Visa Moving Payments to the Cloud & What It Means for Merchants
These days, it’s so easy for consumers to purchase products and services from their favorite merchants. Gone are the days where merchants were hamstrung by lengthy checkout lines that went out the door. Now, merchants can equip their sales associates with mobile/wireless payment terminals, which means transactions can take place all over the store, leading to more sales, revenue, and profit.
Visa wants to take things a step further and revolutionize the digital payments industry by moving their payment software hub to the cloud. If Visa succeeds, processing software would no longer be embedded in individual devices, as it’d be universally accessible via the cloud.
But how feasible is such a move, and how would it impact merchants who rely on card processing hardware already?
Why Visa Wants to Move its Payment Hub to the Cloud
In an exclusive interview with MarketWatch, Visa’s Global Head of Payment and Platform Product explained that Visa intends to move what it calls the “brains” of its payment processing software to the cloud. While payment processing hardware has come a long way over the years, there are some drawbacks that a move to the cloud would rectify. For example, most payment processing hardware requires special components for the software to be utilized, and in many instances the software has to be installed manually, which is complex and often a difficult process that requires a technician.
Moreover, a lot of businesses don’t utilize advanced payment processing technology, specifically because implementing it is too expensive. But a move to the cloud would mean cheaper hardware, automatic updates, and much more. Visa would build off its already successful tap-to-pay tech so transactions stay seamless.
What Moving the Payment Hub Could Mean for Merchants
Visa has deliberately pitched such a move as a boost for merchants, but there are some elements of moving the payment software hub to the cloud that most merchants are expected to dislike. The most glaring one is that cloud security is still not impenetrable, so consumers might worry that paying using cloud-based tech will mean their data is unprotected.
Moreover, a big reason why current payment processing hardware is so expensive is because it’s equipped with the components and software that make payments seamless and more secure. It could be that in order to utilize cloud-based software, devices would have to be stripped of beneficial components and software and doing so could render these devices less secure and less efficient.
What Should Merchants Do Now to Prepare for Such a Move?
Even though there’s talk now about how Visa is working to revolutionize the way merchants take payments, Visa has been experimenting with cloud-based technology since the early 2000s. While they’ve come a long way, there’s still no indication that they’re ready to implement anything on a wide scale.
Therefore, if you’re in the market for credit card processing hardware, you should go through with your plan to purchase some. You can get top-of-the-line credit card machines at Merchant Industry, and these machines can process NFC payments and provide a host of other benefits. Businesses small, medium, and large purchase payment processing hardware through Merchant Industry. There’s always plenty in stock and there are devices for all kinds of industries and enterprises.
About Merchant Industry
In 2007 Merchant Industry was founded by CEO Leo Vartanov on the principle that businesses should be able to purchase credit card machines and merchant accounts at an affordable price while also backed by great service. It was a normal goal at the time, but it helped to change the entire industry. Through Leo Vartanov’s leadership, Merchant Industry pioneered a call center structure to the credit card processing industry Now, 15 years later with well over 20,000+ merchants processing over $5.5 billion per year, Merchant Industry sets the standard for price, customer service, ethics, and integrity.
