Masterpass Gets Connected — And Contextual

Mastercard CIO Ed McLaughlin was often heard describing Mastercard’s vision for commerce as one that would take it anywhere the consumer wanted to take it, including “to any connected device on the edge of the network.”

Today, we’re seeing that vision made reality.

Network giant Mastercard said on Thursday (July 14) that it is enhancing its digital payments service, Masterpass, and making it available across a number of commerce channels and devices in an effort to bring true omnichannel shopping to the card’s users.

The enhanced functionality — including contactless payments for Android users in the United States — integrates payments and new services, such as paying with points and purchase alerts.

The company said in a release that the Masterpass push has the support of several top merchants and financial institutions, in a rollout to be conducted in stages across the next several months, ranging from Ally Bank and Saks.com to Office Depot and Firehouse Subs.

All told, more than 80 million accounts will be enabled through the firm’s issuing partners, with security in place that also ties into tokenization, bank integration and verification of cardholders.

In terms of the global rollout, the United States will be the first market, followed by Europe, the Middle East and Africa by the end of this year. Moving into 2017, the additional physical locations will dot those areas, plus the Asia-Pacific region. All in, the total marketplace tally of 33 markets will grow by 10 percent, or three additional regions, by the end of the year.

Functional features will allow for online checkout or, in merchant apps, by clicking on the Masterpass button and then authenticating purchases to complete the transaction. Issuers can themselves design and develop their own branded digital payment solutions, with Masterpass APIs and SDKs.

A complete overview of the solution and its impact on commerce, including interviews with key executives, can be found on PYMNTS.com tomorrow morning. Tune in!