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Consumer affinity for shopping on smart phones and tablets is unlikely to abate any time soon. And that poses a problem for retailers as they try to make the payment experience easier on mobile commerce sites and apps.
It’s a problem that credit-reporting agency Equifax Inc. and payments-and-authentication-services provider Jumio Inc. claim they have a fix for. A Jumio survey last year found that two-thirds of respondents failed to make a purchase using a mobile device because of the difficulty.
The companies announced Thursday they will soon offer merchants a mobile-commerce service that integrates Equifax’s data capabilities and Jumio’s identity-authentication services. The hope is that the combination will alleviate some of the steps consumers take to make mobile-commerce purchases, says Anand Krishnaswamy, vice president of mobile commerce at Atlanta-based Equifax.
When the service launches in a couple of months, consumers visiting participating m-commerce sites will be asked to enter their names, addresses, and payment information, as they do now, Krishnaswamy says. “We have focused very heavily on maintaining the same user experience,” he says. But, to do that, the consumer scans either a credit card or identity card like a driver’s license, using Jumio’s technology. Pertinent data are culled from the image and sent securely to Equifax’s data bank for matching.
If there is a match, the consumer is presented with a list of available credit card accounts from their file to select and use for payment. The Web form will autofill with the consumer’s name, address, and selected card number, says Krishnaswamy. She must still enter the expiration data, which is saved after its first use, and card-verification code, which must be entered each time. Consumers must opt in to use the service. The goal is to nullify the pain of entering all of these data by finger on small smart-phone screens, he says.
Equifax also will present store-brand card offers from participating retailers, if the consumer meets the creditworthiness criteria. If the credit line is accepted, consumers can instantly use it for purchases on their mobile devices, Krishnaswamy says.
Participating merchants use a set of application programming interface code and software development kits to integrate the service into their sites. Merchants will pay one fee for the service, but Jumio and Equifax say the pricing is in development and they are not discussing it at this time.
The service does not interfere with a merchant’s existing payment-processing agreement, and no data are stored on the consumer’s mobile device or in the merchant’s system, Krishnaswamy says.
Jumio will sell the service via direct distribution, says Michael Orlando, Jumio chief sales officer. Equifax also will use its relationships with financial institutions and wireless companies to find customers, in addition to direct sales to retailers.
Efforts to ease the friction in mobile commerce transactions require significant energy to motivate consumers, says Todd Ablowitz, president of Double Diamond Group LLC, a Centennial, Colo.-based consulting firm.
“To get consumers enrolled, they either have to solve it on the first transaction or have something so valuable the person will spend the time on first use,” Ablowitz says. “The question is, will people take a picture of their cards on a regular basis? Will lots of lots of people go down the Jumio path?”
