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Visa Inc. sees its new RightCliq shopping service as a means by which it can control more e-commerce transaction volume. But it might also represent a tactic by which it can add value to payments at a time when payment processing is increasingly perceived by merchants and consumers as a commodity, say some observers. “It’s gotten to the point that we take the fact that payments will work for granted, and as a result it has little perceived value,” says Red Gillen, a senior analyst who follows electronic payments for Celent LLC, a Boston-based consulting firm.
RightCliq, which Visa unveiled in March and officially launched this week, represents one of the San Francisco, Calif.-based card network’s most ambitious thrusts in e-commerce. Already, 30 of the 100 largest online merchants have signed up to feed discounts and other offers through the service, according to Charlie Wilson, head of e-commerce for Visa, with more on the way. “We’re encouraged by the early merchant feedback,” he says.
Visa is likely to introduce a mobile version of RightCliq, as well, though Wilson stops short of saying when or what form a mobile service would take. “We’re actively looking at it right now,” he says, cautioning he can’t comment further.
A plug-in that allows consumers to store payment card details in an e-wallet, RightCliq enables automated form-filling on checkout pages, serves up discounts and other offers from select merchants, and lets shoppers seek feedback from friends on items they’re considering for purchase. Users can load details for cards from Visa competitors as well as prepaid cards and store-issued plastic. They can also store products in a so-called Wishspace, making it easier to comparison shop.
For now, the service is free to both consumers and merchants, though Wilson tells Digital Transactions News that Visa will likely levy a fee to merchants for the incremental traffic RightCliq is expected to deliver. “We’ve got a number of different potential revenue models in mind,” he says, including existing models for affiliate marketing and advertising, which assess charges based on sales. Visa, which typically works through acquiring financial institutions, is marketing RightCliq through those members but in some cases is selling it directly to large retailers, Wilson says.
Visa could also work with gateways and merchant processors to integrate RightCliq in their systems. The launch comes on the heels of the company’s closing on its $2 billion acquisition of CyberSource Corp., the Mountain View, Calif.-based provider of risk-management and transaction-gateway services to card-not-present merchants. Visa officials noted at the time they announced the CyberSource deal in April that part of the rationale was the opportunity to ease the introduction of emerging Visa e-commerce products like RightCliq by integrating them with the gateway (Digital Transactions News, April 21).
Wilson says Visa would consider offering RightCliq not only through CyberSource but through other acquiring processors, provided consumer demand for the new service proves out. “CyberSource has tremendous relationships with the merchant community,” he says. “We’re excited to build on that.” Since RightCliq is not a payment method, it requires no integration work by merchants and can work with any e-commerce site.
Visa’s objective with the new service is to generate more volume for its network, says Wilson. “It’s growing the e-commerce channel, and growing our share of that channel,” he says in characterizing the service’s goals. But RightCliq could also help add value to what is essentially a commodity payment service, says Gillen. Without incremental value, a basic payments service makes pricing hard to sustain and leaves doors open to rivals. “If you offer just the payment, you could be usurped by somebody else,” he notes. “Visa is moving out of its traditional role of just effecting payments.”
Others are, as well. Already, MasterCard has introduced a service called MasterCard Marketplace that serves up special deals for online shoppers, working with a New -York City-based e-commerce firm called Next Jump Inc. The online version launched in April, with a mobile version becoming available last month.
“I don’t view Visa’s network business as a commodity business,” Wilson says, but he agrees services like RightCliq offer more value for Visa and its clients to sell consumers and merchants. “RightCliq is intended to drive incremental value,” he says. “It’s additive to our current existing business.”
