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Though the official launch of the Paze online wallet from Early Warning Services LLC isn’t slated until 2024, Paze executives are already demonstrating the product.
As many as 150 million credit and debit cards from seven large banks could be loaded into Paze, complete with billing addresses, as Early Warning looks to address abandoned e-commerce shopping carts and reduce the manual card and address entry that can deter many consumers. Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Early Warning announced Paze in March.
“The Paze vision is ubiquity across merchants and the financial institution sides,” Matt Miller, Paze vice president of product, tells Digital Transactions News. “This is about addressing a problem in e-commerce that’s existed since the early days.” Paze is a few months away from broader public and merchant implementation. Until then, it is demoing the wallet, as Miller did Monday at Money 20/20 in Las Vegas.
The problem Miller is referring to is manual entry of card data. Consumers, long accustomed to speedy online shopping, want the same sense of quickness when checking out, and merchants want to make it easier for them to do so. When it’s not speedy, a sale is usually lost and the merchant’s conversion rate is hampered.
Paze was designed to help alleviate that issue. Because the participating issuing banks—all Mastercard Inc. or Visa Inc. issuers in the United States—already have established relationships with consumers through their card products, card data and billing-address information will be available in the digital wallet without the consumer having to type anything but the email address associated with the card account.
“We get away from this idea of manually keying in everything,” Miller says. Consumers will be able to add different shipping addresses and store them in Paze, too. The wallet also features a card updater capability. In addition, the issuer can send a notice in the Paze wallet asking the consumer to update the expired card, after verification with a one-time password and supplying a card-security code.
Merchants choosing to adopt Paze will pay no fees for the service, Miller says. Typical card-processing fees still apply. And, to help avoid too many wallet options on the checkout page, Paze will use an auto-appearing feature after the consumer enters an email address on the page, even if the shopper uses guest checkout. A nearly instant connection from the merchant to Paze’s network will generate the option to use Paze for checkout if the address is recognized, Miller says. Merchants will have the capability to display a persistent Paze checkout button if they choose.
From there, much like expedited online checkout services from Apple Pay, Google Pay, and PayPal, Paze will present its page to confirm the transaction with the card data and address already filled in. Miller says Paze will not obstruct any other option a consumer wants to use.
As with any card-based payment product, banks, consumers, and merchants will have to want to use Paze. With the bank part solidified, merchants, followed by consumers, will be next. Already, Paze is in tests with Omaha Steaks, and it announced earlier this month that online giant GoDaddy Inc. will integrate Paze, aiming at smaller businesses.
With several channels to reach merchants, one potential Paze selling point could be the improved conversion rate. It may help capture online sales that consumers might have abandoned.
As for consumers, participating banks will likely launch marketing materials, Miller says, including in the online and mobile-banking channels. At the launch of Zelle, Early Warning ‘s person-to-person instant payment service that debuted in 2017 and Early Warning’s first consumer-facing payment product, the new network conducted a brand awareness campaign. “Issuers will be a key channel because they are trusted by consumers,” Miller says.
