Digital wallets are known for making payments fast, smooth, and secure, but what’s less discussed is the process of adding cards to them, and how a smarter approach is replacing the slow, manual setup.
We’re talking about push provisioning.
But what is push provisioning, and why is it important? Below, we’ll break down how push provisioning works, and how it stands to benefit not only cardholders – but card issuers, too. As well as why, for all parties, it’s fast becoming a non-negotiable.
What is push provisioning?
Push provisioning, at its most basic, is a process allowing consumers to add cards to digital wallets – easily, quickly, safely, and conveniently.
The card issuer actions push provisioning, rather than it being actioned by the cardholder (as is the case with the existing process).
Also, tokenization is enabling push provisioning, too. Tokenization is a security technology in which unique digital identifiers, the ‘tokens’, replace sensitive card information. Tokenization helps combat fraud – and enables the payment process to take place without the risk of that card data being mishandled.
Push-provisioning is a specific benefit of EMV tokenization (network tokens) versus card tokenization. Because the data in the network token flow is tokenized through the entire flow (i.e. from merchant to issuer and back again) it's easier to use that token in other flows e.g. to provision cards to a new wallet.
When a cardholder adds a card to their smartphone, it gets tokenized, then “pushed” into that digital wallet, where it can be used to make payments.
Why is push provisioning important?
Push provisioning is vital for card issuers, cardholders, and wallet providers alike. And the best way to look at why push provisioning is so important? To look at the alternative.
Without push provisioning, adding a card to a digital wallet entails a lengthy, laborious verification process requiring each party involved – from the cardholder to the issuer, scheme, and wallet provider.
With so much time, effort, and hassle bundled up in this manual procedure, errors on the part of the cardholder, or a simple lack of understanding, or engagement with, the process, are easy to introduce.
Whether it’s fear of making a mistake during identity verification, forgetting to complete a step, or simply lacking trust in the process, this manual method creates unnecessary friction, especially when compared to the smooth experience push provisioning offers.
As for card issuers, push provisioning is fast and flexible: simplifying and securing the card activation process, and allowing them to deploy cards more rapidly and reliably. And, for the wallet providers themselves, the convenience of push provisioning allows these companies to acquire and service customers in a way that, without it, wouldn’t be possible at such scale.
How does push provisioning work?
The key difference between push provisioning and the traditional process of adding a card to a digital wallet is this:
- In the traditional process, the cardholder initiates the card add.
- With push provisioning, it’s the card issuer doing this: remotely “pushing” the card credentials through to the digital wallet.
In the usual procedure, the customer must add their card details, the card name number, expiry date, and security code, themselves. This introduces the likelihood of human error creeping into the process, and, if that customers’ card has been lost or stolen, the potential for fraud, too.
With push provisioning, though, card issuers can leverage secure channels and encryption mechanisms (including, remember, tokenization) to convey the card’s credentials directly to the digital wallet.
What’s more, while the standard process involves multiple verification steps, making it longer and more tiresome, push provisioning means the card can be used on the cardholder’s digital wallet immediately.
This isn’t just important for consumers adding new cards, either – but when they’re updating existing ones. Every time a card changes, the card issuer can remotely update these details – rather than the customer losing access to the card on their digital wallet until they update the details manually, themselves.
Benefits of push provisioning for card issuers
If you have a smartphone and a bank account, the chances are you will, at some stage, have added a card to your smartphone and into a digital wallet such as Google Pay, Apple Pay, or Samsung Pay. And, if you’ve ever noted how smooth that whole process is, well – you’ve experienced the benefits of push provisioning for the cardholder first-hand.
But how can it benefit card issuers, too?
Win and retain more customers
By offering a smooth, user-friendly, and digital-first way of adding cards to a digital wallet, card issuers can elicit adoption of your products.
This can serve as an additional incentive for new customers to sign up, and once they’re on board, drive transaction volume. This can lead to a deeper affinity with your brand: helping you retain customers through loyalty and connection.
Speed up your time-to-market
By cutting down the amount of time it takes a cardholder to add a card to a digital wallet, card issuers can allow consumers to start paying through their smart devices instantly. This shortens your time to market, and enables to you to stay on top of the competition, all while reducing abandonment- and friction-related costs.
Enable a more secure customer experience
Because push provisioning utilizes tokenization (plus a wealth of other secure channels and encryption protocols) it’s not just faster than the traditional method of adding a card to a digital wallet, but safer, too.
For your customers, knowing they’re backed by layers of the most modern and secure payments technology will reaffirm their faith in your brand, and engender loyalty for the long haul.
Launch and scale your card program with one trusted partner
At Checkout.com, we give you everything you need to launch and manage your own card program – whether physical or virtual. By acting as your issuer, issuer processor, and card program manager, we remove the complexity of working with multiple third parties.
Our Issuing solution oversees every element of the process through a single, unified platform. That means you can focus on launching and scaling your program, without the hassle of coordinating multiple partnerships.
Create sustainable, scalable, and fully branded card experiences, with options like eco-friendly materials and custom designs. Whether you want to hand over key decisions or retain granular control over every authorization, our flexible setup lets you be as hands-on – or hands-off – as you like.
Curious about push provisioning? Get in touch with our sales team, who can talk you through how enabling cardholders to add cards directly to digital wallets like Apple Pay and Google Pay can make payments smoother from day one.
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