What do you see as the main challenges to international ecommerce expansion, and what part does PAY.ON play in overcoming these challenges?
While many payment providers - whether PSPs, ISOs, acquirers, ISVs or VARs – are experts in domestic payment processing in their home countries, they often lack a full appreciation of the complexity of the commercial, technical and regulatory issues they face when expanding into new markets. This is the main challenge when it comes to cross-border expansion, and it often goes together with the threat of over-optimistic expectations. Many payment companies, and this is particularly true in the US, achieve a level of success within their home market and expect that they can easily replicate this success when moving into new markets.
PAY.ON is well situated to address these challenges. Our combination of cross-border expertise, extensive alternative payment methods, and fraud prevention solutions is why many companies form strategic partnerships with us to achieve their international expansion plans.
The international market is being challenged by rapid technical innovation, evolving business needs and a shifting regulatory landscape. In this context, how can a payment provider ensure that its services remain relevant?
First of all, it is worth remembering that while it is technology that makes the headlines, we are in a service industry. Customers want to feel they are being taken care of, and that the services they are receiving evolve to meet their needs. In my opinion, many players in the payments space focus on the technological changes to the detriment of the most essential element, namely taking excellent care of your customers.
I would say that providing outstanding service is the number one way that PSPs can ensure they remain relevant. Of course, part of this is responding to customers’ needs, which includes being able to offer a tailored payment mix to international shoppers, or customized experiences such as shopping in your local currency.
In a global context, how does PAY.ON succeed in maximizing opportunities in merchant acquiring?
Over the past 11 years, PAY.ON has created a global payment network that connects our platform to more than 300 international and local acquirers, and alternative payment methods. PSPs, ISOs, acquirers, ISVs and VARs who are looking to remove the technical complexity from international expansion can access this extensive network via a single technical integration with PAY.ON. Through our Open Payment Platform, one unified API “plugs” payment providers into a global payment network that grows every month. Because this removes the need for ongoing development and integration costs, it facilitates faster international growth, and enables payment providers to focus on their core business of serving their customers.
What do you identify as the current key trends in the emerging and alternative payments space?
We see a clear trend toward merchants wanting to offer their online customers - wherever in the world they come from – the payment options that they are most comfortable with. In many countries, this means offering e-wallets, online bank transfers, and voucher payments. Or it may be as simple as offering the domestic debit option as an alternative to the international schemes.
This is often forgotten in the US, where the international card schemes make up the vast majority of ecommerce payments. But the US merchant whose PSP has enabled Brazil’s Boleto Bancário as a payment type, or German online bank transfer products such as Sofortüberweisung, stands to gain a higher conversion rate and therefore secure more revenue from shoppers in those international markets. Use of certain payment types is deeply entrenched in many countries, so not offering them puts merchants at a distinct disadvantage when courting international customers. What is the biggest barrier to entry for new payment channels?
Most payment types around the world are licensed for a single or limited number of countries. Therefore, for PSPs to offer those payment types, they typically need some kind of legal entity in the country of the payment type provider. However, there are ways for payment providers to navigate around these in-country entity requirements. The merchant can have the entity in-country and sign up for the payment type directly, or PSPs and merchants can partner with a collecting PSP, which transfers funds internationally and stands in as a payment facilitator. Any way you look at it, in order for a PSP to enable their merchants to offer payment types from third countries, there typically needs to be an entity in that country acting as Merchant of Record, which has the right to offer acceptance for that payment type. This can create a stumbling block for PSPs and merchants looking to expand their international offering. Again, this is a situation where third-party solution providers can assist with the process of international expansion.
What are the risks of going global, from an online security perspective, for payment providers?
Although payment providers may have a sound understanding of payment habits and fraud prevention methodologies in their home markets, tailored fraud prevention solutions are needed when expanding internationally.
Partnering with the right local provider has the benefit of reducing exposure to fraud, while at the same time improving conversion rates by tailoring fraud monitoring to local payment behaviour. We believe that local experts know best, so we have partnered with third-party fraud prevention providers as well as packaging our best fraud preventions solutions into OneClickSafe. This approach has allowed PAY.ON’s partners to reduce fraud by up to 35%.
About Adam Bowman
Adam Bowman is Vice-President of Sales & Business Development for PAY.ON America, bringing over 20 years of experience in payments and management consulting to this vital role, as he oversees the continued growth of PAY.ONs North American client base. Adam has in-depth knowledge of cross-border ecommerce, international merchant acquiring, and project management.
About PAY.ON
PAY.ON delivers white label global payment gateway solutions to payment service providers, ISOs, acquirers, ISVs, and VARs, enabling them to fully outsource payment transaction processing or integrate a gateway-to-gateway solution. PAY.ON enables payment providers to rapidly increase international revenue, reduce costs and risk, and accelerate market expansion.
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