On the heels of mobile payments service BilltoMobile’s launch of a one-click checkout solution for the mobile web, the company is today announcing a partnership with Discover. Through the agreement, Discover’s e-commerce merchants will now be able to offer carrier billing as a possible payment option at checkout.
For background, BilltoMobile, which already has relationships with all four major carriers in the U.S. (Verizon, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile), allows consumers to use their mobile phone number as their payment option at checkout. This is useful in targeting those who aren’t comfortable with entering their credit card info online, as well as those who simply don’t want to deal with the hassle of having to type in the info on the small keyboard of their mobile phone.
Prior to the launch of the newer one-click system at the beginning of the year, the process involved was a little more cumbersome. Users had to enter in their number manually, sometimes a zip code, then wait for a verification code that was sent to their phone through an SMS text. The one-click system is now able to identify a user’s mobile number at checkout automatically thanks to deeper integration with carrier partners, the company explained.
The new partnership with Discover is being heralded as a “marketing agreement” which aims to help drive adoption of carrier billing in digital goods, mCommerce and the general mobile payments space.
Currently, BilltoMobile serves approximately 290 million users in the U.S. through its carrier relationships. The company’s strategic investor and majority shareholder, Danal Co. Ltd. of Seoul, South Korea, says it has now processed $2 billion in U.S. dollars last year ($4 billion to date), and over 30% of last year’s transactions came from the purchase of physical goods. The company believes this new partnership will help it bump up those numbers, specifically in area of digital goods and services.
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