DOCOMO Digital partners with Swisscom to enable physical goods to be purchased through carrier billing

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DOCOMO Digital, the European based operation unit of NTT DOCOMO, has partnered with Swiss operator Swisscom to enable physical goods to be purchased online and paid for directly onto a customer's phone bill.

With a simple API integration, retailers of physical goods will be able now to offer Swisscom Direct Carrier Billing (Easypay) as a new payment method for customers. The first retailer that will use the solution is MediaShop Group, a leading TV and online merchant based in Austria.

Fernando González Mesones, COO of DOCOMO Digital Financial Services, comments: "Until now Direct Carrier Billing hasn't really produced an effective way to purchase physical goods on mobile, so we are excited to partner with Swisscom to introduce this innovation. At DOCOMO Digital, we aim to drive the evolution of mobile commerce, so working with Swisscom to provide consumers and merchants in Switzerland with a new faster, secure and innovative payment method, is a big step forward for mobile commerce in Europe. We expect this proof of concept to drive alignment in other markets for similar solutions that benefit end users, merchants and mobile operators."

Gerhard Schedler, Head of Sales Mobile Services ＆ M2M/IoT of Swisscom, comments: "As an innovative telecom operator we welcome the opportunity to contribute to the future of mobile ecommerce. We believe that by working with the right partners, like DOCOMO Digital, all telcos can help to improve the way consumers buy digital and physical goods online. Direct Carrier Billing, as part of operators' payment methods, is set to be a disruptor in the digital ecommerce and we fully support this initiative."

Philipp Nachbaur, CFO of MediaShop Group, says "We believe that Direct Carrier Billing has the potential to become a significant payment method in the ecommerce sector. We are excited to be the first to launch DOCOMO Digital and Swisscom's innovative new service for merchants."

The DOCOMO Digital and Swisscom solution, powered by Loviit, DOCOMO Digital´s technical financing platform, is able to compete with any other payment methods and offers significant advantages, including:

One-click-to-buy and secure authentication DOCOMO Digital will manage the check-out flows and payment transactions, which will provide consumers with the option to purchase with one click and resulting in higher conversion rates. This function is powered by a multi-layer mobile authentication system to ensure complete security for customers.

Low commissions compared to other payment methods DOCOMO Digital's technical financing platform performs favourably for merchants when compared to other payment methods, particularly for the commission fees.

DOCOMO Digital will also be able to settle the payments to the merchants in a few days, a key merchant requirement to enable carrier billing as a mainstream payment method, thanks to through its Loviit technical financing solutions, powered by a proprietary fraud and risk management engine.