Beyond the Rack, Currys, Newegg, lastminute.com and PC World join a list of 20,000 merchants who have integrated MasterCard’s digital platform MasterPass into their checkout systems, including on mobile.

MasterPass speeds up the check-out process by allowing consumers to select a card through MasterPass and purchase in a couple of clicks without having to enter all of the billing information. Similar to Google Wallet and PayPal, this technology is crucial for mobile payments, since it is more irritating to type in credit card numbers and addresses on a small smartphone screen.

“MasterPass for mobile is a huge step forward because entering 100 keys on your keyboard is one thing, but entering 100 keys on mobile is a bit of a challenge for anybody,” said Richard Cohene, marketing director at Beyond the Rack, Montreal, Canada.

“By creating MasterPass as a solution, that removes friction on mobile and is hopefully going to increase our conversion rate for customers on that channel.”

Growing MasterPass
In addition to adding more merchants, MasterPass is also expanding to seven new countries in the fourth-quarter of 2013.

The digital wallet will be available in Brazil, Belgium, France, Italy, Singapore, Sweden and Spain in addition to the United States, Canada, Britain and Australia.

Through MasterPass, Mastercard is aiming to make digital payments more convenient, simpler and faster. These new expansions are sensible steps towards that goal.

“MasterCard is leading the transition to digital payments as consumers move to a more digital lifestyle and demand new shopping experiences,” said Les Matthews, vice president of product sales at MasterCard, Purchase, NY. “This digital lifestyle is radically enhancing the day-to-day shopping experience, and altering habits of consumers by blurring the lines of online and in-store commerce.

“With MasterPass, MasterCard is moving beyond plastic and bringing together all of the ways we pay for things, from traditional plastic cards to digital wallets, to give consumers the ability to make a secure payment from wherever they are and with one simple experience,” he said.

Consumers can save any credit, debit or prepaid card on MasterPass, and when checking out at any of the participating retailers, consumers can select one of their MasterPass cards.

MasterPass can be used on both desktop and mobile devices, but it will probably have a bigger impact on mobile commerce, where the screen size largely impacts cart abandonment.

Many mobile commerce sites have difficulty converting since consumers see the amount of blanks they need to fill out and are turned off. MasterPass will help with those issues since consumers will be able to avoid all of the blanks by selecting a MasterPass card.

Mobile Commerce
As mobile traffic increases for most retailers, they must meet the demands of consumers by providing optimal experiences on mobile.

According to Mr. Cohene, mobile sales for Beyond the Rack, on Saturdays and Sunday, represent about 44 percent of sales. On weekdays, mobile represents about 33 percent of sales.

By offering MasterPass, Beyond the Rack will be able to grow those numbers even more.

According Mr. Matthews, MasterCard is planning to offer in-store payments starting next year. The company will enable checkouts via NFC, QR codes and tags.

“All intelligent, connected devices will become shopping devices,” Mr. Matthews said. “The convergence of the physical and digital environment is transforming how consumers transact.

“MasterCard is focused on leading this transition to digital, and turning the converged future into a reality,” he said. “So it’s not just mobile per se, but rather any connected device that a consumer might leverage to conduct a transaction.”

Final Take
Rebecca Borison is editorial assistant on Mobile Commerce Daily, New York