The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has launched the Web Payments Working Group to streamline the online ‘check-out’ process and make payments easier and more secure on the web.
The proposed standards will support a wide array of existing and future payment methods, including debit, credit, mobile payment systems, escrow, and bitcoin and other distributed ledger technologies.
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W3C, founded by Sir Tim Berners-Lee – the inventor of the web, said that standardized APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) will establish a foundation for simplified checkout and payment experience, greater transaction security, automated secure payments, and more payment options for merchants and users alike.
These APIs will allow users to register payment instruments (such as credit cards or payment services) and select the right payment type through the browser, making payments faster, more secure, and easier, particularly on mobile devices.
W3C CEO Jeff Jaffe said: "The proposed standards from W3C will help ensure interoperability of different solutions by standardizing the programming interfaces. So when you buy something, you should have a standard way to match the payment instruments you have with the ones accepted by the merchant, in a way that integrates smoothly with the merchant’s checkout flow."
Research from companies such as Business Insider confirms the diverse reasons why, on average, people do not complete online purchases 68% of the time. W3C expects Web Payments standards can help some of the issues related to shopping cart abandonment regarding usability and security, through standard messages and message flow for the initiation, confirmation, and completion of payments.
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By GlobalDataWith support from these APIs, users will choose a preferred payment instrument for a particular transaction, and the messages between web application and payment service providers will be mediated by the browser on the user’s behalf.
