MasterCard’s Simplify Commerce Takes on Stripe
MasterCard is taking a step into Stripe’s territory with Simplify Commerce, touted as a simple way to accept payments online.
Aimed at small and micro-merchants their developers, Simplify Commerce includes APIs and SDKs for multiple programming languages. It also works with the Android and iOS mobile operating systems.
“The offering provides a set of APIs that makes it easy to accept most major card brands,” said Debbie Barta, the Product Owner from MasterCard Labs.
MasterCard Labs is the company’s innovation unit and is headed up by Garry Lyons. Simplify Commerce emerged from the unit after “a matter of months” in development, according to Barta.
MasterCard also recently announced that web.com, a provider of online marketing and design services for small businesses, would be using its MasterPass digital wallet platform for its checkout functionality.
The Simplify Commerce product can work for anyone accepting payments online, but is specifically targeting micro merchants, said Barta. After years of being overlooked, this is becoming a well-served population.
Merchants are up and running with the system, but MasterCard is not sharing specifics at this point. MasterCard plans to spread the word through social media and the developer community, which Barta pointed out is “quite chatty.”
The pricing seems designed to take a swipe at Stripe. Where Stripe charges 2.9% and $0.30 per transaction, Simplify Commerce charges 2.85% and $0.30. But where earnings with Stripe are transferred to users’ bank accounts “on a 7 day rolling basis,” Simplify Commerce says “Deposits are made into your account in two business days in most cases.”
The product’s hashtag, @simplifycom, caught the attention of Josh Reich, co-founder of Simple, @simplify. He tweeted:
@MasterCardNews @simplifycom Great name! No possibility of confusion with @simplify!
— Josh Reich (@i2pi) June 27, 2013
And his prediction seems to have been correct, judging by the following:
#simplify seems to have it all: subscriptions, plans, coupons, webhooks, one-off payments, refunds. All manageable via a well-designed API.
— Daniel Lohse (@annismckenzie) June 27, 2013
Developers already wedded to Stripe may not see much reason to switch, but MasterCard’s marketing muscle should help the Purchase, N.Y.-based company make some inroads.
