More and more consumers are going online to purchase everything from groceries and food delivery to home improvement goods, apparel and entertainment; as they do, merchants are focused on providing an increasingly seamless experience. Today, Mastercard announced that Amazon customers in 12 countries across North America, Latin America, Middle East and Europe will have their stored card credentials tokenized. By replacing a consumer’s physical card number with a token, payment information is unique to each individual transaction and can be used only by the merchant that requested it. Amazon will begin using Mastercard tokens for transactions through 2020.

The rise of e-commerce means more and more consumers are saving and managing their card details across multiple websites. Amazon and many other merchants worldwide use Mastercard’s tokenization technology to ensure the cards consumers store on file stay seamlessly up to date. Unlike physical cards, network tokens do not expire – when consumers receive a new physical card from their bank, their credentials are automatically updated, eliminating the hassle of reentering their card numbers and eliminating interruptions during checkout.

Tokenization enables a best-in-class user experience by creating visual cues, displaying familiar card art that instills trust in a consumer’s preferred payment method. As Mastercard makes issuer card artwork available for every user, it helps consumers choose their preferred payment method more efficiently and increases the likelihood of a purchase being completed. According to research from Mastercard and Kantar, 80% of cardholders are likely to complete a purchase when an image of their specific credit card is shown¹.

2020 has seen consumers worldwide accelerate their shift to digital payments, making it more important than ever for e-commerce platforms to make the checkout experience simple and convenient. Mastercard Digital Enablement Service (MDES) provides the foundation for a frictionless experience, eliminating the frustration of managing card information and reducing shopping cart abandonment.

“The behavioral shift that we are seeing has accelerated in recent months, but it’s a product of our work to create the infrastructure and partner ecosystem, for the digitally-savvy consumer and forward-thinking businesses like Amazon,” said Jorn Lambert, Executive Vice President, Digital Solutions, Mastercard. “Mastercard’s work with Amazon and others is a testament to the strength of our well-established digital product suite – we create consumer journeys that improve the shopping experience and boost approval rates.”

MDES is live with more than 2,600 issuers and 1,200 token requestors around the world, and tokenization of a merchant’s cards on file is accelerating as we continue to add global players like Amazon to deliver this solution at scale. Amazon is adopting Mastercard tokens in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, Spain, Turkey and United Arab Emirates; consumers making purchases on the Amazon online stores serving these countries will experience the benefits of tokenization.

¹ Mastercard online study conducted by Kantar and fielded between August 30 and September 20, 2019. All US participants in the study are between the ages of 18-100, shop online regularly (3+ times in past six months), own a Mastercard credit or debit card product, and use guest checkout or a stored card at least some of the time.