Citibank India and MasterCard have launched digital wallet Citi MasterPass for both debit and credit card customers to be able to shop online at over 250,000 e-commerce merchants.

The global digital wallet “safely stores Citibank customers'’ card and shipping information all in one place with MasterCard.

"By selecting 'Buy with MasterPass' as the payment option at checkout, customers can eliminate the need to fill in details repeatedly across online merchants. This reduces the risk of customers abandoning their shopping carts due to cumbersome payment processes or exposing their personal information over potentially unsafe networks,” the bank said in statement.

Today, around 41 per cent of all Citibank card transactions in India are performed online and Citi MasterPass will be available at over 100 online merchants in India. India’s e-commerce industry is expected to cross Rs 1.08 lakh crore ($17.2 billion) at the end of 2015, it said.

“Over the last two years, we have seen an increase of over 76 per cent in e-commerce transactions by our customers. Citi MasterPass significantly reduces the checkout time across thousands of e-commerce merchants ensuring this would be the payment solution of choice for consumers in India,” said Kartik Kaushik, Head of Consumer Banking, Citibank India.

MasterPass is present across 24 countries worldwide and is available to over 40 million consumers in Asia-Pacific alone. India is the first market in Asia Pacific where Citibank card customers will be offered the co-branded MasterPass solution.

Secure payment facilities

According to a report, around 86.8 per cent of Indian consumers indicate that secure payment facilities are critical when shopping online and 47.5 per cent cite the perceived lack of safe payment option as the top reason not to shop online. Online purchases via mobile phones in India have grown by more than 100 per cent over the past two years.

Around $6 billion has been invested into India's internet sector over the past two years, with $1.5 billion coming in the first quarter of the calendar year alone.

India currently has around 260 million Internet users – 92 per cent of whom are wirelessly connected and 20 per cent of whom are use mobile broadband services such as 3G. Almost all of new Internet users are leapfrogging and going directly to mobile. As a result, mobile already forms 40-60 per cent of the traffic/transactions for most companies (and can go as high as 70 per cent).

"With Citi MasterPass as part of our leading payment platform, we can offer our customers, which include e-commerce merchants, governments and businesses, a new-age payment option that that is both convenient and secure. By accepting Citi MasterPass on their websites and mobile apps, merchants can get access to all Citi MasterPass-connected digital wallets in the world. Citi MasterPass is a significant value-add for the merchants as commerce is increasingly moving to smartphones, and payment solutions need to evolve to be relevant in an increasingly smartphone-driven world,” said Ajay Kaushal, Director, BillDesk.

"Citi MasterPass is a unique payment solution that provides users the convenience to make purchases online in a safe and secure manner. Ease of payments is now becoming key as e-commerce and m-commerce continue to evolve. We are certain that a payment solution such as Citi MasterPass will enhance the consumers’ checkout experience thus making the lives of our customers more expedient and rewarding,” said Shabnam Kadwani, Head of Marketing, Bookmyshow.

“EBay India continues to bring in the best of technology to create engaging, curated and simplified shopping experience for its buyers. With the surge in online shopping in India, customers are exploring payment options via digital wallets. The introduction of Citi MasterPass will make online transactions seamless and easy for eBay buyers, by consolidating all their expense information and cards in one place,” said Vidmay Naini, Director, Business Operations, eBay India.

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