Click to Pay with Visa Launches in Middle East to Transform the Online Checkout Experience for Merchants and Consumers

Today, Visa has announced the expansion of Click to Pay in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, helping consumers make secure, swift online purchases across various merchants and platforms. On retail websites or mobile apps displaying the click to pay icon , consumers that have enabled their card will not have to enter a 16-digit primary account number, look up passwords or complete forms to make a purchase. 

The digital-first explosion has ushered in the next generation of commerce, and demand for an online checkout experience that is seamless and consistent across all channels. Findings from Visa ‘Stay Secure’ survey published in partnership with mada, showed that sixty-six percent of respondents in Saudi reduced shopping in-store since the outbreak of the pandemic and 48% are shopping online more. For respondents shopping more online, the majority (62%) use cards or digital wallets to pay online over Cash on Delivery. 

Consumers can pay with confidence with their Visa card where they see a Click to Pay icon where Visa is accepted. Click to Pay uses advanced technology and authentication methods, including device binding and biometrics to protect transactions. Click to Pay is based on the EMV® Secure Remote Commerce industry standard. The Click to Pay experience is also interoperable with the EMVCo tokenization specification and with the 3-D Secure specification to bring more security methods to emerging and existing digital payments channels.

Following a successful initial rollout in the United States, Visa is now transitioning Visa Checkout merchants globally. In Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, as well as several other markets including Australia, Brazil, Canada, Hong Kong, Ireland, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, the United Kingdom and Ukraine, this fast, easy and secure way to pay will be available for consumers who choose to shop via web, mobile, app or connected device. 

Thousands of merchants have already transitioned to the click to pay online checkout experience globally. Notable merchants around the world that are committed to supporting Click to Pay include Emirates, Mitre 10 (New Zealand) Ltd., Noel Leeming, 1-day, Pizza Hut Australia, The Warehouse, Torpedo7, Ticketek and Warehouse with others to follow. For merchants, this checkout solution can help reduce shopping cart and donation abandonment while providing a single integration for multiple card brands – meaning a simpler and smoother overall digital checkout experience.

To grow acceptance beyond existing merchants, Visa is also working with payments service providers, gateways and acquirers including Checkout.com, Iveri Payment Technology, JSC CB "Privatbank", Noon payments, NetCash, PayGate, Portmone.com, Payu and Ukrainian Processing Centre to prepare for a streamlined online checkout that supports all participating networks. 

“While the increasingly high numbers of digital shopping continue to rise in the wake of COVID-19, we are committed to providing solutions that lay the groundwork for the next generation of simple, secure, and better ways to pay,” said Hadi Raad, Vice President and Head of Digital Solutions, Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa (CEMEA), Visa. “This is truly a winning solution that will help merchants reduce shopping cart abandonment while providing a single integration for participating card brands – meaning a simpler and smoother overall digital checkout experience. The vision for the future is that Click to Pay will provide consumers a streamlined experience across any digital checkout environment or network, mirroring the consistent, interoperable checkout experience that exists today in physical stores.”

"Now more than ever we are pleased to launch innovative products in partnership with Visa, which empower our merchants to get more value out of every transaction. Visa’s Click to pay will provide a seamless interface for consumers and we are excited to bring it to our merchants first." Sebastian Reis, EVP Global Ecommerce, Checkout.com.

Visa Reaches 1 Billion Tokens globally and over 100 million in CEMEA

The click to pay experience helps facilitate guest checkout purchases for shoppers who do not have their Visa saved with an online merchant. This represents 40% of all ecommerce transactions globally. An even larger percentage of digital purchases are made using a stored Visa credential, usually with merchants that have high frequency use or recurring monthly payments. To protect these types of digital transactions, Visa offers tokenization to replace a cardholder’s 16-digit Visa account number with a secure token that protects the underlying card number from fraudsters. Visa Token Service (VTS) recently issued its 1 billionth token, marking a major milestone in its proprietary offering to help accelerate eCommerce innovation and make payments more secure. Today, there are over 13,000 merchants transacting with Visa credential-on-file COF tokens and over 8,200 issuers enabled on Visa Token Service from 150 markets.

To date, merchants and ecommerce gateways in CEMEA with an aggregate payment volume exceeding $17Bn have already committed participation in Visa Token Service.

Like Click to Pay, the rapid adoption of Visa’s tokenization technology comes as the world’s massive shift to digital takes over modern and future forms of commerce. Looking ahead, Visa is already launching new and evolved solutions to reduce operational risks around data protection for merchants and mobile carriers, reducing unnecessary steps and friction for consumers.