Walgreens enables Visa Checkout on its sites, Walmart.com next
SAN FRANCISCO - Walgreens, along with a host of other retailers, on Tuesday opted into Visa's Visa Checkout to help facilitate an omnichannel shopping experience. Walmart.com also will be incorporating the option into its services within the year, Visa reported.
Enhancing the shopping experience online has become a critical factor toward merchant success, especially with ecommerce growing at four times, and mobile commerce growing at eight times, the rate of traditional commerce, Visa noted.
“We are seeing tremendous Visa Checkout growth as we enter 2016 and are greatly encouraged by the enthusiastic response from consumers and merchants alike,” stated Sam Shrauger, SVP for Visa’s Digital Solutions. “By re-engineering the Visa card for the digital world, we’re delivering a better way to pay through connected and mobile devices.”
As consumers make more purchases using smartphones, tablets and other connected devices, merchants increasingly see the need for a digital payment experience that is easy and convenient for consumers and simple to integrate into their existing systems. Visa Checkout delivers on both fronts, Visa said. When shopping online, consumers simply log in, then click a button to complete their purchase. There’s no need to re-enter payment and billing information, which makes the experience faster and easier, especially on mobile devices.
During the 2015 holiday season, more customers than ever visited merchants’ websites, especially when using a mobile device:
Nearly half (45%) of Visa Checkout shoppers used a smartphone, tablet or other mobile device in making an online purchase during the 2015 holiday period. Just six months ago, it was closer to one-third;
Between July and November, the share of Visa Checkout customers using a mobile device grew by 10%;
More than 46% of customers who took advantage of a Visa Checkout promotion were new to that retailer, according to a survey completed by six Visa Checkout merchants; and
comScore data also showed a 7% higher transaction size for Visa Checkout orders, compared to non-Visa Checkout orders at many of the leading retail and travel sites.
According to new research from comScore, Visa Checkout is more effective than other checkout options at driving conversion, which means that shoppers who start a checkout process are more likely to complete it, when using Visa Checkout. Checkout abandonment rates have been an ongoing challenge for merchants trying to increase sales in digital channels, particularly on smaller screens of mobile phones.
The comScore survey, which was completed in December 2015, found that enrolled Visa Checkout customers completed 86% of transactions from the online shopping cart and have a 51% higher conversion rate when compared to customers using a merchant’s traditional online checkout.
In addition to Walgreens, Starbucks, NFL Shop, HSN and Match are among the new merchants taking advantage of Visa Checkout’s ability to deliver seamless digital payments.
Visa Checkout’s rollout has been among the fastest and most successful Visa consumer product launches in company history, Visa said. More than 10 million consumer accounts and 600 financial institutions in 16 countries have signed up to use Visa Checkout since its launch 18 months ago.
As of Dec. 31, Visa Checkout had more than 10 million consumer accounts. More than a quarter million large and small merchants and 600 financial institution partners now offer Visa Checkout globally. Visa Checkout is available in 16 countries around the world, including: Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, South Africa, United Arab Emirates and the United States.
Visa Checkout merchants represent some of the biggest retailers on the internet, including Best Buy, Gap, Neiman Marcus, Pizza Hut, Staples, Rakuten, Under Armour, Virgin America, Williams Sonoma and zulily.