Card payments have long been the backbone of modern commerce. Convenience. Familiarity. Global reach. You name it. All of them are found in such modes of payment. This makes them the preferred payment method for millions of consumers (physical stores and online). The two environments are very different.
Offline payments have reached remarkable simplicity: a tap of a card, a quick beep, and the transaction is done. Online payments continue to carry friction and hesitation, along with a higher fraud risk (unfortunately).
Digital commerce expands, and expectations continue to rise. So, the industry is there with solutions that make card-not-present payments nearly as seamless as tapping a POS terminal. Click to Pay stands out among these advancements. It is built on the EMVCo Secure Remote Commerce (SRC) standard, and it can:
- Streamline checkout
- Enhance security
- Reduce the longstanding pain points associated with online card payments
This article explores the innovations that make Click to Pay a more secure, quicker, and intuitive payment experience, and how its evolution, including support for passkeys, is shaping the future of authentication.
Why Online Payments Needed Reinvention
While physical card transactions benefited from EMV chips and tap-and-go features, online commerce faced a very different challenge. A remote purchase requires the consumer to enter card details manually, numbers, expiry dates, CVV codes, and billing information. This simple act introduces two major issues:
- Security concerns: Card-not-present fraud has historically been significantly higher than fraud at physical points of sale.
- Checkout friction: Lengthy forms, account creation, and repeated data entry lead to cart abandonment. Studies consistently show that concerns about credit card security and complex checkout flows drive customers away in the final step of a transaction.
This is precisely the gap Click to Pay aims to close.
What Makes Click to Pay Different
Card-not-present payments are simple in the presence of centralising consumer card information in a secure, tokenised profile associated with an email or mobile number. Instead of entering card details each time, the consumer can authenticate and complete the purchase in a single click, hence the name Click to Pay.
Here are the core innovations driving this transformation:
1. A Unified Consumer Profile
At the heart of Click to Pay is a network-managed, tokenised profile. Consumers can create and manage this profile through participating merchant checkouts, card network portals, or sometimes through their bank’s online banking interface.
Once created, the profile securely holds:
- Payment card numbers
- Expiry dates
- Billing addresses
The network, not the merchant, stores this information. This reduces exposure to data breaches. When a consumer begins checkout at a participating merchant, Click to Pay retrieves this tokenised data and presents it for one-click payment.
2. Network-Level Security and Tokenisation
Tokenization replaces actual card numbers with encrypted tokens. Merchants never handle or store card details, significantly lowering fraud risk.
Click to Pay includes multiple layers of protection, such as:
- Velocity checks
- Geolocation validation
- Dynamic cryptograms that generate transaction-specific signatures
Combined, these elements reduce card-not-present fraud while maintaining a streamlined user experience.
3. Consistent Experience Across Merchants
Another defining innovation is interoperability: Click to Pay works across participating merchants, networks, devices, and platforms. This consistency reduces cognitive load for consumers, encourages trust, and shortens the checkout journey.
4. Reduced Checkout Steps and Lower Cart Abandonment
Repeat users can authenticate once and choose “Remember this device.” Afterwards, the system recognises the user automatically at checkout, enabling a direct route to payment confirmation.
By removing repetitive data entry, Click to Pay reduces two chronic causes of cart abandonment:
- Slow checkout flows
- Security anxiety around entering card details
The result is a noticeable improvement in conversion rates and repeat purchase behavior.
How Click to Pay Works: The Three-Step Flow
Despite the technology working behind the scenes, the Click to Pay process can be understood through three simple steps:
1. User Registration
Consumers create a Click to Pay profile and verify it using a one-time code sent by the card network. Registration is free and typically requires only an email address or phone number.
2. User Recognition
When visiting a checkout page displaying the Click to Pay icon, the user’s device and email/mobile information are matched against existing records. If recognised, available payment cards appear automatically. If not, the user can log in manually and choose to remember the device for future use.
3. Payment Processing
The consumer selects the desired card and completes the payment in one click. The networks handle the tokenised transaction flow, ensuring security without interrupting the user’s experience.
The Next Leap: Click to Pay with Passkeys
While Click to Pay already reduces friction, authentication traditionally required two-factor verification, such as OTPs (which still introduced minor delays). Recent innovations have solved this by integrating passkeys into the Click to Pay experience.
A passkey is a FIDO-standard authentication credential that enables password-less login using native device security: fingerprint, facial recognition, or a device PIN. Passkeys are phishing-resistant and cannot be reused across contexts.
Why Passkeys Matter
The integration of passkeys into Click to Pay adds three major benefits:
- Reduced friction: Authentication becomes as simple as using biometrics (no passwords or OTPs).
- Speed: One-tap biometric confirmation makes checkout near-instant.
- Security: Passkeys dramatically reduce the likelihood of phishing, credential theft, and replay attacks.
For merchants, this also introduces a significant liability shift, as authentication through Click to Pay with passkeys is eligible under token authentication frameworks.
Conclusion
The payment ecosystem has been evolving towards minimal friction and maximal security.In many ways, Click to Pay marks the beginning of a new era: one where security and simplicity reinforce each other, and where the online checkout finally matches the elegance of a single tap.
