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Standard 3D Secure service

You can offer enhanced security to customers that use a payment card that is enrolled with 3D Secure without affecting the checkout experience, thanks to the built-in 3D Secure capabilities of Amazon Payment Services.

Amazon Payment Services offers industry standard 3D Secure capabilities that automatically checks whether a card is enrolled in 3D Secure. If a customer's payment card is enrolled card with 3D Secure the customer is automatically passed through the 3D Secure authentication stage.

By allowing your customer to complete the 3D Secure process you ensure that there is less risk that a customer's payment card details are fraudulently used. You also ensure that customers who prefer to use 3D Secure are confident in paying on your website.

How does the standard 3D secure service work?

3D Secure is in everyday use and it is commonplace for consumers to complete the 3D Secure process when shopping. For that reason, Amazon Payment Services automatically enables 3D Secure processing for merchant accounts.

In other words, your customers will by default automatically be required to complete the 3D Secure steps when they shop with you, but only if your customer's payment card is enrolled with 3D Secure.

Where your customer uses a payment card that is not enrolled in 3D Secure your customer will not be required to complete the 3D Secure process.

In short, the standard 3D Secure process works as follows:

  1. Your customer shops and checks out as usual, proceeding to the payment page to complete their payment card details.

  2. Your server sends a transaction request to Amazon Payment Services including your customer's card details.

  3. Amazon Payment Services checks whether your customer's card is enrolled with 3D Secure. If a 3D Secure check is required, the following happens:

    a. Your payment page redirects the customer to the 3D Secure Access Control Server (ACS) to verify card enrollment.

    b. The customer enters their authentication data on the ACS platform.

    c. The ACS attempts to authenticate the customer's data and sends the authentication results to Amazon Payment Services.

  4. Upon authentication, Amazon Payment Services proceeds to execute the transaction as normal.

Again, note the standard 3D Secure service described on this page is the default mode of handling 3D Secure-enrolled payment cards through Amazon Payment Services.

What do I need to do to enable standard 3D Secure?

In line with industry best practice Amazon Payment Services automatically enables 3D Secure across all your e-commerce transactions. There is nothing for you to do to enable 3D Secure checks.

You can, however, customize the way your merchant account behaves when it comes to 3D Secure by using our Flex 3D Secure service.

Note that although we enable 3D Secure be the default any customers that pay with a card not enrolled with 3D Secure can still pay as they usually would. If a payment card is not enrolled with 3D Secure we simply bypass the 3D Secure measure.

Alternatives to standard 3D Secure

We offer merchants three alternatives to the standard 3D Secure process:

  • Flex 3D Secure where merchants can fine-tune the 3D Secure response to bypass 3D Secure on some transactions.

  • External 3D Secure service where you can choose to use an external 3D Secure processor instead of Amazon Payment Services 3D Secure processing.

  • Standalone 3D Secure where you can take advantage of our efficient 3D Secure process to handle 3D Secure as a distinct step.

Get in touch

Standard 3D Secure helps protect your customers against payment card fraud. However, you may wish to customize your customer's 3D Secure experience. Just get in touch with our team to discuss your unique 3D Secure requirements -- email the team at merchantsupport-ps@amazon.com.