A Seamless Experience
Online shopping can still be frustrating for both consumers and companies. Fortunately, new tech is making eCommerce easier.
On August 11, 1994 a young entrepreneur named Dan Kohn conducted the world’s first online transaction, selling a CD of Sting’s “Ten Summoner’s Tales” to a friend in Philadelphia for $12.48. Since that first transaction, which was purchased with a Visa credit card using data encryption software, online retail has grown into $3.5 trillion global business. And research aggregator site Statista predicts $6.5 trillion in worldwide online sales by 2023.
Yet, despite how much the market has grown — nearly every brick-and-mortar retailer has an online store these days — the online shopping experience can still be frustrating for both consumers and merchants. Maybe a customer has put something in his or her cart to purchase later, only to have it disappear when it comes to actually making the purchase. Most sites still require shoppers to pull out their credit card and enter their data before buying, which can cause cart abandonment. And if someone sees a sweater they like on social media but can’t buy it right there, that retailer can kiss the purchase goodbye.
As digital adoption has grown and certain apps have made people more comfortable with on-demand services, shoppers are expecting increasingly seamless eCommerce experiences, which many retailers still don’t provide.
Yet, despite how much the market has grown — nearly every brick-and-mortar retailer has an online store these days — the online shopping experience can still be frustrating for both consumers and merchants. Maybe a customer has put something in his or her cart to purchase later, only to have it disappear when it comes to actually making the purchase. Most sites still require shoppers to pull out their credit card and enter their data before buying, which can cause cart abandonment. And if someone sees a sweater they like on social media but can’t buy it right there, that retailer can kiss the purchase goodbye.
As digital adoption has grown and certain apps have made people more comfortable with on-demand services, shoppers are expecting increasingly seamless eCommerce experiences, which many retailers still don’t provide.
Consumers are demanding more personalized and seamless eCommerce experiences. They expect retailers to know who they are, what they’re shopping for, and that their personal data is stored securely. Consumers are also not satisfied with friction of any kind. Add friction and you see drop-offs.
- Cindy Turner, a managing director at JPMorgan Chase Merchant Services
It’s not that retailers don’t want to provide more seamless experiences; it’s just that it’s taken a while for technology to get to a place where every consumer and company can transact safely and efficiently. Shopping-related technology is also changing so rapidly that it’s been hard for businesses to catch up. Using biometric identifiers, such as a fingerprint or facial recognition, to quickly make a purchase, is a relatively recent development, according to Turner of JPMorgan Chase Merchant Services.
To her, a seamless online experience happens when people can buy goods quickly, easily, and securely. “It’s using passive authentication, such as face or fingerprint, where the credentials are already loaded into the wallet and ready to pay; it’s eliminating friction at checkout — and providing me peace of mind knowing that my data is secure.”
New, more seamless tech
Over the past few years, a number of new technologies have contributed to making eCommerce more seamless, including tokenization — a process that turns credit card data and other personal information into a cryptogram that has no value to hackers. This process allows retailers to safely store payment information on file so the next time a customer shops online they can quickly check out without having to enter any numbers.
This technology is typically provided by a payments company, such as Visa, which launched its Visa Token Service in 2014, but has since expanded its offering to more than 120 token requestors across 107 countries. Retailers that accept payments through point-of-sale companies can use Visa’s service, which replaces sensitive cardholder information, such as personal account numbers and expiration dates, with unique digital identifiers.
“This opens up a world of possibilities for merchants to further evolve and innovate in digital payments,” says Ansar Ansari, Visa’s senior vice president of digital payment products.
This opens up a world of possibilities for merchants to further evolve and innovate in digital payments.
- Ansar Ansari, Visa’s senior vice president of digital payment products
Visa is also working with JPMorgan Chase to improve the checkout experience. “The collaboration between Visa and JPMorgan has been surrounded by our simplified checkout experiences such as digital wallets,” Turner says. “Our connectivity tools, application programming interfaces, and software development kits provide a method to enter credentials with consumer authentication — such as geo-location, geo-fencing, geo-marketing, and geo-targeting.”
Visa is part of a group of companies that worked to develop the EMV Secure Remote Commerce (SRC) Specification, a set of rules and technologies that will streamline eCommerce by creating a single, digital point-of-sale process.
The Visa Digital Commerce Program will help merchants provide smoother experiences too. It combines Visa Secure Remote Commerce and the Visa Token Service into one, allowing people to safely store their payment information on a merchant's site, easily buy something on sites they've been to before, and it makes recurring payments easier to do. Consumers can click to pay for a buying experience that is secure and more seamless.
“It covers all digital transactions where a card is not physically presented,” says Ansar Ansari, Visa’s senior vice president of digital payment products. “With the addition of sensory branding — sound, animation, and haptic vibration — consumers will have the assurance that their transaction was completed in a secure, fast, and easy way.”
It will enable solutions for consistent eCommerce transactions regardless of the site or device you’re on or the card you’re using.
- Amy Zirkle, vice president of industry affairs for the Electronic Transactions Association
Until then, merchants must stay on top of the latest technologies and work with partners that are trying to create more seamless experiences.
“Digital commerce is an inconsistent and fragmented experience for consumers, which results in poor conversion for merchants,” Ansari says. “But the evolution of digital payments will make it much easier for card-not-present and IoT payments well into the future.”
According to Turner: “A seamless online experience means eCommerce is fast, easy, and secure.”
Find out more about Visa's easy, smart, and secure online checkout experience.
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