Last editedApr 20222 min read
Entering your credit card details every time you shop on a new site can be tiresome and off-putting for some customers. This is where Click to Pay comes in, a service which makes paying online easier and faster. As a merchant, implementing it can help reduce checkout abandonment and streamline the payment process for customers.
In this post, we’ll take you through everything you need to know about Click to Pay, including how it works, how to implement it as a merchant, and whether or not it’s safe to use.
What is Click to Pay?
Click to Pay is a service for online shopping which allows customers to pay with one click using stored payment details — much like digital wallets. The service can work on any website or app and supports Visa, Mastercard, American Express, debit cards, prepaid cards and Discover.
Previously, each of the above card networks offered their own one single-click payment service, but this came with the distinct disadvantage that customers had to sign up with each one separately — which, if they had multiple cards, didn’t actually save them much time. The combinative service, Click to Pay, however, proved to be much more time-efficient.
Click to Pay also offers the advantage of having inbuilt security measures, including tokenisation and 3D Secure. We’ll go into more detail about this below.
How does Click to Pay work for merchants?
If you run an ecommerce store, you might be interested in signing up for Click to Pay and incorporating it into your payment system.
Unfortunately, the service isn’t as simple to set up as it is for customers to use, although this may be streamlined in the near future as adoption becomes more widespread.
For now, set-up requires you add a Click to Pay API (application programming interface) to your website. This allows customers to visibly see the Click to Pay icon presented as one of their payment options. The code for this can be found via your merchant account provider. Payment processing software like Stripe will provide their users with information about how to use Click to Pay.
Bear in mind that transactions processed using Click to Pay will run up the same interchange fees and associated processing costs as any typical credit card transaction. You are also still required to be PCI compliant (PCI compliance is a list of regulations set up by major card schemes, such as Visa and Mastercard).
Is Click to Pay safe?
When it comes to payment options, merchants as well as customers benefit from having heightened security. This is because customers will trust your ecommerce store if it’s safe and are more likely to return, but also because it helps protect merchants against chargeback fraud which can become costly for businesses.
Click to Pay transactions are highly secure, largely due to tokenisation. When a customer makes a purchase using Click to Pay, their credit card information transforms into an encrypted, virtual card number which is unique to that transaction, and will change when and if they make another purchase. It’s therefore much more difficult for fraudsters to access and steal customer credit card information when it’s tokenised.
Click to Pay also utilises two-factor authentication in order to increase security. This involves customers being sent a verification code when selecting the Click to Pay icon. They won’t be able to complete their transaction without entering this verification code on the screen.
Additionally, merchants can set up 3D Secure for an extra layer of protection. 3D Secure involves an extra step at payment, where cardholders are redirected to a different page to verify their identity.
We can help
GoCardless helps you automate payment collection, cutting down on the amount of admin your team needs to deal with when chasing invoices. Find out how GoCardless can help you with ad hoc payments or recurring payments.