Easy and Simple Online Shopping with Visa Checkout available in UAE soon

Visa is Working with Global and UAE-Based Merchants to enable UAE cardholders to shop and pay with new service

Dubai, UAE, Feb 23, 2015 – Visa, the global leader in electronic payments, announced that the United Arab Emirates will be one of the 16 countries where consumers will soon be able to use the new Visa Checkout service in the second phase of its global rollout. 

Visa Checkout was first launched in July 2014 in the US, Canada and Australia and is a quick and easy payment service to pay for goods online, on any device, in just a few clicks. Visa Checkout solves the frustration that many online shoppers face in having to submit large amounts of detail each time to complete a purchase online by providing a quick and simple solution that can be used from any device they are browsing from. To date over three million Visa Checkout accounts have been created which can be used to shop at over 110 eCommerce retailers.

“Visa Checkout has seen tremendous growth in just the few months since it’s been available. Consumers and merchants alike love its simplicity and ease, which is particularly important as people shop and buy more frequently on smaller devices like mobile phones and tablets but still want to use the payment cards they already know and trust,” said Marcello Baricordi, General Manager UAE and Global Accounts Lead at Visa Inc. MENA. 

“The MENA region is seeing an annual growth rate of 30 percent for all online transactions where for $100 spent on a card, $10 is spent online . The UAE also has one of the highest smartphone penetration rates in the world at 78 percent . Because of these conditions, the UAE is a prime candidate for our roll out plans for Visa Checkout and we are working swiftly with our bank and merchant partners to bring this exciting service here by mid-2015.”      

Simple Way to Pay

“Our goal is to make purchases online and on mobile devices as simple, convenient and secure as swiping a card, and that’s exactly what we designed Visa Checkout to do,” said Paul McCrea, Head of Product – CEMEA, Visa, ”and for merchants and financial institutions, we have designed Visa Checkout to integrate and fit into existing flows utilizing existing infrastructure easily. We have also added advanced risk tools to evaluate user activity and reduce fraud risk – all with the strength of the Visa brand behind it.”

Enrolling in Visa Checkout is intuitive and simple, and shoppers can use any Visa debit or credit card or even other branded cards to make purchases from a PC, mobile device or within a mobile app.  Consumers simply store their shipping and payment information in a secure account with Visa once, and they never have to re-enter it again when shopping online at merchants who offer Visa Checkout. When a user sees the Visa Checkout button as a payment option, they simply log into their account, enter their username and password, and click a button to complete the purchase.

Consumers in newly-enabled markets will first be able to use Visa Checkout to buy from merchants in the U.S., Australia and Canada that accept Visa Checkout today and have the ability to process shipping internationally. As the rollout continues this year, select countries will begin to incorporate issuer, merchant, acquirer, and channel partnerships to support local commerce with Visa Checkout.  Visa will also launch localized Visa Checkout websites for many of these countries. 

Visa will demonstrate Visa Checkout at Mobile World Congress taking place March 2-5 in Barcelona, Spain (Hall 6, stand D40).