Mastercard, Amazon Team to Digitize Payment Acceptance in MENA, S. Africa

Mastercard and Amazon have teamed to digitize payment acceptance in Africa and the Middle East.

The partnership between Mastercard and Amazon Payment Services, announced Monday (Sept. 30), covers countries that include Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates.

The collaboration will see Amazon Payment Services adopt Mastercard Gateway — a single touchpoint for payment processing — as a payment solution in 40 markets in the region, to allow merchants to make faster, simpler and more secure transactions.

“In line with the rapid increase in digital payments, the partnership will benefit thousands of Amazon Payment Services merchants, including Amazon online stores for shoppers across the UAE and Egypt,” the release said. “In addition, it will open new opportunities for building synergies with entities such as telcos and governments to enhance their checkout options, driving a faster and more secure transaction rate for their customers.”

As part of their partnership, Mastercard and Amazon have agreed to “develop Secure Card on File, Click to Pay, and token authentication services to provide multirail checkout options to merchants, and a faster checkout experience to end customers,” the release said.

The companies note that this effort comes as the bulk of consumers in the region are considering emerging payment methods like digital wallets and contactless payments, and would steer clear of businesses that do not accept electronic payments.

That’s in keeping with PYMNTS Intelligence research, which finds that 55% of consumers are dissatisfied with smaller merchants’ digital presence.

Consumers also demand greater payment choice, as noted here last week in a report on Amazon’s — and rival Walmart — new payment offerings.

Three quarters of consumers pointed to the ability to use their preferred payment method as a desirable feature when shopping, per PYMNTS Intelligence’s 2024 Global Digital Shopping Index. The study found that this was the most highly demanded offering from merchants.

In the eCommerce space, 70% of consumers said the availability of their preferred payment method is a major factor in determining where they shop, according to the PYMNTS Intelligence report “How Preferred Payment Availability Can Reduce Cart Abandonment.”

“Whatever calculus the user performs to determine the payment methods that they want to use, they want more options across more merchants,” Drew Olson, senior director at Google Pay, said in an interview with PYMNTS last year.

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