Payments

How Capital One wants to make online shopping safer

  • A new feature for Capital One credit card holders creates “virtual numbers” so customers don’t have to share their all-purpose credit card numbers and risk any level of identity theft
  • Virtual numbers could be a cart abandonment play that helps online retailers and validates the notion that banks make natural partners to them, rather than competitors
close

Email a Friend

How Capital One wants to make online shopping safer
Capital One unveiled a new security feature at SXSW on Friday designed to remove some of the inevitable hassle that comes with using plastic credit cards. A Google Chrome plug-in that keeps customers connected with Eno, the bank’s digital assistant, now creates “virtual numbers” in real time so customers don’t have to enter their actual credit card information at checkout. Eno detects merchant checkout pages and automatically serves up the virtual card — completely different 16-digit credit card numbers, three-digit security codes and expiration dates — and customers decide whether to use, save or dismiss it. The bank plans to make the feature available on all browsers eventually, not just Chrome, said Tom Poole, svp of digital payments and identity. Capital One designed Eno virtual numbers to give customers “the ability to set rules about how you want payments to be treated,” Poole said. “You can tell us that. Today we give you one number on a plastic card and there are no rules around it — it’s useable for anything and if you give it to someone you give access to your entire credit line definitionally.” Virtual cards are unique for the users’ different merchant relationships and customers can store a portfolio of the different numbers with the option to block a card from making unauthorized charges or delete relationships they no longer care to keep. The feature should help customers avoid fraud (which made up 1.58 percent of retailers’ revenues as of December compared to 1.47 percent the year before, according to Lexis Nexis Risk Solutions). If an online retailer suffers a data breach and a customer’s virtual card number is compromised, their data remains safe because they never handed over their real card information in the first place. But company executives maintain the feature, a form of tokenization, is a play on hassle, rather than fraud, the loop background music of payments innovation. People currently store their true credit card information everywhere — Amazon, Spotify, phone carriers, gym memberships — and are bound to replace their credit card numbers at every website when they get a new card, which could be for a variety of reasons whether they lost it or replaced an expired one. When the bank issues customers new credit cards, Eno maps all of their virtual relationships saved in their portfolio of virtual numbers to the new card information so it’s automatically updated without the customer having to do manually. Looking beyond security and fraud, Eno virtual numbers could be a small but significant cart abandonment play that helps online retailers and validates the notion that banks make natural partners to them, rather than competitors. Capital One already has a credit card relationship with Amazon, for example, and is in talks with the e-commerce giant about partnering on Amazon customer checking accounts. The rate of cart abandonment was 69.2 percent in 2017, a 16 percent increase over the last 11 years. Among the many contributors, 18 percent of shoppers didn’t make it through the checkout process because they didn’t trust the site with their credit card information, according to a 2017 Baymard Institute study, but another 28 percent said the checkout process was too long or complicated and 37 percent dreaded having to create an account in order to move forward. “Security is great but if it’s not convenient, you’re not doing it,” Poole said. “Here it just pops up, the convenience factor is so high customers can stay on their couch… A lot of people told us they abandon shopping because they don’t feel like getting up to find their payment card.” Ubiquity is key to that convenience though. Poole said there are many good existing solutions — some of which come from Capital One’s retail “partners” — but are only present on some websites. “Making sure you didn’t have to work for any of that benefit was important” during the year-long development process, he said. “If it’s not everywhere customers stop using it, our experience tells us. Nobody shops at certain places just because there’s a certain checkout button on that site, that’s a convenience you discover after you’ve already decided you want to shop there. We’re not asking you to remember that we offer a service like this.”

0 comments on “How Capital One wants to make online shopping safer”

Payments

Wading into new waters: Microsoft launches Xbox-centric Mastercard

  • Microsoft launched an Xbox Mastercard last week exclusively for US users enrolled in the Xbox Insider program.
  • But, Xbox could have done better by adding newer options to the card in terms of the application process, accessibility, and loyalty points.
Sara Khairi | September 26, 2023
Payments

TikTok and payments, a match made on social media

  • Gen Z’s popular haunt TikTok is abuzz with payments activity, surpassing $1 billion in global consumer spending through in-app purchases in Q1 2023.
  • TikTok is looking to make a name for itself in the retail space in America as well, as it battles with the White House over concerns about its Chinese origins.
Rabab Ahsan | September 20, 2023
Banking, Payments

Banks can offer speed and convenience as Wise and Swift integrate cross-border payment networks

  • Swift and Wise partner for streamlined cross-border payments, benefiting banks and their customers.
  • The Wise Platform will utilize Swift's capabilities, including cloud and API connectivity, enhancing international payments for FIs with features like payment status tracking and end-to-end visibility.
Zachary Miller | September 20, 2023
Payments

Digital shopping can benefit from the creator economy

  • Despite the proliferation of online shopping, 65% consumers still prefer to shop in brick-and-mortar stores.
  • For consumers one of the major reasons to stick to in-person shopping is their ability to try on products and test them.
Rabab Ahsan | September 19, 2023
Partner, Payments

The opportunities and evolution of the consumerization of B2B payments

  • B2B payments are slowly but surely following in the footsteps of consumer payments, becoming faster and more secure.
  • Visa, with solutions like Visa B2B Connect, is leading the way in streamlining cross-border transactions and improving efficiency, enhancing the business payment experience.
Darren Parslow, Visa | September 18, 2023
More Articles