Ecommpay webinar key takeaways – Making payments a profit centre

Irina Ionescu, Senior Editor at The Paypers, uncovers the key takeaways from the latest webinar featuring Ecommpay on how ecommerce brands are reshaping their payments strategy to boost growth, reduce costs, and enhance customers’ journey.

Payments are shifting fast and the merchants winning today are the ones leveraging every aspect of payments to drive revenue and not just reduce friction.

The Paypers recently held a webinar featuring experts from Ecommpay, FitFlop, Kinguin, and Retail InMotion on how leading merchants turn payments into a profit driver, focusing on revenue recovery, routing options, flexibility in payment strategy, and fee efficiency. By leveraging data – including AI and LLM insights – merchants cut fraud, reduce costs, and improve authorisation, which, ultimately, leads to revenue recover and an enhanced customer experience. The discussion, moderated by James Wood from Eris Intelligence, explored findings from a comprehensive whitepaper examining how merchants change their payment operations. With cross-border ecommerce set to grow three times faster than domestic transactions in the following five years, the stakes are now higher than ever for leveraging the true potential of payments.

Finally, the discussion also provided the audience with practical steps on how to turn payments into a long-term growth engine. If you’re keen to find out more, below you can find summarised the key takeaways of this webinar.

The strategic imperative and the C-suite engagement

A striking point in the conversation revealed the critical importance of executive-level engagement with payments. Micheal Egan, Global Head of Payment Operations at Retail InMotion stated that successful payment transformation requires three fundamental elements – education, data, and collaboration. The main challenge is educating C-level executives about the strategic potential of payments, moving beyond technical jargon to prove clear business value. Moving forward, Adam Sherlock, Fraud and Payment Manager at FitFlop, stated that there is a perception gap between customers’ understanding of how payments work when they click on a cart and the struggle of payment leaders to implement the necessary steps for a smooth shopping experience. Moreover, the same payment leaders must also actively promote their function’s relevance within their company through clear communication and presentations, which proves the complexity of implementing payments for top ecommerce platforms.

A poll conducted during the interview revealed a split among attendees, with 49% claiming their C-suite views payments as a strategic enabler, while 46% still see it primarily as a cost centre. This divide highlights the ongoing need for payment professionals to educate about their function’s revenue-generating potential.

Nurturing cross-functional excellence

Modern payment operations cannot exist in isolation. Panellist Faheem Bakshi, Payments Lead at Kinguin, claimed that payments function as a cross-functional team, working closely with product, finance, compliance, fraud, and marketing departments. This integrated approach enables companies to quickly respond to new market opportunities and customers’ needs.

At Kinguin, the transformation from a single payment service provider (PSP) model to a multi-PSP strategy with over ten providers exemplifies this evolution. As Faheem explained, the company moved payments from a cost centre to a profit centre where they try to negotiate more with PSPs for better commercials, introducing multiple PSPs, and creating revenue streams in both B2C and B2B models. And the importance of this cross-functional approach extends to talent acquisition also, as leaders look for specific skills when recruiting payment professionals, such as curiosity and passion. 

How payment orchestration shapes payments and the importance of strategic partnerships

Roy Blokker, Head of Strategic Sales and Alliances at Ecommpay, provided crucial market context, noting that European ecommerce is set to surpass the 1 USD trillion benchmark by 2030. In this environment, payment orchestration has emerged as a game-changing capability, constantly adopted by new merchants. Leading merchants are now leveraging multiple PSP partners to optimise performance across different markets and use cases, creating new revenue streams and securing their brand’s position into the global ecommerce ecosystem.

Moreover, the benefits of orchestration extend beyond redundancy. As Roy Blokker explained, the right partners can help save merchants up to 25% in transaction costs through better routing, optimised fees, and smarter operations. This approach also enables merchants to add local payment methods quickly, which is crucial when considering that three out of four customers will abandon a purchase if their preferred payment method is not available at checkout.

To emphasise on the importance of payment orchestration, Retail InMotion built their own payment gateway connected to more than 11 acquirers. Micheal Egan described how they leveraged this infrastructure to create a B2B revenue stream through a pseudo-payfac structure, demonstrating how sophisticated payment capabilities can directly generate new business opportunities.

Data-driven decision making and quick wins

Successful payment transformation relies heavily on metrics and benchmarking. Adam Sherlock outlined five primary metrics FitFlop monitors, which includes authorisation rates per payment method, full funnel conversion rates, 3-D Secure rates, top rejection reasons, and chargeback rates. These metrics are reported through weekly, monthly, and quarterly business reviews, ensuring continuous visibility and accountability. The importance of quick wins cannot be overstated in building momentum for payment transformation. Roy Blokker noted that quick wins matter because they earn trust, and they can include negotiating better terms with providers, optimising routing strategies, adding preferred local payment methods, or automating back-office processes such as chargeback disputes and reconciliation.

One compelling example came from Blink! Pet Foods which managed to lower their fees by 12% simply by negotiating to a higher volume contract with their acquirer. These immediate improvements show value to stakeholders and generate momentum for larger strategic initiatives as a corporate level.

Navigating global expansion challenges

With cross-border commerce growing rapidly, payment leaders must address unique challenges regarding foreign exchange, local payment preferences, and regulatory requirements. To do so, Kinguin has created local IBANs and have sellers that are paid in local currencies.

Moreover, the complexity of global payments underscores why partnerships are essential, as no single provider can master all of payments’ layers – cross-border transactions, fraud prevention, foreign exchange, and local payment methods. All these layers require specialised expertise and this reality determined merchants to work with multiple partners to preserve independence and maintain power in negotiations. 

Conclusions

The transformation of payments from cost centres to profit centres represents one of the most significant opportunities in modern ecommerce. As the webinar panellists concluded, success requires more than just technical excellence – it demands strategic thinking, cross-functional collaboration, and relentless efforts of demonstrating business value.

With emerging trends like agentic commerce potentially representing one in five transactions by 2035 and alternative payment methods expected to surpass cards’ reign before the decade’s end, the payment landscape is evolving at an unparalleled level. Companies that elevate payments to a strategic function will be the ones best positioned to capitalise on these opportunities in the future.

Finally, industry leaders stress that payments are about driving growth, enhancing customer experience, and creating competitive advantages. For merchants willing to invest in the right people, partnerships, and platforms, payments will become a powerful engage for profitable growth in a digital-first world.

Want to find out more? Watch the full webinar recording on demand!

 

About the author

Irina is a Senior Editor at The Paypers, specialising in fraud and online payments. Leveraging her Ph. D. in Economics and a strong economic academic background, she constantly observes new developments in tech, innovation, and regulation, educating the audience about trends in fraud prevention, chargebacks, scams, social engineering, digital identity, GenAI, and ecommerce. You can reach out to her via LinkedIn or email at irina@thepaypers.com.

 

About Ecommpay

 

Ecommpay is an inclusive global payments platform designed to help businesses grow. We make online payments as smooth as possible. We’re more than just a provider, we’re business partners dedicated to keeping our clients’ payments flowing, helping them make the most out of every transaction. We offer global and local acquiring, over 180 payment methods, payments processing and orchestration on one platform and via a single API.