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Meta Pay, the mobile wallet from Meta Platforms Inc., has reached an agreement with JP Morgan Chase Payments to make the payment option available to Chase merchants on their e-commerce site or mobile app.
The announcement was made earlier in the week on Twitter by Stephane Kasriel. the head of commerce and financial technologies at Meta. “Big news: We’re partnering with @jpmorgan to expand Meta Pay as a checkout option to their network of merchants! Now people will be able to use Meta Pay as an easy, secure way to pay in even more places while shopping online,” Kasriel said in his tweet.
The partnership with Chase will dramatically expand Meta Pay’s reach but also presents the fledgling payment service with some challenges, observers say. In 2021, Chase Payments acquired 102.4 million merchant transactions daily and processed $9.7 trillion a day in payments, according to JP Morgan Chase & Co.’s annual report.
“J.P. Morgan Payments has a sizable network of merchants, including many beloved brands,” a Meta spokesperson says by email. “Through this expansion, many more people will be able to use Meta Pay to seamlessly shop on the websites they love. J.P. Morgan Payments understands the value that Meta Pay can offer to their merchant network, and we’re excited to partner together to give more people the ability to use Meta Pay when they shop online.”
Meta Pay, known until June as Facebook Pay, was originally developed to enable Facebook users to make purchases on social media and e-commerce sites that accepted the payment option. Last year, Meta Pay expanded its reach among e-commerce merchants by striking a deal with e-commerce platform provider Shopify Inc.. Facebook changed its name to Meta in October last year. The company’s social network retains the Facebook name.
Meta Pay’s deal with Chase comes as rival wallet-based payments services such as Apple Pay and Google Pay have enjoyed a years-long headstart. “Between the Chase Payment partnership and other partnerships, such as that with Shopify, Meta Pay is becoming much more available and visible,” Thad Peterson, a strategic advisor for the Boston-based consultancy Aite-Novarica Group, says by email.
While its link with Chase Payments increases potential merchant endpoints for Meta Pay, Peterson says the deal doesn’t guarantee Meta Pay mainstream merchant acceptance outside its own network of sellers. “Merchants still need to add Meta Pay and they won’t do that unless they believe that by doing so they will increase sales over other alternative payment options,” Peterson says. “Besides, adding too many payment alternatives can confuse consumers and possibly lead to shopping-cart abandonment.” In addition, it’s likely many Meta Pay users already deploy other favored forms of payment, such as PayPal, Amazon Pay, or Apple Pay. Warns Peterson: “Between the merchant needing to select Meta Pay as an alternative and a consumer opting to use Meta Pay as their payment alternative, the path forward for Meta Pay in payments outside their own ecosystem may be challenging.”
