Visa tokenisation (VTS)

Are you looking for ways to boost your revenue, enhance customer experience, and fortify your payment security? Visa tokenisation, as highlighted in our recent discussions and supported by compelling data, offers significant advantages for high-volume merchants like yourselves.

Here’s how Visa tokenisation can benefit eCommerce businesses like Amazon, DHL, Takealot, Betway, Mr D, Turnstay, Bash, Makro, and Superbalist:

• Significantly Reduce Fraud: Tokenisation replaces sensitive card details (PAN) with a unique digital identifier (token). This means that even if there’s a data breach, the actual card numbers are not exposed, dramatically lowering your risk of fraud and protecting your customers’ data. Studies show that network tokenisation can reduce fraud by an average of 28%. Visa has also seen an average of a 30 percent reduction in online fraud with token-based transactions versus PAN.

• Increase Authorisation Rates and Capture More Sales: Transactions using tokens have consistently shown higher authorisation rates compared to traditional card payments. Visa data indicates an average authorisation rate lift of 3% for Card-not-Present (CNP) transactions using tokens. Bolt, a leading mobility platform, experienced a significant increase in authorisation rates, from 90.8% for PAN to 95.9% for token transactions. This means fewer failed transactions and more successful sales, directly impacting your bottom line.

• Deliver a Seamless and Frictionless Checkout Experience: Tokenisation contributes to a smoother and faster payment process. Once a customer’s card is tokenised, subsequent purchases or recurring payments can be processed more seamlessly as they don’t need to re-enter their full card details. This reduces cart abandonment caused by payment issues, which can account for nearly 50% of all cart abandonment in Europe.

• Effortless Card Updates for Continuous Service: Visa’s Account Updater Suite, integrated with tokenisation, ensures that customer payment details are automatically and securely updated when cards expire or are replaced. For businesses with subscription models or card-on-file services, this means fewer interruptions in service and reduced lost revenue due to outdated payment information.

• Reduce PCI DSS Compliance Burden and Costs: By utilising tokens instead of storing actual card numbers, your business can potentially reduce its Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) compliance scope and associated costs. This allows you to focus more resources on your core business activities.

• Future-Proof Your Payment Infrastructure: Tokenisation is the future of payments, with the industry moving towards a token-first ecosystem. By adopting tokenisation now, you are positioning your business at the forefront of payment innovation and ensuring compatibility with emerging payment methods.

• Avoid Potential Fines and Encourage Tokenisation Adoption: Visa is introducing behavioural fines for PAN transactions to encourage the adoption of tokenisation. By implementing tokenisation, you can help your acquirers avoid these fees and ensure cost-effective payment processing.

• Enhance Card-on-File Functionality: For businesses that rely on card-on-file for repeat purchases (like online retailers and delivery services), tokenisation is essential for providing a secure and convenient experience for your returning customers.

• Leverage Network Tokens for Broader Compatibility: Network tokens, generated by payment networks like Visa, are not specific to a single processor, offering greater flexibility and interoperability across the payments ecosystem.

• Simplify Token Management with Visa Solutions: Visa’s Token Management Service (TMS) provides a brand-agnostic solution to help you maximise the benefits of network tokenisation, regardless of your current infrastructure. TMS can even link tokens from different card brands, offering a unified view of customer transactions.

Leading businesses like Bolt have already seen significant benefits from implementing Visa Token Services, including higher authorisation rates and improved fraud prevention. By embracing Visa tokenisation, your business can also unlock additional revenue, enhance security, and create a superior payment experience for your customers.

We re live with Visa tokenisation which can be seamlessly integrated into your existing systems and provide a competitive edge in the digital marketplace.

Here’s a blog post explaining exactly how the expiring card problem has been solved with card-on-file tokenisation:

Say Goodbye to Expired Card Headaches: How Tokenisation Keeps Payments Seamless

For e-commerce merchants, one of the most persistent and frustrating issues has been dealing with expired credit cards for customers with saved payment details. Whether it’s for subscription services, recurring payments, or simply a returning customer’s convenience, outdated card information leads to failed transactions, lost revenue, and a poor customer experience. Thankfully, modern payment technology, specifically card-on-file tokenisation, offers a robust solution to this long-standing problem.

So, how exactly does tokenisation solve the expiring card dilemma? Let’s break it down:

Instead of directly storing your customers’ sensitive Primary Account Numbers (PANs) – their 16-digit card numbers – card-on-file tokenisation replaces this data with a unique, randomly generated identifier called a token. This token is essentially a placeholder for the actual card details.

The crucial innovation lies in how these tokens are managed, particularly when a card expires or is replaced due to loss or theft. Traditionally, when a customer’s saved card expired, the merchant would have to rely on the customer to manually update their information. This often led to forgotten updates, failed payments, and customer churn.

With card-on-file tokenisation, the process is far more streamlined and often completely invisible to both the merchant and the customer. Here’s how it works:

• When a customer’s card on file is tokenised, a link is created between the merchant (the token requestor) and the cardholder’s credential. This link, and the associated token, are managed by the card issuer (the bank).
• The issuer actively monitors the lifecycle of the underlying card. When a card is due to expire or a new card is issued (for example, due to the old one being reported lost or stolen), the issuer updates the linking to the token.
• The token itself remains active and valid, even though the physical card number and expiry date have changed.
• When a subsequent payment is initiated using the token, the updated card details are automatically retrieved and used by the payment processor behind the scenes.

This means that for services like subscription boxes or monthly software fees, customers no longer need to manually update their payment information when their card expires. The transition to their new card is seamless, ensuring uninterrupted service and preventing failed payments.

As Phillip mentioned in our conversation, this is a “massive benefit because you don’t have all those expiring cards and things like that”. Nikhil from Visa confirmed that the bank or issuer manages the linking from the old card to the new card and to the token, maintaining the vault and updating the linking automatically.

Key benefits for merchants include:

• Reduced churn: Fewer failed payments due to expired cards mean fewer lost subscriptions and repeat business.
• Improved customer experience: Customers enjoy a hassle-free experience without the need to remember to update their payment details.
• Increased revenue: Fewer failed transactions directly translate to more successful payments and higher revenue.
• Reduced operational overhead: Your team spends less time dealing with declined payments related to expired cards.

In essence, card-on-file tokenisation takes the burden of managing expiring card details away from both the merchant and the customer. By ensuring that the underlying payment information associated with a token is automatically updated by the issuer, this technology delivers a smoother, more reliable payment experience that benefits everyone involved. It’s a significant step forward in creating truly seamless e-commerce transactions.

Here’s a short, bulleted overview of the benefits of card-on-file tokenisation for merchants:

• Enhanced Security: Replaces sensitive PAN data with tokens, reducing fraud risk.
• Improved Customer Experience: Automatic card updates for recurring payments prevent disruption. Faster checkout for returning customers.
• Higher Authorisation Rates: Tokenised transactions see a higher approval rate than PAN-based ones.
• Reduced Fraud: Significantly lowers card-not-present (CNP) fraud.
• Avoid Visa Fines: Tokenisation helps avoid “behavioural fines” on PAN-based transactions.
• Simplified PCI Compliance: Reduces exposure to sensitive card data, potentially easing compliance efforts.
• Future-Proof Payments: Aligns with the industry trend towards tokenisation.
• Increased Sales: Higher authorisation rates and reduced cart abandonment can lead to increased revenue.
• Better Data Insights (potentially): Linked tokens can offer a unified view of customer transactions.
• Competitive Advantage: Offering modern, secure payment options can attract more customers.

Contact us to get tokenised now!