In today’s payments landscape, merchants are dealing with more complex systems, often suffering from legacy technologies and an expanding range of payment options. As managing these payment processes becomes increasingly complicated, optimising them has become essential, usually requiring the involvement of Finance, Marketing, and IT teams. Payment orchestration offers a practical solution to these challenges. Unifying various payment methods and providers into one streamlined system simplifies how businesses manage transactions. This integration ensures payments are routed through the most efficient and cost-effective channels, saving time and reducing costs.
Before we go any further, what do we mean by ‘payment orchestration’? Payment orchestration is software that allows merchants to simplify payment processes, helping businesses reduce costs, increase revenue, and improve operational efficiency and resilience. It connects payment providers, gateways, and methods into a unified system. This allows businesses to handle transactions more effectively, routing payments through cost-efficient and reliable channels. By doing so, payment orchestration reduces transaction fees and minimises the risk of failed payments, which increases revenue.
In today’s payments landscape, where merchants must juggle numerous payment options and technologies, payment orchestration stands out as a powerful tool. While it is not suited or required for every company, everyone should closely watch this technology and assess whether it can help their business stay competitive and thrive.
As for most payment-related topics, there is a lot of literature and marketing content out there about payment orchestration – and many companies sell themselves as such, while they lack the main benefits that such a tool could bring.
That said, what improvements could a merchant observe following the implementation of a payment orchestration layer?
Ensure business continuity and resilience: payment orchestration consolidates all payment processes and ensures automatic smart routing to the most efficient provider. One may say that this centralisation also creates a single point of failure, which is true. Therefore, to ensure uninterrupted business operations and resilience, it is crucial to select a robust provider and have a backup strategy.
Bring visibility and insights: once data is centralised and harmonised into one single platform, the orchestration layer provides valuable insights into transaction trends, performance, and costs. This visibility helps businesses make informed decisions and optimise their payment strategies.
Benchmark cost and performance: if all data is in the same place, and we can run a deep analysis on top of this, we can easily compare metrics across different payment providers, making it possible to identify the most efficient routing options. This optimisation typically reduces costs and improves transaction approval rates.
Improve checkout experience: with low or no-code solutions, payment orchestration can enhance the checkout process with secure input fields and UI components to collect payment data – making it smoother and more customisable without requiring extensive IT resources. It reduces the complexity for IT teams, which usually translates into fewer PCI DSS requirements.
Easily change or add payment providers: the orchestration layer simplifies adding or switching payment providers and third-party services, requiring minimal IT involvement. This flexibility helps businesses quickly adapt to market changes and maintain optimal payment performance.
Payment orchestration also has potential downsides. Centralising payment processes can create a single point of failure, making the system vulnerable if the orchestration layer encounters issues. Additionally, implementing and maintaining an orchestration layer can be complex and costly, requiring significant upfront investment and ongoing management. For example, integrating with multiple payment providers and systems may lead to compatibility issues or increased complexity. There may also be concerns about data security and compliance, as handling sensitive transaction information through a centralised system requires stringent measures to protect against breaches and ensure regulatory adherence. Finally, payment orchestration was born to serve ecommerce and digital transactions but it still struggles to play in the physical world, particularly when it comes to POS terminals – something we covered in our Tap-to-Pay article.
Payment orchestration is a solution for merchants facing today’s complex payments environment. Centralising and streamlining various payment methods and providers into a single system simplifies transaction management, reduces costs, and enhances operational efficiency. Merchants can benefit from improved business continuity, better visibility into transaction data, and optimised payment routing, which can increase revenue and smooth the checkout experience. Despite its advantages, payment orchestration is not without challenges. The centralisation of payment processes can create a single point of failure, and implementing such a system can be costly and complex. Compatibility issues and data security concerns also need to be addressed. Additionally, while payment orchestration excels in digital and ecommerce transactions, its adoption in physical retail and POS systems remains limited.
Ultimately, while payment orchestration holds great promise, businesses should carefully evaluate whether its benefits outweigh the potential downsides and determine how to integrate it best into their operations to stay competitive.
This editorial piece was first published in The Paypers' Global Ecommerce Report 2025, which provides a complete overview of key trends and strategies to help businesses worldwide succeed. Download your free copy today to explore in-depth insights on global ecommerce trends, the latest innovations in payment solutions, and strategies to stay ahead in a competitive market.
Leading the European payment practice at Redbridge, Gabriel has been providing strategic advice to international and multichannel merchants in their payment transformation and optimisation journeys since 2020. He previously worked for four years as Chief Operating Officer at a France-based Electronic Money Institution (EMI) specialised in alternative payment methods.
With 15 years of experience in payments, Chaira joined Redbridge in 2022 to help bring the payment practice to the next level. After a few years working as a payment consultant, she worked at Visa for 10 years as a Fraud Manager and Business Analyst.
Redbridge Debt and Treasury Advisory is a leading financial management partner to corporations around the globe. It is committed to providing each client with all the information required to make the best decisions and optimise their financial performance. Redbridge’s teams are located in Houston, New York, Paris, Geneva, and London.
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