Visa Says Tokenized Transactions Set To Hit $1T, Sets Click-to-Pay Transition

For tokenized payments, $1 trillion and counting.

Visa said on Tuesday (Jan. 14) that participants in its Visa Token Service are poised to process eCommerce volumes of $1 trillion since the service’s debut in 2014, and that its transition of Visa Checkout merchants to click-to-pay will begin on Jan. 21 in the U.S.

The click-to-pay option will replace Visa Checkout, the company said.

As reported last year, the major networks – including American Express, Visa, Mastercard and Discover – said they would implement the EMV Secure Remote Commerce standard, with click-to-pay technology, with wide availability beginning in 2020.

Click-to-pay has been billed as a simpler, more secure way to shop online – especially for guest checkouts – as it requires consumers to enter card details just one time, rather than on a per-transaction basis, or through setting up accounts with individual merchants.

At a New York event attended by PYMNTS, Mary Kay Bowman, Visa’s head of seller solutions, noted how eCommerce has grown from the first transactions 25 years ago to $3 trillion today – and that number is expected to top $5 trillion in just a few years. By entering data into the card issuer’s app, users will no longer have to enter 16-digit primary account numbers, provide passwords or fill out data on checkout pages.

As many as 60 percent of digital transactions are card on file, which leaves 40 percent that may not have a relationship with the retailer, Visa noted at the event.

Bowman said that as eCommerce has grown, innovation has been fragmented. She pointed to the need for standards (such as SRC) to make transactions more trusted and convenient – and which also make it easier for retailers and technology providers to implement. Click-to-pay is interoperable with the EMVCo tokenization and the 3-D Secure specifications.

She likened the transition to click-to-pay as a “button flip.”

“Tokenization is about making sure the data cannot be used for other purposes” aside from closing the sale, said Bowman.

In thinking about card on file and stored credentials transactions moving into the future, Bowman pointed to transactions conducted across Internet of Things (IoT) and even conversational commerce. “We want those things to be just as secure,” she said, as remote commerce moves beyond the online/in-app realm.

In the transition to click-to-pay, Visa will start with the U.S. and then move into international markets through the course of 2020.