency if your smartphone is your wallet, too. Users are already scrambling to find a charging outlet by lunchtime. Soon, failure to recharge might mean you lack the funds to buy lunch in the first place. Meanwhile, credit cards never need a battery boost, and paper money has worked faithfully since well before the invention of the light bulb.

Do I Have The Right Phone?

You’re ready to make a mobile payment — but is your smartphone? Only the most popular new Android and Windows smartphones have NFC support to enable tap-to-pay services, and Apple has decided to forgo NFC altogether with its iPhone handsets. Users of budget smartphones are likewise out of luck. And though smartphones may seem ubiquitous, only a little more than half of U.S. adults have one.

Is It Secure?

Mobile payments open up a whole new frontier for fraudsters — or so cautious consumers worry. In fact, tap-to-pay technology is as secure as swiping a plastic bank card, and cloud services like PayPal Here support two-factor authentication for extra reassurance. Still, consumers worry their personal information could be intercepted during a transaction, and not everyone is convinced that Google can provide the same level of protection as their bank. But hope remains. The survey found about half of the most security-conscious respondents were much more likely to be interested in mobile payment options if they could be promised 100 percent fraud protection.

Limits, Limits, Limits

Even with a glut of mobile payment options, most lack at least one critical feature. Google’s Wallet app lets you stow your payment information in your phone to buy items in brick-and-mortar shops, but its touch-to-pay functionality is limited to Android devices on Sprint and other smaller carriers. Last year, Apple introduced Passbook, a mobile wallet app that lets users store gift card credits, loyalty card information and more on their iPhones — but only a handful of participating businesses support the app. The mobile payment model isn’t just fragmented — it’s fundamentally limited by countless companies competing for an ever-smaller piece of the pie.

Mobile What?

A recent CMB Consumer Pulse survey showed about half of smartphone users have never even heard of mobile payments. And of the 50 percent who have, a meager 8 percent said they’re familiar with the technology. Banks, credit card companies and others hoping to cash in on consumer interest will have to invest in better messaging first.

What Are The Perks?

Credit cards come with alluring perks — signing bonuses, cash back and travel accommodations, to name a few. But mobile payment systems have serious benefits. They can utilize GPS technology to direct you to deals, keep tabs on your bank account to alert you when you’re near your spending limit, and store unlimited receipts straight to the cloud. Businesses profit from mobile wallets, too, which often charge lower fees than credit card companies and encourage return trips by storing digital copies of loyalty cards.

What’s In It For Me?

To convince consumers to abandon trusted payment options for something new, companies must strike an undeniable value proposition. In the late ‘90s, electronic retail giants like Amazon compelled consumers to enter their 16-digit credit card numbers into online portals, opening up a whole new world of convenience with online shopping. But today’s consumers aren’t convinced that mobile wallets are any more convenient than their physical counterparts. Credit and debit cards already offer a speedy, reliable way to pay on the go. And since they’re accepted virtually everywhere, customers can fork over a card without worry or confusion. Convincing people that new technology is worth their time and effort might ultimately be the toughest nut to crack for mobile payment purveyors.

Where’s The Support?

Even the most enthusiastic adopters are out of luck if their favorite shops lack the infrastructure to process mobile payments. Big-box retailers sprang up in the infancy of computer technology, so joining the mobile payment revolution could necessitate updates to check out hardware and software. Mobile payments could be a boon to businesses, but installing the upgrades could be expensive and disruptive — especially when consumer interest remains low.

Which to Pick?

Even curious consumers are confounded by the array of mobile payment options available. Google, Visa, MasterCard and even mobile carriers like Sprint and Verizon are among the heavy hitters on the mobile payment scene, each offering a discrete service with different apps — and different rules. Some rely on Near Field Communication (NFC) technology that lets users simply tap their smartphone against a special reader to pay, while others offer up scannable QR codes. Mobile payments may never take off until one company rises above the rest with a single killer service.

Forget about cash or credit. In 2013, consumers can simply swipe or scan their smartphones at the checkout to pay. A huge array of mobile payment services have sprung up in recent years, urging customers to abandon their plastic credit cards for the “mobile wallet” revolution, but so far, adoption of mobile payment technology has been dismal.

Posted in e-commerce & m-commerce, Electronic Payments, Gift & Loyalty Card Processing, Internet Payment Gateway, Mobile Payments, Mobile Point of Sale, Near Field Communication, Smartphone Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Oct
01
2013
October 1st, 2013 by Elma Jane

As Capital One drops support Isis’ future darkens

Capital One pulling its support points to the challenges that near-field-communications is having with scale as non-NFC mobile wallet initiatives take off, as Isis gears up for a broader launch.

Capital One was one of Isis’ three founding card issuers, and the company’s drop of support as the company prepares for a larger roll-out emphasizes the challenges in gaining scale and momentum for mobile payments. PayPal and Apple’s recently announced their own mobile payment options that also avoid NFC reflect the opportunity that marketers see in services beyond NFC.

“Capital One dropping its support for Isis is significant in what it telegraphs about the problems issuers will continue to face with the wallet provider.” “Issuers must pay each time a consumer loads their card onto the wallet.”

“The caveat is that whether or not a consumer uses the card, the issuer must pay to have it in the Isis Wallet. Card issuers are interested in encouraging card spend whereas Isis is purely interested in getting consumers to link their cards to the wallet. This conflict of interest will continue to be problematic.”

Losing support
Capital One pulling its support from Isis could indicate that the financial institution did not see a substantial amount of consumers using their mobile devices to pay during the pilot for repeat visits, which is key in driving consumer adoption ahead. The number of mobile payment options available for card issuers to partner with is clearly growing, meaning that Capital One might see a bigger opportunity elsewhere.

However, Capital One’s pull-out could be well-timed since Isis is signing new partners, and Isis has an opportunity to recover quickly. “Many financial institutions and merchant acquirers see PayPal and Apple as threats and the moves that these companies are making could cause financial institutions, payment networks and acquirers to accelerate their mobile payments efforts in response to the perceived threat.” Since Isis is looking to partner with the financial institutions, payment networks and acquirers, the moves made by Apple and PayPal could drive partners into Isis’ embrace.

 

Google expands mobile wallet

Yesterday Google made a significant upgrade to Google Wallet that continues to focus on NFC, but also adds additional payment options for consumers. The Google Wallet app has been updated to let consumers send money to friends and family in the U.S. via an email address. Consumers can either send money directly from their bank account or from Google Wallet balance. Additionally, the app is now available for all Android devices that run the 2.3 operating system and higher. Previously, Google Wallet was only available on select Android devices. Consumers can also store loyalty cards from retailers that can be redeemed by scanning a mobile device in-store. Similar to Apple’s Passbook, Google Wallet will now also alert consumers when they are nearby to a store where they have a loyalty program.

Google said that it plans to support the one of 29 different NFC-enabled devices with NFC, but the company’s focus on additional features points to NFC as un-scalable by itself. In fact, Yankee Group estimates that 18 percent of device owners have a mobile device that supports NFC.


Apple, PayPal news
The interest around NFC has also significantly decreased as both PayPal and Apple are rolling out their own mobile payment options. For example, PayPal recently introduced its PayPal Beacon device that lets consumers pay hands-free in exchange for downloading the company’s app. The technology uses Bluetooth to pick up when a consumer is in-store to trigger a payment.

Apple is also working its way around NFC with its iBeacon technology that is rolling out in iOS 7. The technology lets marketers use Bluetooth around stores that can then be used to push out offers and relevant deals.

Both Apple and PayPal’s announcements emphasize the slow adoption that NFC has had in the United States. Although the technology has taken off internationally, it has had a harder time picking up steam in the U.S. because of the low number of NFC-enabled devices.

Broader roll-out
After running pilot programs, Isis is gearing up for a broader roll-out nationally. To date, most of the activity around mobile wallets has focused around the payment section of mobile wallets, which do not have as strong of a value proposition as the coupon and offers side that Isis is forced to prove to merchants.

Additionally, the education behind getting consumers aware of how to use the technology is still clunky, as evidenced by a test at a participating location in Austin by a local mobile consultant.

“Anything in the digital wallet space is a high-risk/high-reward venture at the moment and there are few if any profits being made in this space.” “When that is the case, business continuation is more a question of resolve than a question of competition.” Having multiple players in the market increases the overall quantity of marketing efforts that will take place in the mobile payments arena, increasing the probability that at least one product will succeed.

Posted in Credit card Processing, Credit Card Reader Terminal, Mobile Payments, Near Field Communication Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Oct
01
2013
October 1st, 2013 by Elma Jane

PayPal announces updated app, device for hands-free, in store payment.

A busy few days at PayPal. Late last week, the global payments giant announced a major update to its app for Android and iOS.  The new features have a strong mobile payments bent. And now, the company has announced the planned roll-out of “Beacon,” which uses Bluetooth Low Energy Technology to let customers check into retail stores and pay by verbal consent.

Paypal’s President calls the solution PayPal’s “most significant contribution to date in reinventing  the in-store shopping experience.”

Beacon is a new add-on technology that merchants plug into an A/C outlet. When a PayPal customer walks into a participating store and agrees to check-in, Beacon triggers a quick vibration or sound to confirm a check-in; customer’s photo then appears on a point-of-sale screen. To pay, the customer simply gives a verbal confirmation. “No wallet and no card. Nothing to do. Not even touching your phone.

BLE was chosen to resolve some problems posed by traditional geo-location, including power consumption. It will look for any store running a PayPal compatible POS system, and will only transmit information to PayPal or to the merchant if the customer agrees to check in.

The solution aims to improve on the credit-card-swiping experience.  PayPal figured the only better way to pay would be to do nothing.

The company will be piloting  Beacon in the fourth quarter.

New App  

PayPal’s vastly redesigned app for creating a more seamless in-store shopping experience is getting a lot of kudos across the web.

A New tab called “Shop” the first thing that appears when the app is opened, it displays nearby stores or restaurants that accept PayPal payments.  Users can check in and open a tab, then select various payment methods from the check-in screen. Upon payment, the app generates a confirmation alert and sends an email receipt.

You’ve really got access to your entire wallet in the app.

The app also lets you order food ahead of your arrival bypassing the line.  The feature works through PayPal’s partnership with Eat24 . Dinners can pay at the table, and at some locations, order more drinks.

For the first time, the app includes a Bill Me Later tab that lets users apply to finance PayPal purchases, and it integrates coupons and offers.

The company wanted the new app to help solve problem, and that payment isn’t something they typically complain about. So they focused on other potentially problematic experiences in the retail environment, waiting in line, waiting to pay the bill at their table and keeping track of coupons.

Posted in Credit Card Reader Terminal, Credit Card Security, Digital Wallet Privacy, Electronic Payments, Mobile Payments, Near Field Communication, Point of Sale, Smartphone Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , ,