In this post, Clinton Allen, Chair of EMVCo’s Secure Remote Commerce (SRC) Working Group, explores the latest updates to the EMV® SRC Specifications to support more flexible online checkout options for merchants and consumers.
Why EMV SRC?
Global e-commerce is soaring. Worldwide sales are set to surpass $5 trillion in 2022, and are projected to top $7 trillion by 2025 as online continues to outpace physical retail.[1]
Despite this growth, familiar challenges remain. While 91% of consumers report that a good checkout experience is the decisive factor in conversion for e-commerce transactions, complex and inconsistent payment environments can often lead to frustration and, ultimately, abandoned purchases.[2]
Complexity and unfamiliarity also contribute to online fraud, which continues to increase. In the U.S., card-not-present (CNP) payments fraud losses will reach $8.75 billion in 2022 – up over 11% year-on-year.[3]
This is driving demand from both consumers and merchants for consistent, convenient and secure payments across different digital checkout environments and consumer devices.
EMV Secure Remote Commerce (EMV SRC) offers a new approach that brings increased simplicity, trust and choice to online checkout experiences, contributing to an online commerce ecosystem that works for everyone.
To help achieve this, the EMV SRC Specifications provide a common baseline for the development of e-commerce payment solutions that simplify the online checkout process to make it more consistent, convenient and secure. E-commerce solutions based on the EMV SRC Specifications are known as Click to Pay 
.
Once enrolled into Click to Pay, a consumer can confidently pay online using their preferred card and expect comparable security and convenience as when making in-store purchases.
Key Updates
Following extensive engagement with industry stakeholders, EMVCo has updated the EMV Secure Remote Commerce Specifications to support more flexible online checkout options for merchants and consumers.
Key updates in Version 1.3 of the EMV SRC Specifications include:
- Increased flexibility, choice and control for merchants
EMV SRC supports a ‘Merchant Orchestrated Checkout Model’, where the purchase experience is delivered by a consumer interacting only with a merchant (or their payment provider). This enables merchants to fully integrate Click to Pay checkout within their existing checkout and allows them to control the user experience and manage recognition of consumers.
Related use-cases – which are outlined in a dedicated supporting document which explains the different ways that merchants can use the EMV SRC Specifications – include SRC Merchant Digital Card on File Checkout facilitated by a card on file provider. This approach enables consumers to select a preferred card for checkout, which becomes a merchant-specific digital card stored by the merchant. The card is then the default option for any subsequent checkout at that merchant, enabling simplified, streamlined purchasing experiences.
- Improved SRC identity validation
The latest updates ensure that the SRC identity validation is performed with consistency by known and trusted parties, based on recently used consumer payment credentials within the Click to Pay ecosystem.
In addition, when SRC identity validation is configured as out of band (OOB), a Card Authentication App can be invoked.
- Expanded authentication options
New ‘Authentication Facilitation Service APIs’ expand the authentication options that are available to merchants for various Click to Pay use-cases, which include but are not limited to EMV 3-D Secure (3DS) , FIDO Authentication, Secure Payment Confirmation (SPC) and Card Security Code (CSC).
In addition, the ‘3DS Preference’ feature enables EMV 3DS authentication to be performed by the SRC System as an “on-behalf” service for the merchant.
The Importance of Industry Engagement
EMVCo is committed to evolving the EMV SRC Specifications to meet emerging opportunities and challenges. With the online commerce ecosystem evolving rapidly, continued collaboration and engagement with EMVCo stakeholders and the wider payments industry will be integral to enabling consistent and trusted online checkout experiences.
[1] Insider Intelligence, Worldwide ecommerce sales set to top $5 trillion for first time in 2022, April 2022
[2] PYMNTS.com, The Three Tiny Details That Get Consumers to Click Buy at Checkout, October 2022
[3] Insider Intelligence, Total Card Fraud Losses to Surpass $12 Billion in 2022 as Fraud Continues to Shift Online, September 2022
by Oliver Manahan
by Clinton Allen
by Arman Aygen