Payment providers Mastercard and Visa will combine their online checkout experiences into one, in an attempt to make e-commerce payments as simple as PayPal or Amazon.
The initiative, announced earlier this week by both companies, would merge Mastercard’s Masterpass payment “button” with Visa’s, Visa Checkout “button,” creating a one-click option for consumers who are growing used to such offerings thanks to companies like PayPal and Amazon.
Card networks American Express and Discover will also collaborate on the project, according to spokespeople from both companies. The new service will compete against PayPal’s one-touch payment, as well as allow consumers a needed respite from the “clutter that exists of multiple buttons” on an e-commerce site, TS Anil, head of payment processing and solutions for Visa, told the Wall Street Journal.
While the single button is still in development, according to Visa and Mastercard, the companies will begin moving customers enrolled in either program (Checkout or Masterpass) to the single button later in the year, they said.
Read more at the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg.