Visa launches online payment service Checkout

Paying online got easier for Visa cardholders this week thanks to its launch of Visa Checkout. The service will allow users to register their card and then complete their purchases by entering their Checkout username and password.



“People aren’t looking for another wallet — they just want a simpler way to pay online, particularly on mobile devices, and that’s exactly what we designed Visa Checkout to do,” Visa’s SVP, digital solutions, Sam Shrauger, said. “And for merchants and financial institutions, we’ve made Visa Checkout easy to implement and added advanced security features to help reduce the risk of fraud.”



With banks like Bank of America, Chase and Citi participating in the service — and a dataCom study that found that 47% of online transactions involved a Visa product, retailers are taking note of Checkout. Among the early adopters are Pizza Hut, United Airlines and Neiman Marcus, as well Ticketmaster and Lululemon.



“Visa Checkout offers our customers another simple and secure way to quickly order online from Pizza Hut,” Pizza Hut chief digital officer Baron Concors said. “We’re focused on making the digital ordering experience as easy as possible and adding this checkout option with Visa Checkout does just that.”



While Checkout works across platforms, the service is largely aimed at shopping on mobile apps, which an eMarketer study found only culminates in a purchase 14% of the time.



“As people around the world spend more time and money online, particularly using mobile devices, they are demanding a fast, secure and frictionless way to shop using the payment cards they already know and trust,” said Visa CEO Charlie Scharf. “We designed an online payment experience that continues to deliver on this promise, bringing us closer to the simplicity and speed of the ‘swipe’ in the online world.”