Visa Checkout Now Tops 6 Million Users

Visa’s online payments service, Visa Checkout, may just have celebrated its first birthday, but it’s on a steady march to secure merchant partnerships to expand its global retail reach.

Visa reported on Monday, Aug. 24, that Checkout saw an average monthly enrollment growth rate of over 30 percent in June and July 2015. The online payment service now has more than 6 million registered users, and registered user sign ups have increased by more than 92 percent since the beginning of 2015.

Also announced yesterday was the addition of 33 new merchants, including major retailers Best Buy, Under Armour, Barnes & Noble and even Taco Bell.

The newly signed merchant partners by country include:

United States: Best Buy, Barnes & Noble, Barnes & Noble College, Cle de Peau Beaute, delivery.com, EllenShop.com, JustFab, LivingSocial, Shiseido, ShoeDazzle, Shutterfly, Sport Chalet Mobile, StudentUniverse, Under Armour, Taco Bell, Title Nine, and zulily

Australia: Event Cinemas, Village Cinemas, Hoyts, Moshtix, The Roses Only Group and Ticketek

Canada: Grand & Toy, and Heart and Stroke Foundation

Colombia: Archies, Agrocampo, BabyMarket, Carulla.com, Exito.com, Falabella.com, Myriam Camhi and Unicef (due to technology partner IATAI integrating Visa Checkout)

As Sam Shrauger, Senior Vice President of Digital Solutions at Visa, explained in a recent interview with PYMNTS, for Visa Checkout it isn’t about a “numbers game” when it comes to signing up merchants; rather it’s about signing up merchants who drive a lot of consumer spend. The addition of this slate of new merchants is just another step in that direction, Chris Curtin, Visa’s CMO and Chief Digital and Innovation Officer, told PYMNTS yesterday.

“We’re thrilled to partner with some of the largest merchants on the Web. In a little over a year since we launched the service, the response we’ve seen from both merchants and consumers has been overwhelmingly positive. And the momentum continues at a high level as we see acceptance and enrollments grow on a global scale,” Curtin remarked.

Curtin also cited Visa Checkout’s “quick and streamlined checkout process” as the reason that a recent comScore survey showed that Checkout “results in more conversion and fewer missed opportunities for the merchants.” The survey, Curtin reported, showed that with Visa Checkout, conversion levels for online merchants were are high as 69 percent, which he pointed out is 66 percent higher than traditional online checkout methods.

Curtin also told PYMNTS that “consumers love [Checkout] too,” citing checkout times that are “22 percent faster” with, and on average, 12 percent more transactions completed by Visa Checkout customers across all eCommerce sites, regardless of the checkout option they use – card on file or competing payments methods. This same comScore research also revealed that shoppers are “17 percent more likely to complete their purchases with Visa Checkout than those using PayPal.”

Curtin also told PYMNTS that Visa Checkout is designed to be a tightly integrated commerce option for consumers who live their lives increasingly online and via their mobile devices. “The many advantages of Visa Checkout — including single sign-in, zero liability, and the speed, ease and security —  truly appeal to consumers,” Curtin remarked.

Along with Visa Checkout’s global merchant growth, Visa reported an increase in the number of issuers around the world who have embraced Visa Checkout, including China and United Arab Emirates given the high demand for overseas goods. The partners in those regions include:

China: China Merchants Bank, Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, China Everbright Bank, Bank of Guangzhou, and The Card Center, China Minsheng Banking Corp. Ltd.

United Arab Emirates: Mashreq, Emirates NBD, Majid Al Futtaim Finance, Dubai Islamic Bank, Emirates Islamic Bank

“It’s great to see banks like CMB and SPDB bringing best-in-class enrollment experiences to their customers in China who are eager to shop overseas,” said Shrauger, who recently outlined Visa’s Checkout strategy for PYMNTS. “As more merchants and issuers integrate Visa Checkout, the number of consumers seeing the benefit of a faster online checkout experience also grows. We’re starting to see the network effect kick in.”

Nearly a quarter million large and small merchants and over 330 financial institution partners now offer Visa Checkout globally. Visa Checkout is available in 16 countries around the world, which are: Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, South Africa, United Arab Emirates, and the United States.

Checkout launched in July of 2015, replacing V.me – Visa’s 2012 entry into the mobile wallet horse race. Checkout enables a consumer to take any network-branded card and register it to their Visa Checkout account and then transact online anywhere it is accepted in, more or less, one click.



To check out what else is HOT in the world of payments, click here.