Press Release: W3C Launches Initiative to Improve the Web for Merchants

Dear friends of W3C,

W3C today launched the Merchant Business Group, an open forum to address challenges for customer experiences and business needs using Web technologies.

The Merchant BG offers participants an opportunity to learn directly from the organizations building Web experiences about how Web standards trends can affect (and improve) e-commerce.  Worldpay from FIS, Fiserv, Coles Supermarket Group and Connexus are the first organizations to join the new group. 

co-Chair Melanie O'Brien from Coles Group stated: "The Group’s worthy mission is to improve the Web for both business-to-business (B2B) merchants and business-to-consumer (B2C) merchants. I’m particularly interested in the discussions about emerging tech and the increasing demand of online shopping due to COVID. Currently living in Melbourne, where we have stage 4 lock-down restrictions in place limiting our in-store shopping, means we have to rely very heavily on buying everything online, so this is particularly important and topical. Exploring topics like web checkout, accessible immersive web experiences and improving mobile web commerce experiences will yield some fantastic outcomes."

Please see more quotes and information on the group in the press release at: https://www.w3.org/2020/10/pressrelease-merchantbg.html.en

To schedule an interview, please feel free to contact me at: <w3t-pr@w3.org>.

Yours sincerely,

Amy van der Hiel
W3C Media Relations Coordinator

------------------------------------------------

      [1] https://www.w3.org/


        W3C Launches Initiative to Improve the Web for Merchants

Business forum will address challenges for customer experiences and
business needs using Web technologies
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   [2]Translations | [3]W3C Press Release Archive
     __________________________________________________________

      [2] 
https://www.w3.org/Press/Releases-2020#merchantbg

      [3] 
https://www.w3.org/Press/


   [4]
https://www.w3.org/
 — 21 October 2020 — W3C today launched the
   [5]Merchant Business Group, an open forum to address challenges
   for customer experiences and business needs using Web
   technologies. Merchants, integrators, platform providers, and
   others will discuss how emerging Web technologies could help
   address customer experience challenges, and what additional Web
   capabilities may be necessary. The Merchant BG offers
   participants an opportunity to learn directly from the
   organizations building Web experiences about how Web standards
   trends can affect (and improve) e-commerce.

      [4] 
https://www.w3.org/

      [5] 
https://www.w3.org/community/merchantbg/


   Worldpay from FIS, Fiserv, Coles Supermarket Group and Connexus
   are the first organizations to join the new group.

  Strengthening the Merchant Voice within W3C

   Today a number of merchants, integrators, associations
   participate in the [6]Web Payments Working Group (WPWG) and
   other W3C groups. "We want merchants to have a greater voice
   within W3C to ensure the Web meets their needs," said Nick
   Telford-Reed, staff contact for the Merchant BG and co-Chair of
   the WPWG, "Merchants have told us that they want to be part of
   the conversation about e-commerce, but with more focus on the
   challenges that businesses face. In the Merchant BG, we'll be
   looking at their use cases and the problems they face when
   selling online."

      [6] 
https://www.w3.org/groups/wg/payments


   "I’m delighted to be co-chairing the W3C’s Merchant Business
   Group," said Melanie O'Brien from Coles Group. "The Group’s
   worthy mission is to improve the Web for both
   business-to-business (B2B) merchants and business-to-consumer
   (B2C) merchants. I’m particularly interested in the discussions
   about emerging tech and the increasing demand of online
   shopping due to COVID. Currently living in Melbourne, where we
   have stage 4 lock-down restrictions in place limiting our
   in-store shopping, means we have to rely very heavily on buying
   everything online, so this is particularly important and
   topical. Exploring topics like web checkout, accessible
   immersive web experiences and improving mobile web commerce
   experiences will yield some fantastic outcomes."

   Fellow co-chair, John O'Brien from FIS Global added, "The voice
   of the merchant community is instrumental in shaping the future
   of our industry. As a global leader in payments technology, FIS
   is very invested in being an advocate for our merchant clients.
   We’re delighted to be helping create smarter e-commerce
   experiences for consumers globally and ensuring that the needs
   of retailers from around the world are represented at W3C."

   By design, the group will begin work with broad scope of
   discussion. Over time the group will prioritize from these and
   other topics:
     * Web checkout experiences, including the value merchants
       should gain with W3C's Web payments standards;
     * Balancing the needs of accessibility, internationalization,
       privacy, authentication and user friction in e-commerce;
     * Emerging regulatory requirements and ensuring good customer
       experience;
     * The evolution of Web advertising;
     * Good practices for reducing online fraud;
     * Enhancements to transaction integrity and assurance;
     * Customer interaction, capture and retention via accessible
       immersive Web experiences.
     * Improving mobile web commerce experiences.

  Scope of Activity

   The [7]Merchant Business Group charter describes the group's
   activities, including:
  
https://w3c.github.io/merchantbg/MerchantBGcharter.html


     * Education about Web technology trends and the impact on
       merchants, including through discussions with other W3C
       groups. These activities will include non-technical
       briefings.
     * Identification of current merchant challenges, best
       practices for addressing them, and how those practices may
       change for various reasons (e.g., due to evolving privacy
       practices).
     * Communication of merchant use cases and requirements to
       groups within and outside W3C.
     * Coordinating reviews of the work of other W3C groups (e.g.,
       the [8]Web Payments Working Group, [9]Web Authentication
       Working Group or [10]Immersive Web Working Group).

      [8] 
https://www.w3.org/Payments/WG/

      [9] 
https://www.w3.org/Webauthn/

     [10] 
https://www.w3.org/immersive-web/


  Join the Merchant Business Group

   Although the Merchant Business Group is focused on merchant
   needs, merchants and non-merchants alike —from around the
   globe— are invited to join.

   A W3C Business Group gives innovators wanting to have an impact
   on the development of the Web in the near-term, a
   vendor-neutral forum for collaborating with like-minded
   stakeholders, including W3C Members and non-Members (who can
   participate in the Business Group without full W3C Membership).

   For more information, including joining, please see the
   [11]Merchant Business Group homepage.

     [11] 
https://www.w3.org/community/merchantbg/


About the World Wide Web Consortium

   The mission of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is to lead
   the Web to its full potential by creating technical standards
   and guidelines to ensure that the Web remains open, accessible,
   and interoperable for everyone around the globe. W3C well-known
   standards HTML and CSS are the foundational technologies upon
   which websites are built. W3C works on ensuring that all
   foundational Web technologies meet the needs of civil society,
   in areas such as accessibility, internationalization, security,
   and privacy. W3C also provides the standards that undergird the
   infrastructure for modern businesses leveraging the Web, in
   areas such as entertainment, communications, digital
   publishing, and financial services. That work is created in the
   open, provided for free and under the groundbreaking W3C Patent
   Policy. For its work to make online videos more accessible with
   captions and subtitles, W3C received a 2016 Emmy Award. And for
   its work to standardize a Full TV Experience on the Web, W3C
   received a 2019 Emmy Award.

   W3C's vision for "One Web" brings together thousands of
   dedicated technologists representing more than 400 [12]Member
   organizations and dozens of industry sectors. W3C is jointly
   hosted by the [13]MIT Computer Science and Artificial
   Intelligence Laboratory (MIT CSAIL) in the United States, the
   [14]European Research Consortium for Informatics and
   Mathematics (ERCIM) headquartered in France, [15]Keio
   University in Japan and [16]Beihang University in China. For
   more information see [17]
https://www.w3.org/.


     [12] 
https://www.w3.org/Consortium/Member/List

     [13] 
https://www.csail.mit.edu/

     [14] 
https://www.ercim.eu/

     [15] 
https://www.keio.ac.jp/

     [16] 
http://ev.buaa.edu.cn/

     [17] 
https://www.w3.org/


   End Press Release

Media Contact

   Amy van der Hiel, W3C Media Relations Coordinator
   <[18]w3t-pr@w3.org>
  mailto:w3t-pr@w3.org

   +1.617.253.5628 (US, Eastern Time)
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   [19]Translations | [20]W3C Press Release Archive

     [19] 
https://www.w3.org/Press/Releases-2020#merchantbg

     [20] 
https://www.w3.org/Press/

Received on Wednesday, 21 October 2020 13:32:49 UTC