<nicktr> https://www.w3.org/2020/11/23-merchantbg-minutes.html

recap and updates

<benoit> ugh.. got the time wrong :(

<nicktr> melanie: recaps our last meeting

<nicktr> ...and we need to work on getting more members

US Payment research (Kevin Hennessey)

<nicktr> kevin: thanks for having me

<nicktr> ...I've been with Worldpay/FIS since 2012

<nicktr> ...past couple of years have been concentrating on North America

<scribe> scribenick: Ian

Kevin: Digital wallet growth has been notable in US over past 2 years
... even though cards still majority share of payment method choice

[What people buy]

#1: food and drink in all age groups
... noteworthy growth in "digital content" for Gen Z

PhilA: Do you know what people bought, or merely what kind of merchants people use?

Kevin: A combination of survey data and transaction information
... for some merchants we have more detailed data than for others
... e.g., we could see that a person shopped at a particular store, how much they spent, some SKUs, some tax information

Sumo: Are you able to ascertain when a user is "introduced to a brand"?
... can you tell "new to a brand" v. "new to a brand for a given card or other payment instrument"?

Kevin: We have been working on that puzzle: overall consumer profile
... across payment methods
... industry trend is to provide a single customer view; we are getting there

Karen: What's the time frame for this generational research?

Kevin: I will find out and get back to you.
... the current research includes some COVID data, and pre-COVID data

[Top reasons people choose one merchant over another.]

1) Free shipping

2) Familiar brand

3) Online commerce possible

4) Great customer service

5) Easy to find what you want

6) Can buy in-store

7) can pay with credit or debit card

8) Good stock

[etc.]

(IJ also notes "frictionless pay" is sought after by 45% of consumers)

Nick: Loyalty programs are low in the list, which surprises me.

Melanie: How fast is "can pay by cash" dropping over time

Kevin: Depends on the market and demographic
... pay by cash is really only of interest to "boomers"; cash losing ground in other generations
... I think that "local and independent" as a trend will continue to grow

[On loyalty]

Kevin: Even if "loyalty programs" did not appear in survey data, other research suggests that people really do like loyalty programs.
... with loyalty programs (1) people more likely to return (2) they spend more
... pay by points is of growing interest.
... e.g., Amazon partnership with American Express
... we see demand growing with larger merchants
... there is an up-front cost to implementing a program and acquiring customers, but those costs are likely to be more quickly offset by subsequent transactions

Sumo: Did you say no interchange on point payments?

Kevin: Correct; it's held outside payment rails

Sumo: More merchants should be aware of this.
... Do you have data about split between online and offline for loyalty usage?

Kevin: I think it's pretty even.
... we do have a global payments report that breaks down by "e-commerce v. CNP"
... but CNP/CP lines are blurring (e.g., with pay online pick up curbside)

https://worldpay.globalpaymentsreport.com/#/en/home

Nick: What's your thought on open banking?

<dezell> For those interested - there's a blog entry for the WPIG about Pizza Hut!

<dezell> https://www.w3.org/WebCommerce/IG/2017/11/30/the-commerce-enabled-web-kicking-off-the-web-commerce-interest-group-at-tpac-2017/

Kevin: Depends on region and type of merchant. Some users who like loyalty may be slow to change behavior.
... but there are lines of business where there will be strong incentives.
... some considerations:
... a) Must have a single API entry point. Bifurcations by market will add friction.
... people want single settlements regardless of region
... they will need dispute management and refunds

Karen: Can you do international bank transfers?

Kevin: Depends on the setup and licenses
... there are ways to accept bank transfers cross border

Melanie: Thank you, Kevin!
... really interesting how things have changed with COVID and which trends stick as pandemic subsides

Charter comments

<nicktr> https://w3c.github.io/merchantbg//MerchantBGcharter.html

Nick: In recent meeting some people had some questions about the charter ^^^^
... comments welcome; it's a living document

[Melanie recaps the group's scope / activities / topics ]

Nick: Also Web Payments specifically as a topic of interest. One element of our charter is to liaise with the WPWG, which is working on standards
... Payment Request API 1.0 just advanced (again) to Candidate Recommendation. Expect a Recommendation by end of Q1 2021

Melanie: Let's do a deep dive in early 2021

Ian: PICK ME

PhilA: Some issues of interest to me include (1) relationship of bar codes to URLs / semantic data
... (2) interested in many other topics in the charter, including accessibility; not payments as much

Nick: Phil, any interest in doing a deep dive on the journey from bar => QR => URL?

PhilA: PICK ME

Nick: We are also talking about QRs in the WPWG these days.
... in particular, in the DID WG there is also interest in QR codes .... not necessarily good use cases IMO

Katie: I work for Clover (part of FIServe). I think we should talk about opportunities (for merchants) rather than challenges.
... there are new interaction models, driven in part by COVID
... focus at Clover is POS and small/medium sized customers

Next meeting

Nick: Will people want to meet 4 January or skip that one?

(We hear mixed responses)

Nick: Chairs and I will let you know whether it will be 4 Jan or later
... Thanks all and talk to you in 2021!

This is scribe.perl Revision of Date 
Check for newer version at http://dev.w3.org/cvsweb/~checkout~/2002/scribe/

Guessing input format: Irssi_ISO8601_Log_Text_Format (score 1.00)

Succeeded: s/though/thought/
Present: Ian_Jacobs Linda_Toth Phil_Archer Melanie_O'Brien David_Ezell Sumantro_Das benoit Steven_Jones Laura_townsend Katie_Haritos karen_myers
Found ScribeNick: Ian
Inferring Scribes: Ian

WARNING: No date found!  Assuming today.  (Hint: Specify
the W3C IRC log URL, and the date will be determined from that.)
Or specify the date like this:
<dbooth> Date: 12 Sep 2002

People with action items: 

WARNING: IRC log location not specified!  (You can ignore this 
warning if you do not want the generated minutes to contain 
a link to the original IRC log.)