Seamless checkout with Click to Pay

Click to Pay: Online Checkout That Feels Like Contactless

Online shopping is fast, until checkout isn’t.

Even in 2026, “guest checkout” often still means retyping the same details again and again: card number, expiry date, billing address, sometimes even a password. That friction is exactly what Click to Pay is designed to remove.

Click to Pay is Visa’s implementation of the EMV Secure Remote Commerce (SRC) standard. This is an industry-wide framework created to make online card checkout more consistent, more convenient, and more secure.

Put simply: it lets you pay online with your card in a few clicks, without repeatedly typing card details, while relying on modern security mechanisms such as tokenization.

It’s always deeply satisfying to see something teams have been working on internally come to life for you as a consumer.

What really makes it tangible is seeing it surface in the real world: an email from Revolut, or a prompt inside my Lloyds Bank app.

Moments like these are a reminder of how much cross-functional effort, engineering depth, and persistence it takes to get a product from idea to market and how invisible that work often is.

Seeing Visa products show up in everyday consumer journeys never gets old.

The Personal View: What It Feels Like as a Shopper

Here’s what a Click to Pay experience typically looks like during an online purchase:

1. You see the Click to Pay icon at checkout (this indicates solutions built on EMV SRC).
2. You select it, and the checkout recognises you: through your email address or phone number.
3. Your stored cards appear, and you choose one. You could have multiple banks stored in Click to Pay. Each will show up as they are registered in the database.
4. For higher-risk transactions, you may be asked to verify your identity (for example, with a one-time passcode) or with Biometrics using FIDO (Fast Identity Online) frameworks
5. The payment completes, without manually entering a 16-digit card number or filling out long forms.

The result is a shift from:

type → type → type

to

recognise → select → confirm

That’s pretty neat!

The Technical Concept

Under the hood, Click to Pay brings together three core ideas:

1) A Single Payment Profile

Click to Pay enables frictionless checkout through a single payment profile that can work across participating merchants and devices. Your cards don’t have to be re-entered at every checkout.

Issuers connect to this central database, helping create profile for the cardholder and cardholders can choose which card they would prefer - should they have multiple.

2) Standardised Checkout Rails (EMV® SRC)

Click to Pay is built on EMV Secure Remote Commerce, which defines how checkout should work across ecosystems. The aim is consistency: the same recognisable experience whether you’re shopping on a laptop, phone, or tablet.

3) Tokenisation for Security

Click to Pay builds on the security of Visa Token Service (VTS). Instead of exposing your actual card number throughout the checkout flow, tokenisation replaces it with a secure substitute designed specifically for digital payments.

Architecture: What’s Actually Involved

Even though the consumer experience feels simple, several systems collaborate behind the scenes:

• Your browser or mobile app
• The merchant’s checkout experience
• The PSP / gateway / acquirer pathway
• Click to Pay (SRC) services for discovery and checkout orchestration
• Token services
• The issuer bank, which ultimately authorises the transaction (and may trigger verification)

This is a coordinated flow that enables frictionless checkout while building on token security.

The Checkout Flow

Mapped to the standards and product guidance, the flow looks like this:

1. Customer identification

The checkout identifies the customer, often by capturing an email address or mobile number. In certain scenarios, verification (such as an OTP) or biometrics may be triggered.

2. Stored cards are retrieved

Available cards associated with the customer’s Click to Pay profile are displayed for selection.

3. Tokenised credentials are used

Tokenisation supports payment security throughout the transaction, reducing exposure of sensitive data.

4. Authorisation proceeds as usual

The issuer still makes the approve or decline decision. Click to Pay improves the experience and security before authorisation, but doesn’t change the fundamentals of how card payments work.

Why This Matters

For Cardholders (Consumers)

• Less friction: no repeated card entry or passwords.
• More confidence: a consistent, recognisable checkout experience designed with security in mind.
• Device flexibility: devices may change, but your payment method doesn’t have to.

For Merchants

• Better conversion at guest checkout: reduced friction where drop-off is highest.
• Fits existing UX: merchants and PSPs retain control of checkout design while using Click to Pay as a secure initiation method.
• Improved security posture: credentials are less exposed, with tokenisation built into the flow.

For Issuers (Banks)

• Stronger card preference in digital commerce: cards can be top-of-wallet without manual entry.
• Better reach to digital-first consumers: cards can be enrolled and used quickly.
• Lifecycle management opportunities: particularly in issuer-offered models, where issuers manage credentials and updates.

Wrap-Up

If contactless made in-store payments feel effortless, Click to Pay aims to bring that same “just works” feeling to online checkout.

It’s a standards-based experience, built on EMV Secure Remote Commerce, designed to reduce friction, improve security, and make online payments feel as natural as tapping your card in the physical world.

Where can you try it?

Next time you’re checking out online, look for the Click to Pay icon. If it’s available, you may be able to complete payment simply by selecting a stored card: rather than typing your details all over again.

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