About the author
Michael Du is the Head of Alipay+ Wallet Risk Management, Ant International. Michael has close to 15 years of financial sector risk management experience. Since joining Ant in 2019, he has taken up several leadership roles, leading teams in building next-generation AI-driven risk solutions, enabling the secure and sustainable payment ecosystem for Alipay+ wallet partners globally.
The global adoption for mobile wallet payment is skyrocketing across e-commerce and omnichannel payments. According to Juniper Research, mobile wallet transaction volumes are well on track for a 73% growth to reach US$ 17 trillion by 2029. This is driven by important factors such as the demand for contactless payments, rapid digitisation of financial systems and consumers’ demand for greater convenience and more secure transactions.
Consumers increasingly prefer mobile wallets like Apple Pay, Google Pay as part of their mobile payment journeys on their iPhones or Android phones. Wallets such as Alipay, GCash, Paytm further simplify and streamline wallet payments into users’ everyday life regardless of device. Mobile wallets help simplify transactions, improve checkout speed, and enhance security through tokenisation and encryption.
However, many merchants, particularly small and mid-sized businesses, remain uncertain about how to integrate e-wallets into their existing payment ecosystems effectively. This confusion often stems from factors including a lack of technical expertise, concerns about setup costs, risk management and difficulty choosing and/or managing multiple wallet providers.
We’ve designed EasySafePay to help merchants easily accept wallet payments, addressing these top-of-mind concerns:
Wallet payments can complex, especially for merchants who may be more familiar with card payments or certain wallets – as many wallets are created based on various use cases and cultural contexts. While most use cases of mobile wallets have expanded, many still serve the e-commerce, delivery or ride hailing platform where most of their transactions originally come from.
One essential step of EasySafePay is that it simplifies wallet integration by creating an easy yet secure checkout journey comprising authentication, payment authorisation and checkout. This means streamlining a 6- to 8-step checkout process which may also include redirects from the e-commerce website or app page to the wallet checkout page, entering one-time password (OTP), email password, etc.
At Antom, simplifying doesn’t mean comprising on security. EasySafePay’s AI risk management approach combines over 6 layers of security in the checkout process and this all happens in less than 0.1 second! This includes protection against phishing, password fraud, and leveraging anti-deepfake technology to keep identity fraud at bay.
We’ve also taken into consideration the need for various authentication preferences such as static and dynamic OTP, biometric authentications. So, users can check out without changing or learning any new payment bahaviours regardless of the e-wallet they are using.
Removing redirects, enabling multiple verification and offering a simple, secure checkout process has several advantages. Firstly, it helps merchants add multiple wallets with just a single integration. From a business point of view, EasySafePay makes sense – not only streamlining the wallet checkout process, but also improving payment success rates and conversion by 10 points.
One single integration also means businesses get a consolidated view when it comes to the payment methods offered, and payment data insights that can further help optimise operations.
One of the main frauds surrounding mobile wallets is account takeover. To guard against account takeovers, many wallet providers have added redirects or multiple steps for authentication, fraud prevention and payment security within the payment journey. However, this can have an impact on overall brand experience, checkout and conversion.
EasySafePay ensures safe transactions via two security pillars, Antom’s SHIELD Score and SecurityCenter.
SHIELD Score
SHIELD Score is a real-time joint risk management mechanism for each EasySafePay transaction, collectively managed by Antom, the wallet provider and the merchant. It’s available for both SDK and API integrations – giving merchants the flexibility and control they want when it comes to risk management and user experience. One key difference:
SDK – Antom’s device recognition tech is embedded in the SDK, so we can detect if the same devices are being used by the same user. For high-risk transactions, we can initiate a joint authentication process similar to card payments’ 3-Domain Secure (3DS) challenge to prevent any unauthorised transaction.
API – For the API integration, risk scores provided by the merchant and wallet provider are shared with Antom via API. For further risk analysis, we will initiate a joint authentication process with the wallet provider.
Want to find out which works better for your business? Speak with our team today.
SecurityCenter
SecurityCenter is Antom’s very own mini-app for payment disputes and compensation in case of fraud. SecurityCenter also supports unlinking wallet accounts from merchant accounts – effectively blocking further fraudulent transactions and minimising financial losses. Security messages can also be sent via SecurityCenter to inform consumers; wallet providers sometimes use this function to educate consumers on new wallet security features.
These two pillars help provide a better wallet payment experience for both merchants and consumers alike.
In cases of account takeovers, consumers can potentially lose the full amounts in their accounts or funding sources depending on the compensation policies of the wallet providers. Some wallets offer full refund protection, while others do not. This is not that wallets are the “wild west” of digital payments, but again, because of the use cases and the contexts, liability protection can vary across providers.
Antom takes a merchant-first approach when it comes to liability protection. Similar to card payments’ 3DS approach, we bear liability and offer a full refund on financial losses from wallet account takeover fraud. This methodology is an extension of our AI-powered platform for payments, growth and digitisation to help businesses of all sizes thrive.
EasySafePay is our risk management product designed for merchants as well as wallet providers. We work closely with our wallet partners to ensure the latest in tech, including AI tech, is leveraged to optimise payments, business impact and customer experience.
For example, AlipayHK e-wallet, widely accepted by local merchants in Hong Kong, which integrated our SHIELD solution became one of the first global tech operators accredited with the Large Language Model Security Certification, WDTA AI STR-02 Certification. This accreditation is testament to the effectiveness on AI governance and Antom’s risk management capabilities. With SHIELD, AlipayHK was able to ensure 24/7 real-time risk detection and secure transactions using AI-powered systems to identify deepfake content and other threats. The system conducts over 500,000 daily assessments, blocking attacks such as data leaks and model poisoning.
Likewise, the holistic EasySafePay product also helps merchants offer all the wallet payments consumers prefer without the complexities. EasySafePay’s advantages are the most apparent in cases where merchants are keen to remove friction from authentication and redirects from high frequency usage such as in e-commerce marketplaces, food delivery and gaming apps. Typically, transaction values are also smaller, where if there is significant friction, consumers will tend to drop off.
We often share the benefits of EasySafePay via the use case of our merchant SoFast (Shun Feng Tong Cheng), a subsidiary of logistics and delivery leader, SF Holdings. From enabling seamless payments for customers using the SoFast platform to driver payouts, EasySafePay isn’t just a risk management layer but a business enabler that keeps delivering positive impact!
Contact us today to find out more about EasySafePay and our latest risk and payments offerings.
Learn how Ant International and Antom work with our merchants and partners in enabling sustainable business growth in our 2024 Sustainability Report.