Insights

Merchant Payments Digest - 13th Edition

The Merchant Payments Digest is a regular update from Oliver Wyman to keep merchants apprised of developments in the rapidly shifting payments space.


PAYMENTS SPOTLIGHT

Transformational payments solutions:In a bid to streamline the online checkout experience, Visa and Mastercard recently announced their support for EMVCo’s Secure Remote Commerce (SRC) framework released in 2017. The vision is to transform the current eCommerce and mCommerce processes that involve multiple authentication and payment steps into a single, ubiquitous online checkout button that is card-agnostic and does not require passwords. Tokenization will play a key role in the success of the initiative, as security and fraud are of paramount importance to merchants for card-not-present purchases.

Source: Finextra and Mastercard

   

Regulatory landscape:Visa's new protocols for dispute resolution for merchants went into effect in April. Called Visa Claims Resolution (VCR), it focuses on automating several parts of the resolution process to reduce processing times and costs. The 22 reason codes for disputes that existed previously have now been consolidated into four categories – fraud, authorization, processing errors and consumer disputes. For most fraud and authorization disputes, Visa will determine an initial liability assignment based on available information. For other more nuanced disputes, issuers, merchants and acquirers will need to interact together to resolve the issue. The end-to-end cycle for dispute resolution has also been reduced to 30 days.

Source: Visa and FirstData

   

Customers’ evolving expectations:

Plenti, the multi-merchant loyalty program from American Express is ending in July. The program was established to attract frequent shoppers by awarding points for purchases made at participating merchants. The points could subsequently be redeemed at any of those merchants. Plenti had signed up several large merchants as partners, including Macy’s and RiteAid. However, the program was unable to sustain customer interest – reflective of the fact that customers prefer to earn richer rewards tied to a specific merchant using co-brand, private label or other loyalty cards.

Source: Fortune

   

Data:Mastercard unveiled technology that allows consumers to register their fingerprints onto their biometric card at home, without having to visit a bank branch. With this technology, Mastercard will be able to capture the biometric data in an encrypted digital template that is created and stored securely. The biometric card is compatible with existing EMV terminals and hence does not require additional investment from merchants. Mastercard expects the technology to benefit both merchants and card issuers for in-store payments by reducing fraud, increasing approval rates and enhancing customer loyalty.

Source: Mastercard

   

New providers:

Square announced the acquisition of Weebly, the website-builder for small and medium-sized merchants to diversify its payments business from the card-present to card-not-present space. The acquisition gives Square access to a large customer base, many of whom are paid subscribers with 40% of them outside the U.S. This move also positions Square to offer omni-channel and omni-market payments solutions.

Source: Reuters


PARTNERSHIP SPOTLIGHT

  • Chevrolet and Shell have come together to introduce embedded in-dash fuel payment technology

    • With this offering, customers who drive select Chevrolet vehicles can pay for fuel at participating Shell gas stations directly from their touchscreen dashboard, without using a card or mobile phone

    • In-dash fueling is powered by Marketplace, a commerce platform for on-demand reservations and purchases for the auto industry. Marketplace generates a code to allow users to activate a pump and start fueling right from their dashboard, with payment charged to the card-on-file 

Source: Chevrolet

 

  • PayPal and Samsung Pay are extending their partnership to now enable Samsung Pay users to pay in-store using PayPal
    • PayPal accounts with a debit card or bank account can now be provisioned into the Samsung Pay wallet
    • PayPal expects to increase its in-store merchant acceptance and customer usage with this offering; customers continue to earn Samsung Rewards while paying with PayPal 

Source: PayPal

 


MERCHANT SPOTLIGHT

  • Macy’s announced a revamp of its Star Rewards program by allowing members to also earn rewards for purchases made on cards other than its own co-branded credit card
    • Macy’s shift in focus more towards customer loyalty than its own credit card business comes against the backdrop of a recent decline in its credit card business
    • By allowing the use of other cards to earn rewards, Macy’s can also get access to richer data to inform its merchandise mix and improve in-store operations

Source: Forbes

  •  Amazon recently launched the ‘International Shopping Experience’ in the Amazon app to enhance cross-border purchases and payments
    • Using this feature, international customers can shop for over 45MM items and have them shipped from the U.S.
    • Amazon accepts 25 different currencies for purchases and has enabled local language search and customer service features
    • The feature also focuses on transparency in pricing, shipping costs, and import duty estimates – areas that typically lead to friction in cross-border purchases 
  • Source: Amazon


Oliver Wyman is a global leader in management consulting with offices in 50+ cities across nearly 30 countries. Our Payments practice works with constituents across the payments value chain to deliver insights with real impact, combining deep industry expertise with powerful consulting capabilities. To have a discussion with Oliver Wyman on your payments issues and opportunities, please contact Beth Costa or Rob Mau at payments@oliverwyman.com.


Note that Oliver Wyman believes the curated content to be reliable, but it has not been verified.  As such, Oliver Wyman gives no warranty as to the accuracy of such information.  Oliver Wyman’s curation of such content should not be interpreted as an endorsement of the organizations that published the content.