The digital and mobile payments pool is getting murkier with another big name competitor jumping in. Visa has announced it will be launching a viable ecommerce solution through its new “digital wallet” which will enable consumers to pay for goods and services through their smartphones.

The announcement may come as a result of Visa’s two most recent acquisitions. Combining the $190 million purchase of PlaySpan, an ecommerce monetizing solution for virtual goods in online games with Visa’s acquisition of e-payments company, CyberSource in 2010, Visa has strategically positioned its new digital wallet to possibly take a command in the expanding ecommerce and mcommerce space.

“Our new solutions deliver greater consumer choice, convenience and control while helping our clients grow their businesses. By helping to reduce abandoned online shopping carts and bringing new account holders into the Visa network, we create a win-win-win for merchants, consumers and financial institutions,” noted Joseph W. Saunders, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Visa Inc.

The digital wallet will link and consolidate Visa and non-Visa branded cards and accounts as an effort to simplify the payment process for online and mobile transactions through a “click-to-buy” option. Rather than having a consumer enter their credit card number, expiration date, and billing information each time they want to make a purchase, Visa will store it all onto their secured, cross-channel servers. When a consumer makes a purchase, they simply have to use a single log-in and password to complete a payment.

If this sounds all too familiar, that’s because it does. PayPal has been the pioneer and leader in this space and its digital wallet has about a 12 year head start over any possible competitors. PayPal currently commands nearly 98 million active accounts in 190 markets. While Visa equally boasts 20,000 transactions per second and is used in over 200 countries worldwide.

Although PayPal may have a current foothold with its broad user base, the industry is seeing more of a demand for non-traditional forms of payments. Merchants are increasingly adopting ecommerce solutions and digital transactions have become the norm, meaning that PayPal may have trouble continuing to dominate the market. The Yankee Group research firm predicts the worldwide transaction value of mobile payments will reach nearly $984 billion by 2014.

Just last March, American Express unveiled Serve, an extensive electronic payments platform that carries the same capabilities of Visa and PayPal’s digital wallets. However, American Express and Visa say that they will be integrating Near Field Communications technology into their payment platforms, a move which PayPal has yet to make.

The NFC chip is becoming standard in Android devices and is already found in some credit cards. NFC chips allow consumers to wave their cards or phones in front of a scanner to pay for goods and services. This is also a market that is expected to be mainstreamed by 2014, where one in five smartphone users will be NFC ready.

Visa has currently partnered with an array of banks, credit unions, and merchants to roll out its digital wallet to. Visa’s new digital payment platform is slated for a fall 2011 release in US and Canada markets.

https://www.zippycart.com/ecommerce-news/2520-visa-set-to-launch-digital-wallet-for-ecommerce.html