Visa, Mastercard Say They Just Made Mobile Shopping a Lot Easier

Smartphones have made taking a photo and checking fantasy football scores a breeze, but inputting credit card details on that small screen can still be frustrating enough that many shoppers just give up, costing retailers billions.

Now, the world’s biggest card networks—a group that includes Visa Inc., Mastercard Inc., American Express Co. and Discover Financial Services—have joined forces in an effort to make web purchases easier and reduce what the industry calls “online cart abandonment.” They’ve developed a checkout option that competes with established offerings from PayPal and Apple Pay that lets consumers save their payment details all in one place. Retailers then offer it as a payment button, thus eliminating the need to type in 16-digit card numbers and expiration dates in tiny boxes.