Voice of the Industry

Beyond payments – why merchants need more than basic payments processing

Monday 23 April 2018 09:41 CET | Editor: Melisande Mual | Voice of the industry

Joseph Chan from AsiaPay explains how perfectly orchestrated payment flows and loyalty programmes make everything more efficient for merchants

Look around the globe; you will see in today’s highly competitive and ever-changing ecommerce landscape, a need to generate awareness, drive sales and build brand strategy. In this context, market expansion plans are one of the top priorities for online businesses.

Most merchants who enter a new market will typically invest huge efforts into bringing customers to their website and through to the checkout, but if the payment system is too cumbersome or unfamiliar, shoppers are likely to abandon the purchase. Another thing that most merchants don’t realise is the integral role payments play in the daily operations of their businesses.

Perfectly orchestrated payment flows make everything more efficient

No matter where you are selling across the globe, a seamless checkout is always critical for boosting sales conversion.

Retail is going through a lot of turmoil and change, and many short-term solutions have relied on heavy discounting and constant promotions. It might be a quick win, but it is a short-term one. As consumer choice continues to expand both online and offline, merchants need to focus on using technology to personalise their customer experience to really stand out from the crowd.

This is where choosing an omnichannel payments platform can make all the difference. Apart from processing payments and integrating different alternative payment methods, to stand out, just as in the merchant’s case, a PSP must also offer support for extra features that convert and retain customers.

Loyalty programmes

Loyalty programmes can and should be integrated with payments. Our solution allows merchants to offer customers any or all of these loyalty options.

1. Voucher Payment solutions allow merchants to issue and broadcast different kinds of promotions. The e-Voucher encourages customers to shop more online and make online purchases with the e-Voucher.

2. Loyalty Points Redemption allows customers to redeem their bonus points online when they have accumulated loyalty points with past purchases.

3. Card Promotion Discount allows merchants and banks to define their own promotional campaigns to their customers. This has encouraged shoppers to make online purchases at discounted rates using their own credit cards.

Data analytics

Big data and data science are playing a big role in consumer analytics. Proper data analytics allow companies to gain valuable insights into customer behaviour and identify how and through which mediums consumers buy their items. The final goal of data analytics is to better personalise the shopping experience for each customer.

Data collected from customers is also essential in optimising the supply-side of the retail business. Merchants need to use data science to understand consumers better and enhance security.

To capture and use data, we have designed our in-house solution called PayDollar Analyzer. Our solution provides granular analytics and MIS tools to help merchants better monitor and manage their business. Some of the key analytics that we have focused on are: 

  • Sales performance – A tool that can track daily, monthly or weekly sales promotion, and popular products being sold. It also enables businesses to have an overview over the sales management overview.

  • Business trends - helps guide the sales process and drives growth

  • Periodic analysis - for weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly time frames.

  • Geographical payment analysis – for knowing the regional capacity of a specific market, as well as its payment environment and consumer preferences.

  • Peak hours traffic – allows businesses to plan experiences, host promotion events and launch new products at the right moment.

  • Local consumer behaviour and expectations – helps businesses better understand their consumers’ psychology and behaviours to better meet their needs and driver brand awareness and loyalty.

Go further, go faster

To fully utilise the advantages one can gain from payments, merchants can seek the services of payment gateway providers like AsiaPay, which offer a one-stop shop for payment processing. Our platform, allows merchants to offer different payment methods on their website, with a single integration.

Understanding the appeal Asian markets have for Western businesses, we have designed a variety of products to deliver secure, reliable and cost-effective solutions for banks, PSPs and businesses of all sizes who want to expand overseas.

Furthermore, both businesses and their customers are protected with multiple layers of security – secure hash, TLS 1.2 encryption, built-in fraud prevention tool and PCI DSS Level 1 compliance. Since fraud is always a concern when expanding overseas, we have designed a comprehensive security solution that allows businesses to mitigate fraud and risks, reduce operation and ownership costs and enhance operational efficiency.

About Joseph Chan

Mr. Joseph Chan, Chief Executive Officer of AsiaPay, founded the company in August 2000. He spearheaded the company and product development together with his management team, to become one of the most successful electronic payment service and technology company in Asia, with operations covering 16 countries. Through successive positions in banking and finance industries, Joseph has consolidated his expertise and experience in strategic planning, management and implementation of financial, electronic banking, Internet and mobile product services and systems in Asia. 


About AsiaPay

Our omnichannel payment platform provides the most comprehensive integrated coverage of over 100 acquirers and alternate payments in Asia Pacific. We operate across 16 counties up until now, including HK, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Mainland China, Taiwan, Macau, Vietnam, Indonesia, Philippines, Japan, Australia and UK. Our specially designed platform delivers unparalleled security, customizability, and scalability, which has allowed us to become one of the major e-payment providers within Asia. We provide a business with the ability to adapt and support larger transaction volumes in line with their growth.


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Keywords: AsiaPay, payments , merchants, retail, loyalty programmes, data analytics, bank, omnichannel payments, payment processing
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