By Aimee Chanthadavong
Visa has launched its V.me service in Australia as the company’s solution to help e-commerce retailers reduce shopping cart abandonment at checkout.
V.me is a digital wallet service that allows consumers to store the details of any payment card and multiple shipping addresses in one place. This will eliminate the need for consumers to retype their account details for every purchase, which Visa found to be a culprit for why shopping cart abandonment occurs.
The company’s research into the US market – where V.me was initially rolled out to last year – showed 67 per cent of merchants suggested they lost customers at checkout because they found the process too complicated and this same concern is shared by Australian merchants.
Greg Storey, Visa’s Head of V.me for Asia Pacific, Central Europe, Middle East and Africa, said V.me addresses consumer desire for ease, convenience and simplicity when it making online purchases.
“They need a payment solution that is quick and easy for their customers, something those customers will trust, something those customers can see as an extension of their financial institution relationship and one that will help retailers convert customers. With such a significant rise in online transaction there’s a heavy demand for new ways to pay and V.me is our new way for consumers to pay in the future,” he said.
To ensure V.me matches how consumers shop with retailers, it will be accessible via PC, smartphone and tablet, with personal account information protected by passwords and device identification technology. All card details will kept secured by Visa to reduce consumer risk in sharing credit card details with unknown retailers.
JB Hi-Fi, Cotton On, City Beach and Lorna Jane will be initial retailers participate of V.me with additional stores expected to sign on before the service is launched “just in time for Christmas”. Also more than 40 financial institutions have also agreed to partner with Visa to offer V.me to their customers, including ANZ, National Australia Bank, Westpac, Suncorp, Citigroup and ING Direct.
Vipin Kalra, Visa’s country manager for Australia, said Visa’s aim is to provide a payment service that will be beneficial to both consumers and merchants.
“Our vision is to be the best way to pay and be paid everywhere and in anyway. With that vision, we will continue to invest in our new technologies and innovations to make sure we stay ahead of the curve and continue to bring new forms of payments for consumers and merchants over the coming years,” he said.
“With that mission we mind we will be investing quite heavily over the next few years making sure we will bring new form of payments to consumers.”
Going forward, Visa said it plans to enhance V.me by adding new features and services that will enable retailers to increase customer engagement through additional offers, which will help it distinguish from its main and existing competitor in the space – PayPal.
“We have a distinct competitive advantage. We have a very simple and easy way for the consumer to purchase. So it’s a great consumer experience and we’ve rallied more than 40 financial institutions to offer this and they’re going to offer it that the consumer trusts so it’s going to become an extension of the financial institution relationship and it’s something that has the backing of the trust and credibility Visa brings to the consumer,” Storey said.