Mastercard, Pier Five partner for small business fund

As part of its new Secret Sauce campaign, Mastercard partners with Pier Five, a platform that uncovers creative entrepreneurs and helps tell their stories, to offer five women-owned small businesses across the country a chance to receive $10,000 in funding. All five business owners will also be invited to a "Priceless Experience" that brings women from across Canada together for a once-in-a-lifetime community-building event. It's an opportunity to connect and learn from peers and Mastercard executives to help develop their businesses. You can apply until the end of the month through this link.

The Secret Sauce campaign aims to elevate the visibility of women small business owners in the culinary space and help them through support, funding, and resources they need to grow their businesses.

Mastercard to phase out magnetic strips

Source: Mastercard

Mastercard is ready to let go of the magnetic strip on its cards. The company plans to transition to chip cards starting in 2024, particularly in regions where it's already a norm (like in Europe). Those regions where chips aren't widely used yet will begin their transition in 2027. 

By 2029, no new credit or debit cards will be released with a magnetic strip. The exceptions will be prepaid cards in the US and Canada. Mastercard plans to transition away from magnetic strips by 2033.

Source: Mastercard | Via: GadgetMatch

Mastercard's Click to Pay comes to more Canadian sellers

Checking out purchases online can be a hassle. According to Mastercard, 40% of Canadians still prefer to use guest checkout, where they have to manually enter personal payment information each time. But as many as 38% admit this "process is pain," and one in four Canadians will abandon an online shopping cart because of a slow or complicated checkout process.

Mastercard's solution is bringing its Click to Pay tech to more Canadian merchants. Canadian Tire, Mark's, and Sport Chek just joined a growing list of major online retailers in Canada (including Pizza Pizza, Lowes, Roots, and many others), enabling their customers to click to pay. This tech brings secure, password-free online checkout by mirroring the checkout process in physical stores where one terminal accepts all cards. On the merchant side, it offers a smoother digital checkout experience that helps lower shopping cart abandonment. You can find out more details here.

Mastercard, Visa introduces 'Click to Pay' online checkout in Canada

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Mastercard, Visa, and American Express are working together to bring its "Click to Pay" online checkout to Canada and other countries for a more straightforward online checkout experience. Aside from simplicity, it secures online transactions across the web and mobile sites by taking out the time-consuming entry of personal account numbers and information. The feature is meant to mirror the checkout process in physical stores where a single terminal accepts different cards.

With the increase of e-commerce activity, Click to Pay hopes to offer a consistent online experience through all types of digital channels. The press release didn't state when it will be available, but the companies said they started technical preparations for its launch.