Mastercard has unveiled its vision for transforming the future of online shopping by 2030, aiming to eliminate physical card numbers, static passwords, and one-time authentication codes from the purchasing process. In this future, secure, on-device biometrics will ensure seamless and safe transactions across devices and websites, with personal data remaining secure on the user’s device. This shift is already underway in major markets and is expected to become commonplace within the next few years. Mastercard plans to combine tokenization—first introduced a decade ago to protect sensitive payment data—with biometric authentication to create a frictionless and secure online checkout experience. By 2030, Mastercard envisions a world where every online transaction is tokenized and securely authenticated, simplifying and securing the checkout process.
Despite the rise of innovative digital payment solutions, online shopping still faces significant challenges, such as fraud and friction during checkout. Fraud rates are seven times higher online than in physical stores, with criminals exploiting exposed card numbers, leading to financial losses for merchants, cardholders, and issuers. Additionally, Mastercard research reveals that nearly two-thirds of shoppers still struggle with manually entering card details, and 25% of online carts are abandoned due to slow or complicated checkouts.
Mastercard’s vision also includes a new era for physical cards, with the introduction of numberless cards, reducing the risks of fraud in the event of a lost or stolen card.
Mastercard’s technology is already accelerating online checkout speeds, with tokenization helping reduce cart abandonment and boosting transaction approvals by 3-6 percentage points across regions. This innovation is driving up to $2 billion in additional sales for merchants each month and minimizing fraud risk, benefiting the entire payment ecosystem, including banks, consumers, and businesses.
“Just as we moved from signing and swiping to tapping cards, we are now transitioning from manual entry and passwords to seamless, secure payments with just a few clicks,” said Jorn Lambert, Mastercard’s Chief Product Officer. “By embedding advanced encryption and tokenization technologies, we are protecting sensitive data while empowering consumers with greater control and convenience. This shift is unlocking new sales for merchants and reducing fraud for issuers.”
Achieving this vision by 2030 will require continued collaboration across the payments ecosystem, as well as support through the Mastercard Gateway. Mastercard is already working with a range of partners to deploy and scale these new technologies:
- Over 30% of Mastercard transactions worldwide are now tokenized through the Mastercard Digital Enablement Service (MDES), with key markets like India nearing 100% for e-commerce transactions.
- The Mastercard Payment Passkey Service, initially launched in India, Singapore, and the UAE, is expanding globally, with leading banks, payment aggregators, and merchants like Axis Bank, BigBasket, Juspay, and Razorpay deploying the technology.
- Click to Pay is rapidly gaining traction, with issuers like Commonwealth Bank of Australia, ING Spain, NatWest, and Santander Mexico enrolling their card portfolios. International merchants, including Arcos Dorados, Just Eat Takeaway, and Pizza Hut, are also supporting the service.
Mastercard continues to push the boundaries of innovation, building on previous efforts such as phasing out magnetic stripe cards in 2021 in favor of more secure technologies.
About Mastercard (NYSE: MA)
Mastercard powers economies and empowers people in 200+ countries and territories worldwide. Together with our customers, we’re building a sustainable economy where everyone can prosper. We support a wide range of digital payments choices, making transactions secure, simple, smart and accessible. Our technology and innovation, partnerships and networks combine to deliver a unique set of products and services that help people, businesses and governments realize their greatest potential.
