What is EMV® SRC? Why was it developed? How does it support secure and convenient e-commerce payments?
The global pandemic has accelerated a change in consumer behaviour, prompting more people worldwide to shop remotely. In the UK, for example, online retail sales in June 2020 increased 33.9% compared to June 2019,[1] while in the United States, non-store consumer spending grew 29.6% against the same period last year.[2] Globally, an additional $1.5 trillion is expected to flow through online retail transactions by 2024.[3]
With this spike in e-commerce, convenience for the user is just as important as the security of cardholder data.[4]
The EMV Secure Remote Commerce (SRC) Specifications aim to help merchants meet this consumer need by supplying payment providers with a common foundation for developing products that enable seamless and secure card-based payments online.
What is EMV Secure Remote Commerce?
The EMV SRC Specifications were developed in consultation with payment industry participants – including merchants and card issuers – to promote a simple, secure and common checkout experience for consumers.
Following this collaborative development process, EMVCo published the EMV Secure Remote Commerce (SRC) Specifications in June 2019. These support the development of e-commerce solutions that can improve the payment process across a variety of remote-checkout environments and consumer devices, including smartphones, tablets, PCs and other connected devices.
EMV SRC provides the capability to address multiple challenges within the remote commerce environment:
1. Promote trust, recognition and familiarity
Consumer-facing solutions and programmes that meet EMV SRC Specifications can be described as Click to Pay. Participating merchants can use the Click to Pay icon 
to help consumers easily recognise when this technology is in place. This signifies that consumers can expect a familiar, convenient and secure check-out process, regardless of the payment card, digital channel or device they use.
2. Combat card-not-present fraud
With security top of mind for consumers, businesses need to be able to demonstrate how they are combating fraud as e-commerce sales continue to grow. A recent survey estimates that 65% of consumers would likely stop shopping on an e-commerce site if their account was compromised.[5]
Using EMV SRC can help businesses in their fight against fraud by enhancing the secure transmission of payment data and checkout information. Specifically, it enables the use of dynamic data, such as cryptograms or other transaction unique data, to enhance the security of payment transactions.
3. Encourage conversion
Complexity and unwanted friction are key challenges for e-commerce merchants and consumers. According to Digital Transactions, consumers must typically negotiate 23 data entry fields before they can complete a purchase.[6] This may help explain why today’s average shopping cart abandonment rate is 69%.[7]
The use of EMV SRC for e-commerce solutions helps address these challenges by enabling a common experience across online shopping sites and reducing barriers to the purchasing process that can lead to abandonment, such as entering card and shipping information. This means merchants can streamline their processes for payment acceptance and deliver a quicker, more convenient user experience for consumers.
4. Simplify ecosystem complexity
The remote environment has evolved using proprietary solutions, with multiple participants and use cases increasing the complexity associated with technology integration.
EMVCo’s work in this area provides global and interoperable specifications upon which SRC solutions can be built to simplify merchant integration, enhance scalability and enable a consistent consumer experience. EMV SRC is also compatible and interoperable with other technologies such as EMV 3-D Secure and EMV Payment Tokenisation, helping to support the convenient yet secure payment process that merchants and consumers want.
Security and convenience breeds confidence
As more consumers conduct their shopping remotely, demands for a secure, familiar experience – similar to what shoppers expect when they go in-store – will continue to rise. The EMV SRC Specifications aim to help merchants worldwide to meet these changing behaviours so that shoppers can purchase with confidence, every time.
[1] Capgemini, IMRG Capgemini Sales Index – July 2020, July 2020
[2] Digital Commerce 360, US Nonstore Retail Sales Surge a Record 29.6% in June, July 2020
[3] Juniper Research, ‘Strategies for Payment Providers: Industry Trends, Opportunities & Recommendations 2020-2024’, March 2020
[4] Digital Transactions, As Shut-in Consumers Turn to E-Commerce, Visa Boosts Support for Key Online Technologies, May 2020
[5] Riskified, Survey Says?! ATOs are a Major Threat and Many Merchants Are Unprepared, May 2020
[6] Digital Transactions, Trends in the Electronic Exchange of Value, June 2020
[7] Baymard Institute, 48 Cart Abandonment Rate Statistics 2023, September 2019
by Clinton Allen
by Oliver Manahan