The retail landscape is changing. A lot of that change is driven by customers’ shifting desires, habits and expectations.
Canadians have accelerated their shift to digital payments, and demand is growing for versatile digital experiences. In the midst of this change, payment options matter as much as ever: Customers are seeking experiences that are convenient, secure, and that offer them a choice of payment methods (as well as more control over their finances).
Meet Interac Direct, a new online payment option that, for the first time, allows your customers to pay card-free using funds directly from their chequing, savings or line of credit accounts with a participating financial institution — while leveraging the secure, trusted Interac network.
Interac Direct also gives you, as a merchant, the opportunity to offer new and innovative payment customer experiences (such as recurring payments), and lower acceptance costs than competing payment schemes, with no risk of chargebacks.
At this page, you can learn:
What is Interac Direct?
Interac Direct is Canada’s first digital payment offering that lets shoppers pay directly from their bank accounts with a participating financial institution through an authentication process that uses their online banking login information— with no card required.
It enables consumers to make online purchases directly from any eligible bank account (chequing, savings and line of credit), via the KONEK platform. To help ensure that Interac Direct gives Canadians a secure payment option, only the information necessary to complete the transaction is shared with the merchant. Sensitive bank account info is never stored by merchants or Interac.
Customers are offered Interac Direct as a payment option within KONEK, a new payment solution supported by Canada’s leading financial institutions and powered by Interac. Consumers see Interac Direct as a payment option when using KONEK to check out with an online purchase at participating merchants.
What the arrival of Interac Direct means is that merchants can give customers another convenient payment option — at a time when it’s essential to have solutions that meet their payment expectations.
Read on to learn how Interac Direct can enhance your e-commerce offering and meet your customers’ needs.
Challenges and solutions with Interac Direct
Challenge: Abandoned shopping carts
Customers may not be completing their transactions due to a lack of preferred payment options and/or lack of convenience in the checkout solution.
Research from the Baymard Institute found that an estimated 70 per cent of e-commerce shoppers abandon their carts.
That’s a challenge for merchants, who are trying to keep up with customers’ diverse and shifting needs, and their expectation that merchants will offer an omnichannel checkout experience when it comes to payment options.
Solution: Interac Direct offers customers more choice in payment options
A truly omnichannel checkout experience means giving customers as many convenient options for paying as possible — in part so they won’t abandon their cart if you don’t offer their preference. For example, only offering credit-based payments means you can’t cater to customers who only use, or prefer to use, funds directly from their banking accounts.
Interac Direct gives consumers flexibility and control over their finances, and because of those benefits, some may prefer it as a payment choice — and become repeat customers if you offer it.
Challenge: E-commerce fraud
There’s no question that e-commerce fraud and associated chargebacks can cause headaches for merchants doing business online. Many believe the problem is growing. Meanwhile, there’s evidence that some customers abandon their carts because of fraud concerns. Customers’ low trust in the safety and security of their data is therefore a challenge for merchants too.
Solution: Interac Direct transactions are secure
Thanks to the tokenization and online banking authentication within the KONEK platform, Interac Direct transactions are secure, and designed to help merchants reduce losses due to fraud.
Recurring payments, pre-authorized, refund, split shipments (and more to come)
For merchants that depend on repeat business, Interac Direct enables recurring transactions, subscriptions and pre-authorized bill payments. This gives retailers access to features that customers are looking for in an online shopping experience — and that support different types of businesses.
The pre-authorization and recurring payments features of Interac Direct help customers set up subscription and other regular payments, like utility payments, to ensure continuity of service — and to help you retain their business.
Interac Direct offers other capabilities consumers want, including issuing refunds and split shipment transactions (meaning Interac Direct supports allowing partial payments when orders are divided and shipped separately).
And looking down the road, Interac Direct is built to enable new features that will enhance customer payment experiences.
Why offer Interac Direct as a payment option?
- Expand payment choices for consumers: Give customers the option to pay using money directly from their bank accounts
- Expand your payment offerings: Interac Direct represents a convenient and secure payment option to offer your customers
- From a trusted brand: As of 2023, Interac has been named Canada’s most trusted financial services brand in the Gustavson Brand Trust Index for nine consecutive years
- Lower overall costs: Interac Direct, available through KONEK, can help lower overall cost of acceptance and chargebacks to merchants
A payment solution from a trusted and secure brand
Both Interac Direct and the KONEK platform leverage the secure Interac network and the trusted Interac brand.
Interac Direct offers consumers a secure alternative to having to enter any bank account details or other sensitive information onto merchant websites. The KONEK payment solution keeps customers’ data safe by using their participating financial institution’s secure authentication and payment consent protocols. Sensitive payment data, like card or account numbers, are replaced with randomized figures through tokenization. Only the data necessary to complete a purchase is shared with the merchant.
What’s the upshot for merchants? Thanks to the tokenization and online banking authentication within the KONEK solution, which gives merchants a powerful tool for reducing ‘unaccounted for’ losses due to fraud.
The takeaway
By enabling Canadians to check out and pay using money directly from their bank accounts, Interac Direct gives your customers a new online payment option, from a trusted network.
Where to learn more about Interac Direct
Want to know more about how to offer your customers a new secure and convenient online payment option?
