Payments are the unglamorous but absolutely necessary piece of any consumer purchase As retail touch points have multiplied and become more technologically complex encompassing mobile devices wearables and now voice AR and VR applications payment providers have had to keep pace One indication of the breadth of this challenge is in Kiki Del Valles title she is SVP of Commerce for Every Device at Mastercard Del Valle who will be presenting the session titled Transforming How People Pay Commerce For Every Device at next weeks Retail Innovation Conference April 30-May 2 in New York City revealed why payment providers need to balance innovation consumer convenience and data security within a rapidly shifting customer journey Retail TouchPoints RTP How are the changes that are taking place in the customer journey affecting payment processes Kiki Del Valle In the discovery learning and comparison phases that ultimately lead to a purchase knowledge is being used in different ways For example 85 of people use a mobile device while browsing although not necessarily while buying There are now a number of devices consumers are using to build an open cart and additionally consumers want to be able to do this at any given moment 24 7 So were looking at ways that allow consumers to pay in new forms including not just smartphones but with wearables and smart devices in homes and vehicles Additionally the in-store discovery process will continue to undergo major transformations Technology including Internet of Things IoT devices sensors beacons digital signage tablet-based POS systems and RFID systems all will help in completing the commerce journey Where payment processes in general and Mastercard come in is to enable and build a bridge between the physical and the digital Were looking to lay the foundations for payments to occur across all these different experiences in-store online even via augmented reality AR or virtual reality VR Payment should happen in a standard seamless way and with the same level of security that youve come to expect from Mastercard RTP What are some specific things Mastercard is doing to help merchants redefine the commerce experience Del Valle In the retail store environment weve partnered with AVA Retail to provide retailers with the same level of analytics in-store that are available online In addition to learning what consumers ultimately buy the technology can show where these shoppers spent their time and what they are browsing in the store We have used this type of AVA partnership with a Fred Segal pop-up shop Weve also jointly developed a chatbot with Subway that lets consumers build a cart while leveraging Facebook Messaging Its meant to parallel the conversation with a Subway artist in the store as I tell him I want a six-inch turkey sandwich on wheat bread with lettuce and mustard That interaction is very much conversational and so we built the chatbot to facilitate that RTP How do you see payment integrating with newer technologies such as AR and VR Del Valle AR and VR give merchants the ability to bring experiences into the customers home or show them goods that arent available for purchase in a specific physical location Weve seen them take off in the furniture and home furnishings categories allowing people to see what a sofa actually looks like in the room where the customer will use it Swarovski is using a home VR app that allows consumers to be fully immersed in a completely decorated home They can see the pieces like sculptures and chandeliers What were doing here is facilitating payment via Masterpass so the user doesnt have to put the VR device aside when they are ready to make a purchase Its not only a convenience it also drives higher conversion rates RTP What are the biggest security concerns as payment spreads to all these different devices Del Valle Security is critical for Mastercard and we believe that security and the innovation that allows for increased convenience absolutely can work together You dont have to sacrifice one to get the other The way were securing innovation is using globally adopted standards like the second-generation standards from EMVCo and the PIN-on-glass standards from the PCI Council Were also using tokenization to protect consumers card data from fraud while also addressing threats from cyberattacks and hacking Another thing were doing is leveraging AI and machine learning to make sure that every transaction that flows through our network is secure AI is increasingly being deployed to look at new data points and were embedding it with our own decision intelligence Through acquisitions weve made such as NuData we also can use behavioral-based identification This looks at the way a consumer uses his or her mobile device how fast they are typing the mistakes they make to try to assess if the person is who they say they are Ultimately we want to get rid of passwords in favor of biometrics because a password is something you know rather than something you are We want to double down on efforts to use biometric identifiers like fingerprints the irises in your eye or your voice to speed up checkout and help the consumer without compromising the safety of the transaction Later this year well be introducing consumer control APIs that allow consumers to have better visibility into where their Mastercard credentials are stored Consumers may have a card on file with a merchant that they dont transact with that often or on a number of different devices These APIs would allow consumers to put a hold on an individual token or a certain account whether at the device level or the merchant level They could even delete their cards from a merchants mobile banking location altogether RTP What do you see as the most important trends in retail payments heading into 2019 Del Valle There are a lot of different trends reshaping payments and commerce but the three biggest I see are Increased use of AI not just for backend processes like operations inventory and fraud prevention but in the context of conversational commerce AI allows for hyperpersonalization with the use of real-time predictive analytics using multiple data points including a shoppers past interactions with the brand to personalize the content they see Growth of IoT We want to make sure we continue to evolve with the way consumers are making and receiving payments because thats no longer defined solely by a card The growth of the gig economy Theres a study by Intuit saying that 40 of American workers will be independent contractors by the year 2020 The evolution of this model means that every consumer becomes a merchant so they will need to accept payments as well as make them Were looking at real-time payment solutions for those independent workers that will be building the gig economy Catch Kiki Del Valles session at the Retail Innovation Conference April 30-May 2 in New York City