Secure Remote Commerce (SRC) is gaining a lot of traction, and there is a lot written about it in various channels. Industry heavyweights back it and almost all the payment schemes have lined up their SRC strategy.

Some of them have already started rolling out SRC payments, and some are on the verge of doing it. All the players in the ecosystem have signed up to be a part of the SRC technology.

However, as a consumer, why should I care?

• I don’t have to enter my payment card details and shipping details for purchases anymore with SRC in place. A secure SRC token replaces all of my payment information.

• I don’t have to go through a lengthy checkout process and not look at all the possible payment options and go through the headache of choosing the right choice.

• Irrespective of the digital commerce website or app that I use, I get to see a consistent and secure checkout process.

• My checkout experience is quick by eliminating payment frictions.

As a merchant, why should I care?

If you want more consumers to adopt SRC payments, then it is only natural that you will have to get more merchants to adopt SRC technology.

Merchant adoption will take a whole lot of convincing compared to consumers. Consumers quickly see the value, and it is not that straightforward for the merchants.

What is the best checkout experience on digital commerce today – it is having a card on file.

Most large merchants already have a card on file with the necessary compliances and security. Having a card on file makes it convenient for both the merchants and the consumers to receive and make payments. Merchants will have to be sufficiently incentivized to fix something that isn’t broken.

However, the starting point for SRC will have to be smaller and not-so-larger merchants. Merchants don’t have to code for multiple mobile wallets and instead will have to code only for SRC that would give a consistent checkout experience for consumers.

Once many such merchants adopt SRC, and the consumer gets used to it, that would force the larger merchants also to move towards SRC.

Why is it considered secure?

SRC makes use of tokenization and 3D-Secure technology to make transactions safer and secure for consumers.

SRC creates an encrypted token that replaces the payment information. With tokenization, it is near impossible for hackers to access account information providing confidence to consumers to leave their card information on file.

Besides, the use of 3D-Secure for authentication enables the security of the transactions. There will be parts where the cardholder has to verify his identity to access his profile and authenticate to complete the transaction.