Entersekt boosts 3-D Secure to cut checkout failures

Entersekt has introduced enhancements to its 3-D Secure offering to address two failure points in the online card authentication process.

The updates apply to Entersekt's access control server and 3DS Server, which sit within the 3-D Secure payment flow used by banks, merchants and payment service providers. One set of changes is designed to improve authentication resilience when browser interactions are interrupted. The other is intended to preserve authentication results when the browser does not return the shopper to the merchant as expected.

In two early deployments, net authentication success rates increased by up to 9 percentage points, according to Entersekt. In another deployment, authentication results were preserved for about 3% of authenticated transactions, representing around USD $423,000 in transaction value over seven days.

Those measurements came from separate deployments. Entersekt said the USD $423,000 figure reflected authenticated transaction value preserved for further processing, rather than confirmed completed purchases or recognised revenue.

Checkout gaps

Online card payments often require shoppers to move between a merchant checkout, a banking app or authentication page, and then back to the merchant to complete the purchase. Interruptions such as page reloads, browser failures or poor connections can break that sequence, even when the cardholder has approved the payment.

This can leave a transaction authenticated at the banking stage but unfinished at the merchant stage, resulting in a lost sale for retailers and a failed purchase for consumers. Entersekt said its latest changes are intended to reduce these gaps in the handoff between authentication and checkout completion.

"An authentication that succeeds but never reaches the merchant still leaves the customer unable to complete a purchase," said Dewald Nolte, Co-Founder and Chief Product Strategy & Market Engagement Officer at Entersekt.

"The shopper does everything right: they approve the purchase with their bank, close the app and assume they're done. If that result never reaches the merchant, the purchase never completes. Our enhancements make sure the result still gets through, so a broken handoff doesn't cost the sale," Nolte said.

Entersekt said the access control server changes improve the resilience of cardholder authentication when browser interactions are disrupted. Changes to the 3DS Server are aimed at ensuring completed authentication results can still be delivered to the merchant when the expected browser return fails.

These two stages represent different technical weak points in the 3-D Secure journey. Addressing both can help issuers, merchants and payment service providers reduce avoidable disruption during checkout, according to the company.

Peak season

The announcement comes as retailers and payment providers prepare for a peak period in online shopping. Entersekt cited Adobe forecasts that US consumers will spend USD $275.1 billion online during November and December, up 6.7% year on year, with mobile devices expected to account for 57.4% of that spending.

That shift to mobile has increased the number of payment journeys that involve switching between apps, browsers and authentication screens. Each additional step creates more scope for technical interruption, particularly on mobile devices where consumers may close apps or lose their session before a transaction is fully completed.

"Our production results demonstrate how interruptions at different stages of authentication can affect payment continuity, even when the purchase is legitimate and the cardholder successfully played their part. They also highlight why resilience needs to extend beyond the authentication step itself," Nolte said.

"For merchants and the PSPs that serve them, an authentication only pays off once the result arrives, because that's when the sale can go ahead. That's the moment we built these enhancements to protect," he added.

Entersekt said the enhancements are being made available to eligible customers, subject to supported configurations and activation requirements. Founded in 2010, the company entered the 3-D Secure software market through its acquisition of Modirum's 3-D Secure software business in 2023. It says it processes more than 8 billion transactions for more than 250 million cardholders and more than 450,000 merchants through nearly 900 banks in more than 70 countries.

"During peak shopping periods, every completed purchase counts. When a legitimate payment fails because of a technical problem during checkout, merchants can lose sales that customers were ready to make. As digital shopping grows and payment journeys get more complex, checkout reliability matters more to conversion. Making sure the authentication result reaches the merchant, even when something interrupts the journey, is a practical step towards protecting revenue and giving customers the smooth experience they expect," said Serpil Hall, Strategic Advisor, Fraud and AML at Datos Insights.