However, there isn’t currently a standardized global payments system that provides customers with the premium experience they want. This means that merchants have a huge challenge on their hands to find and implement a platform that meets these ambitious goals, enables future market growth, and creates a global omni-channel payments experience.
Here we explore three key factors that merchants need to consider as they look to meet the demands of the new global payments ecosystem.
Security strategies for the new payments ecosystem
It’s no secret that as global eCommerce grows, so does fraud. Risk management is not only a necessity, it can also be a differentiator in tomorrow’s ecosystem. Retailers looking to build an omni-channel payments platform must also focus on innovative tools to combat fraud, including risk engines that prevent fraud through state-of-the-art machine learning, adaptive analytics and algorithms.
With the right mix, fraud prevention can bolster the consumer experience, providing seamless transactions while protecting sensitive data, revenue and your reputation.
Delivering preferred payment options is critical
When assessing their payments strategy, it’s vital that merchants do not underestimate the power of offering different payment methods. Alternative payments (APMs) are expected to account for 55% of online transactions in 2019, highlighting the growing popularity of APMs.
But they also make a huge difference to conversion rates, particularly for cross-border payments. In fact, recent research indicates that 59% of consumers will abandon a transaction if their preferred payment method is not in place.
Local and alternative payment methods can also actually reduce the risk on cross-border transactions – in our experience, from around 2.23% to 0.46%.
The biggest part of the challenge is in understanding – and cost-effectively connecting to – the right payment methods for each geography and customer segment, without compromising their platform flexibility or cost controls.
Building a global omni-channel payments experience
The omni-channel platform of tomorrow demands immediacy, seamlessness and security at every touchpoint. The challenge of delivering on this is magnified for those seeking international expansion. Merchants must deploy platforms that are flexible and agile, which means leveraging a vendor agnostic co-creation approach and utilizing customized infrastructure.
When done right, this global payments layer provides a premium shopping experience for shoppers around the world. The benefits go beyond this experience, however, as it also allows merchants to further develop their acquirer network and reach new markets cost-effectively and with ease.
Find out more about ACI’s flexible, scalable solution that helps PSPs, ISOs and VARs give merchant customers a seamless omni-channel payments experience, driving conversions and customer loyalty.
