Ecommpay has published a new white paper showing the role of payments professionals as profit generators, not just costs to a company.
Following this announcement, featuring research amongst a number of ecommerce businesses, the new white paper, which is entitled `Making Payments a Profit Centre`, explores the manner in which the payments function is being repositioned as a core driver of growth and development.
Furthermore, it is critical for ecommerce firms to adjust their thinking of payments as a cost centre, as payments have been seen as a cost to a business, rather than a revenue generator. According to officials of the company, a wide range of ecommerce retailers were interviewed for the new white paper in order to discover how they are improving customer experiences and driving profitability through the use of payments. Internal attitudes to payments were also being transformed, with many securing C-suite participation and developing cross-functional steering groups to elevate payments internally.
Ecommpay found that where perceptions of the payments function’s value within the organisation are changed, while new revenue streams are unlocked, the customer experience is optimised for the reach of long-term growth. In addition, gaining internal support also appears to be the single biggest factor in turning payments into profit.
Optimising payments for global growth and development
Included in the key findings of the white paper are:
- Gaining internal support, especially from C-suite executives, which represents the single biggest factor in turning payments into a powerful driver of profitability.
- Spotify sees payments as fundamental to the customer experience, as it works with external partners to optimise performance.
- Blink Pet Foods found that the process of investing in the payments function is incrementally more rewarding than other opportunities.
- Outsourcing has the possibility to save 12.5% on account-to-account transactions and reduce manual work by 520 hours/year.
- Leveraging Large Language Models for fraud detection and dispute resolution has the opportunity to lead to fewer false positives and 60% faster fraud identification.
- Optimising routing and fee calculation can deliver up to 26% savings on several debit card fees.
Furthermore, cross-border ecommerce is expected to continue its rapid development trajectory, with some predicting it will accelerate almost three times as fast as overall online business. With this in mind, it is vital that the role of the payments function is recognised for its contribution to the overall business success.
In addition, the companies and businesses that were interviewed for the Ecommpay report place payments in a range of different functions, but all agreed that the active participation of C-suite executives optimises repositioning how payments are seen internally, while also making delivering change a lot easier. At the same time, C-suite participation would mean more than achieving buy-in and regular reporting, as it means an active role for C-level executives in steering committees and groups dedicated to payments.
Contributors to the research included Spotify, Blink Pet Food, the Vendorcom payments community, as well as sustainable fashion retailer Finisterre.
