Whether you’re celebrating the holidays with family, friends, or both, early eCommerce data is showing just how generous people are through the holidays. Consumers are spending more time—and money—online as more people log-on to do their holiday shopping to avoid crowds, save money and simplify the gift buying experience. This year, Visa is making it even easier by adding two more leading online retailers to our growing roster of V.me by Visa merchants and further eliminating the hassles of online shopping.
Today, visitors to LivingSocial.com and Newegg.com can sign up for V.me, checkout with a few simple clicks, and say goodbye to having to enter their bill-to, ship-to and account information each time they make a purchase online. For both adventure lovers looking to book New Year’s Eve plans or discover a weekend excursion, or tech-enthusiasts looking for holiday shopping deals or the latest gadget, LivingSocial and Newegg.com are sure to have the perfect gift.
With just two weeks to finish holiday shopping before Christmas, it’s important to be able to buy gifts quickly. V.me allows people to do just that, enabling checkout with just a few clicks of the mouse at any of the leading 25 eCommerce merchants using V.me. Today’s news builds on the recent launch of V.me, where more than 50 financial institutions participated in the announcement, bringing the addressable base of cardholders to as many as 55 million.
Visa’s mission is to become the best way to pay and be paid for everyone, everywhere. Our premise is simple: to deliver the security, simplicity, and personalization merchants, financial institutions and consumers demand as payments technology continues to evolve.
While there are many new players in the payments space, Visa is a trusted brand around the world for the security, reliability and convenience that come with Visa’s 50 years of experience creating one of the largest payments networks in the world – capable of processing up to 20,000 transaction messages per second. We think we do the hard part better than anyone else – and our reputation is proof of that.
V.me by Visa is our new service designed to take the friction out of commerce wherever consumers shop – online today, and soon via mobile device or at a retail store. Click a mouse, touch a mobile browser, or wave at the point of sale to access any major payment network account – V.me will deliver the simplicity and personalization promised by Internet and mobile payment technologies in ways consumers can trust.
Over the last several months, we’ve launched the V.me website, the V.me Developer Center and have internally tested the service with employees. We have now reached another milestone with the beta launch of V.me with our first online merchant as we move toward the commercialization of V.me in the United States.
In the U.S., V.me is now available in beta for consumer enrollment and online merchant checkout at Rakuten Buy.com, a leading retail marketplace with more than 18 million customers. The V.me acceptance mark is now visible on the Rakuten Buy.com login/checkout pages allowing consumers to enroll Visa and non-Visa accounts in V.me and make online payments with a simple username and password through the merchant’s website. Users can also set personalized alerts to receive near-real-time notification of transactions on enrolled Visa accounts.
While our focus is currently on the U.S., we are also working on plans for how to scale V.me in additional countries around the globe to ensure that the V.me experience meets Visa’s standards for security, convenience and reliability as it becomes more broadly available.
In the coming weeks and months, we’ll be adding more top eCommerce merchants that will accept V.me. Rakuten Buy.com is the first of a group of merchants that will trial enrollment and online capabilities for V.me as we focus on building acceptance among the top eCommerce retailers. This will ensure that consumers who sign up will be able to use V.me at their favorite places to shop.
Regardless of where a consumer signs up, their information is entered and stored on Visa’s secure servers; they can add Visa and non-Visa accounts from any issuer; and use V.me at any merchant that accepts V.me.
We’re excited about the role V.me will play to strengthen the entire commerce ecosystem, making it easier for consumers, merchants and financial institutions to do business with one another.
Six months ago, we announced our global innovation strategy to deliver the next generation of payments. Today, we’re introducing two important building blocks in that effort: opening Visa to developers via the Visa Developer Center – including the introduction of the V.me by Visa digital wallet brand and global acceptance mark – and the new Visa Mobile Prepaid product designed specifically for consumers in developing countries. These milestones reinforce Visa’s ongoing efforts to give consumers more places and ways to pay and be paid, as well as provide financially excluded consumers with secure and reliable financial services.
Embracing the Developer Community
With the Visa Developer Center, we’re standing behind our belief that some of the most innovative ideas for the future of payments will come from leading-edge software developers. We’re arming the developer community with the tools to build person-to-person payment capabilities, domestic and international remittances, and other applications by providing access to Visa tools, API’s, documentation, and code. Visa is also improving access to the separate developer resources of CyberSource, Authorize.Net, PlaySpan, and the new V.me digital wallet. We’re excited about the future innovations 3rd party developers may conceive through the Visa platform, and look forward to payment applications not yet imagined today.
Our First Joint Visa and Fundamo Product
After acquiring Fundamo just over five months ago, Visa is introducing its first jointly developed product: the Visa Mobile Prepaid product. The new product, a Visa prepaid account that can be accessed through a simple menu on a mobile phone, enables consumers in developing countries to send and receive funds, make purchases online or at merchants where Visa is accepted, and withdraw money at ATMs. It brings Visa’s high standards for security, reliability and interoperability to consumers who have lacked access to formal financial services. The product is the result of a new mobile money platform that connects financial institutions and mobile network operators with VisaNet.
Stay tuned for additional progress in the weeks and months ahead.
I’m excited to share that today Visa is introducing V.me by Visa, the brand for the digital wallet and new click to buy acceptance mark we announced in May. V.me will be a secure way for consumers to pay online as well as in person with a PC, tablet, or mobile device using Visa and non-Visa accounts.
We are working with our financial institution clients and merchants on their participation in V.me and have launched an invitation-only beta of V.me capabilities in the US and Canada, so that we can introduce consumer enrollment and payments in early 2012.
We also know developers will play an important role in accelerating adoption of and support for innovative applications using V.me, so one of our first steps in rolling out V.me is today’s launch of an open beta developer program designed initially for online payment applications. The first V.me developer tools can be accessed through Visa’s new Visa Developer Center or at www.V.me.
V.me supports the evolving ways and places people transact. It is different than other offerings because it is not online or point-of-sale. It is online and point-of-sale. Wherever and however people shop, they can take V.me with them – just like consumers have one physical wallet, they will be able to have one digital wallet. And of course, it will provide features beyond payments such as transaction alerts and the ability to receive personalized offers. First up: a streamlined online checkout, so consumers can click to buy with the new V.me acceptance mark instead of entering their account information and shipping addresses every time they want to shop from their smart phone, tablet or computer.
We are taking important steps toward delivering a digital wallet that meets Visa’s standards for a payments experience that is convenient, secure and reliable. Visa is building on a fifty year tradition as we look ahead to the next generation of payments.
