COVID exposed clunky checkout processes and highlighted consumers’ preference for a fast and easy method to pay.

In an Exclusive, PYMNTS.com revealed Tuesday that Citi’s Consumer Bank (NYSE: C) and Mastercard (NYSE: MA) were working together to remove the frustration from the checkout process in e-commerce transactions. Shoppers abandoned the transaction at this ultimate stage simply because it was too cumbersome, time-consuming, or required usually-forgotten passwords. Citi is deploying Mastercard’s Click to Pay solution to address the problem.

Citigroup adds Mastercard’s Click to Pay

Citi is aiming to streamline the checkout process for its customers when they transact online. Mastercard’s Click To Pay is an advanced guest checkout that makes passwords redundant. Consumers would enjoy a consistent checkout process across various merchants and make payment in a few clicks.

Citi has become the first card issuer in the U.S. to allow ‘push’ payments via Click to Pay. Citi Mobile App users can use Mastercard Token Connect to push tokenized card details from the app out to Mastercard’s solution. Consumers need not enter credit card details. Yet, their transactions are more secure for the tokenization.

COVID and online transactions

Checkout security and convenience came to the fore during COVID when sheltered-in-place people took to online purchases for their daily needs. Also, many brick-and-mortar merchants too went online for the first time.

Citi observed that mobile app logins shot up year-on-year in double digits, while “chat” increased in triple-digit percentages during the coronavirus outbreak.

“Click to Pay had been essential even before COVID-19, but what COVID-19 has done is really highlighted a new need for safer and faster ways to pay digitally,” said Jess Turner, executive vice president of products and innovation for Mastercard, to PYMNTS.com

Citi Mobile App

Radha Suvarna, head of digital payments and lending for the Citi U.S. Consumer Bank, clarified that Citi card-holders receive an immediate prompt when they login to the app to enable their card for Click to Pay.

It’s a simple matter to agree to the T&C and complete two-factor authentication. The card details are pre-populated and the consumer need not re-enter them when checking-out using Mastercard’s solution.

Click to Pay is now available on more than 10,000 online merchant sites.

Related Story:     Mastercard Launches Fintech Express for Emerging European Startups