Here’s Why Visa Credit Card’s Integrated ‘Visa Checkout’ Mobile Pay Service May Trumpet Other Services

Visa has launched a mobile payment solution named Visa Checkout. Currently, the service is available for U.S, Canada and Australian customers who buy from their mobile devices. Though the app, in conjunction with a Visa credit card, is primarily meant to ease payment from a mobile device, it can easily work across phones, tablets, and desktops too.

Currently, Visa Checkout has been rolled out in a trial phase and a few big retailers like Neiman Marcus, Pizza Hut and Staples have begun allowing payment for their merchandise via the platform. However, according to a report by Yahoo, banks are quite eager to support the service.

Putting aside the hype, ‘Visa Checkout’ is essentially a new version of V.me, which is now slowly being abandoned by retailers in favor of Checkout. Speaking about the same, Sam Shrauger, senior vice president of digital at Visa said, “Visa Checkout is simpler than any other method. People don’t want a wallet; they want to pay and be done.”

The statement was clearly a sly comment about Google Wallet and similar services that require the user or customer to routinely load and unload funds. Such a cumbersome process is completely sidelined by Visa Checkout since it is directly integrated with the credit card’s back-end, reported ComputerWorld.

Though other services mimic the facility offered by Visa Checkout, the new platform is slightly better. It eliminates the need to supply the 16-digit card number and other information associated with the account. Mobile payments may have ushered in a new era of shopping on the go, but the transaction usually hits a roadblock when it comes to making the payment.

According to Visa, an overwhelming 86 percent of online shoppers never complete the transaction on their mobile devices. A major reason is the difficulty of inputting so many bits and pieces of data, especially on a mobile device. With a Visa credit card and Visa Checkout, merchants hope this will lower the percentage of online cart abandonment.

Essentially, Visa hopes to make the checkout appealing owing to the speed, along with the convenience of the transaction. Moreover, customers aren’t so fond of carrying around credit cards. Visa Checkout, unlike V.me, can succeed. V.me failed primarily because merchants were reluctant as it was quite tedious to get the method up and running.

However, Visa now has strong support of more than 180 financial institutions for Checkout. Besides, its back-end infrastructure is already in place. Additionally, Visa has a powerful brand presence via its omnipresent logo. These reasons could strongly help Visa Checkout to be adopted quickly by both merchants and customers.

[Image Credit | Android Central, Low Cards]