Contactless payments come to e-commerce

Our first blog in this series looked at Strong Customer Authentication, and provided the Maxa answer to this challenge. In this blog, we chart the rapid growth of contactless payments in Europe, and how contactless can help merchants – especially the world’s 25 million plus micro-merchants – tap into e-commerce’s potential to grow their online businesses.

Contactless payments have been this industry’s greatest success in recent years. In 2017, UK consumers enacted 5.6 billion contactless transactions, and there are more than 120 million contactless cards in circulation – almost two cards for every British citizen. Meanwhile, new data from Transparency Research estimates US contactless payments will soar by more than 55% per annum over the next five years to $14.11 billion – writes Risto  Savolainen, CEO Maxa.

While consumers benefit from the speed and convenience of contactless at POS, merchants have seen benefits in terms of increased sales volumes and faster throughput at point of sale. So far, so good – but if things look rosy in the real world, the news isn’t quite so good for digital shoppers.

Netting trouble at the checkout

Card-Not-Present (CNP) fraud occurs during e-commerce transactions or when telephone ordering. Today, CNP is the fastest-growing category of fraud , up by 18% in the US since 2017. To help combat CNP fraud, regulators are ramping up e-commerce security requirements, with the EU’s SCA regulations just the first in a slew of measures to ensure shopper’s online safety. The risk is that these measures lead to consumers abandoning transactions as they struggle to remember additional passwords or adhere to complicated protocols.

New software systems like EMVCo’s 3DS v2.0 may simplify secure e-commerce and require less consumer friction. But such systems are expensive and time-consuming to implement: industry experts estimate it could take more than two years for 3DS v2.0 to be fully operational. Especially for small merchants who need fast and secure transactions but can’t afford complex implementations, what’s needed is an easy-to-use, low-cost solution that’s popular with consumers.

Online Contactless: the Solution

As our White Paper explains, Maxa’s revolutionary system builds on tried and trusted contactless payments technology, moving it online by employing the consumer’s mobile device as a POS terminal. The consumer simply taps their payment card against their phone, and the payment is done. Maxa is SCA compliant – and trials have proven how popular this technology is with consumers. Just as importantly, Maxa provides a way for merchants, issuers and acquirers to protect themselves against online fraud, and is fast and simple to implement without compromising on security.

To find out more, click here to download our White Paper

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