Visa Introduces Rightcliq, an Online Shopping Browser Add-on

Visa is introducing a new tool designed to simplify online shopping and add a social component to it. It’s clearly not the first company, big or small, to try to do this, but its offering, Rightcliq, sounds interesting enough. Rightclicq is a browser add-on that promises to make it easier and faster to shop using credit cards, but also to compare products and offers from different vendors.

“At Visa, we know consumers love to shop online, but they also want better ways to streamline the experience and eliminate some of the frustrations they encounter in the process,” Gerry Sweeney, global head of ecommerce and authentication at Visa, said.

“Rightcliq is Visa’s answer to that consumer demand. Our deep knowledge of our consumers’ needs combined with our longstanding commitment to making ecommerce more convenient, secure and rewarding has resulted in a product that we believe will change the way people shop online. Today Visa is synonymous with a better way to pay. Rightcliq is a key step toward becoming the better way to shop,” he added.

Available for Firefox and Internet Explorer 7 and 8, the add-on enables users to store their personal info, billing address, credit card data and so on and then to automatically fill forms at various shopping sites. In a way, it aims to make paying with credit cards as easy as using PayPal or other similar payments systems, which can only be a good thing.

But there is also a web service related to Rightcliq. Users can add the products they want to a ‘Wishspace’ which they can then manage on the site. Similar products can be grouped together and the list can be shared on sites like Facebook or by email. Visa says users will also receive special offers from shops via the site.

Rightcliq is an interesting proposition, though hardly the first to do some of the things it touts. And it may be an uphill battle for the company because of the requirement to install an add-on something which, even with the popularity of Firefox, most people are still not comfortable with. But it’s still a good sign that a big company like Visa is recognizing the challenges and new competition it faces.