Mastercard, Visa, American Express Expand Click to Pay

Need to Know

• Some of the largest payment companies in the world including Mastercard, Visa, American Express, and Discover are expanding Click to Pay online checkout around the world.
• Click to Pay is powered by the EMV Secure Remote Commerce industry standard and lets consumers checkout and purchase items online with one click as opposed to entering personal account numbers and information.
• The Click to Pay feature first launched in the U.S. in 2019 and will now expand to Canada, Australia, Brazil, Mexico, and other major transaction hubs.
• Mastercard also announced the U.S. and Canadian expansion of ShopOpenings.com, its new online search tool that confirms which shops and businesses are open to customers.

Analysis

E-commerce sales have exploded over the past four months due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and it seems like those trends won’t be going anywhere soon.

To keep up with this new normal of shopping, a collection of payment companies including Mastercard, Visa, American Express, and Discover and beginning to roll out Click to Pay functionality across many of their merchants. Click to Pay first launched in the U.S. in 2019, but will now go live in Canada, Australia, Mexico, Ireland, Mexico, New Zealand, and other major hubs for the credit card brands.

Click to Pay is billed as a simple and stirghtforward approach to e-commerce. Instead of having to fill out credit card and billing information each time a consumer goes to finalize a purchase, they can simply click one button that will provide all of the relevant information in a safe and secure fashion.

When Click to Pay first launched, Mastercard’s EVP of products and innovation Jess Turner said the feature “adds a level of calmness to the [payment] experience.”

The technology powering Click to Pay is based on EMV® Secure Remote Commerce, an industry standard that can handle security technologies such as tokenization while providing a consistent user experience every time it is implemented with a new merchant.

“The advanced digital checkout solution mirrors the consistent, interoperable checkout experience in physical stores—with one terminal to accept all card payments. Consistent with the goal of interoperability, the vision for the future is that Click to Pay will provide consumers a streamlined experience across any digital checkout environment or network,” the companies wrote in a statement.

In order to facilitate widespread adoption of Click to Pay, the four payment companies will work with local service providers and gateways to help them prepare for the streamlined experience. The timing is perfect—a recent forecast revealed that U.S. e-commerce sales will jump 18% in total this year to $710 billion.

Mastercard also revealed another announcement today, announcing that they have expanded ShopOpenings.com through the U.S. and Canada, enabling shoppers to better understand what stores and businesses near them are currently open for business. Combined with Click to Pay, Mastercard is doing what it can to support merchants and connect them with consumers as seamlessly as possible.

“Businesses large and small are the engine of growth for economies around the world and right now they need our collective support to navigate these uncharted times,” said Turner regarding ShopOpenings.com. “The resiliency and drive of small business owners is unprecedented and ensuring they have the tools and resources necessary is the single most important thing we can all do for economic and social vitality.”