Earlier this month, Visa launched Rightcliq, a free online shopping tool designed to make e-commerce more social and convenient for consumers. Rightcliq offers users a centralized online location to store and share products of interest and to manage and track purchases.
By creating a seamless shopping experience across the entire purchasing process, it would seem Visa’s goal is to make Rightcliq a social commerce destination that benefits consumers and online retailers.
How Rightcliq works
Currently available to U.S. consumers only, Rightcliq enables users to create visual wish lists of products they are interested in purchasing. These wish lists - called Wishspaces - can be shared with friends and family, via email or Facebook, as a way to solicit feedback.
Users can also browse special offers and discounts from participating Rightcliq merchants, and even share those offers with their contacts.
With the Rightcliq browser plugin enabled, consumers can purchase items directly from a merchant’s site using their Rightcliq digital wallet.
Much like PayPal, Rightcliq digital wallets can be used to securely store any credit, debit or prepaid card (even cards from Visa competitors). The difference is that unlike PayPal, Rightcliq makes the act of browsing and purchasing products online social.
As Gerry Sweeney, global head of ecommerce and authentication at Visa Inc., explains in the Rightcliq press release,
Rightcliq is unique in the marketplace, as it adds value across the whole shopping experience and offers the convenience and peace of mind consumers expect from Visa. We think people will find Rightcliq not only helps them make smarter shopping decisions, but also makes online shopping simpler and more fun.
Why online retailers should care
Assuming Rightcliq gains momentum and delivers on the promise of providing consumers a smarter way to shop online, participating merchants may benefit from increased e-commerce revenues and reach.
Visa reports that in a recent survey, more than 90 percent of survey respondents indicated they would shop online more often if there was a more convenient method to compare items and see available discounts and promotions, versus bookmarking sites and creating written lists.
Many of us already enjoy sharing product information with friends and family using the Facebook ‘Like’ button, or the ‘email wish list’ and ‘email a friend’ features available on many online shopping sites (side note and shameless product plug: our own CommerceLive e-commerce solution supports these kind of sharing activities).
By centralizing these social sharing activities with the research and transactional activities related to online shopping, Rightcliq may remove many of the real and perceived barriers to online shopping. If successful in creating a seamless shopping experience for consumers, Visa can position Rightcliq as a valuable mechanism to drive transactions and increase loyalty for online retailers.
Other considerations
While Visa touts Rightcliq as an online destination to centralize comparison shopping and social sharing activities, it doesn’t import Facebook conversations back into Rightcliq. So really, the value of its social sharing capability depends on a the willingness of a Rightcliq user’s contacts to click through to the site and leave a comment, and/or the user manually reviewing advice received in Facebook.
There isn’t yet a mobile app available, something that could be useful for helping consumers share items and make a purchase decision at the point of sale, but Visa has hinted they are looking into it.
Visa is sourcing Rightcliq users for feedback and suggestions and providing a channel to report usability issues via the Rightcliq online community (a separate website hosted and operated by community site vendor Get Satisfaction).
I searched for information on how merchants can get involved with Rightcliq but couldn’t find any information on the Rightcliq website nor on the Visa corporate site or blog. However, there was a question posted in the Rightcliq community about how merchants can get their discounts added to the Rightcliq Offers database. One of the community moderators directed that inquiries of this nature be submitted via the Rightcliq ‘Contact Us’ form.
While Visa hasn’t positioned Rightcliq has a direct challenger to PayPal in the online payments space, the tool is a way for Visa to grow its share in the e-commerce channel, adding value to online payment processing at a time when it is considered by many as a commodity.
What are your thoughts? Are tools like Rightcliq the way to add value to online payment processing?