Retailers and hospitality providers are facing unprecedented changes in payment acceptance. With more payment methods and channels available than ever before, the complexity of managing these options has also risen, while consumer expectations have grown as well. As a result, payments acceptance has become increasingly important, highlighting the need for a unified payment processing platform.
The starting point for merchants is to establish a unified payment acceptance architecture that supports both face-to-face (F2F) and customer-not-present digital payments. This enables transactions to be processed across all sales channels including in-store terminals, kiosks, self-checkout units, ecommerce sites, mobile apps, contact centres, interactive voice response systems, and unattended locations. New sales channels like social commerce, smart digital assistants, and electric vehicle charging points are also gaining prominence. Smart transaction routing across channels has become a critical capability. By removing channel silos, merchants can achieve greater efficiencies, improve the customer experience, unlock new opportunities, and gain better insights.
Customers are increasingly switching between sales channels during their purchasing journey. They may begin a shopping journey online or via a mobile app but then complete the purchase in-store. Equally important is the ability to efficiently process refunds for online purchases, whether in-store or at any payment point.
Adding to the complexity is the need to manage changes to a shopping basket during the journey or transfer the basket between channels. New cross-channel use cases are continuously emerging, such as "try and buy" and "scan and go", further emphasising the need for a unified processing platform.
Some enterprise merchants prefer the flexibility to choose a different acquirer than the provider of their omnichannel payment processing platform, especially when operating in multiple geographic regions. To accommodate this, we’ve designed our solution suite to either work with our in-house acquiring service, which now includes a UK FCA-licenced service, or connect with 30 local and cross-border acquirers, a model we call “à la carte”. The technical complexity primarily lies at the gateway integration layer rather than the back-end acquiring service.
While card payments – particularly contactless – still account for most in-store transactions, digital wallets like Apple Pay and Google Pay are increasingly gaining popularity, both in-store and for ecommerce sites. Additionally, merchants are recognising the advantages of supporting local card schemes, such as girocard and Cartes Bancaires, through direct connections rather than relying on international card networks. The rise of Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) across more merchant categories is another example of an APM that must be supported.
Account-to-account (A2A) payments are widely used in many continental European markets, and demand is growing in other regions due to lower merchant fees, faster funds settlement, and fewer chargebacks. Popular local A2A payment methods include iDEAL and BLIK.
Open Banking, a modern variant of A2A, is currently attracting merchant attention, especially for Variable Recurring Payments (VRP) for those offering subscriptions or implementing recurring transactions.
Unified payment processing must therefore support card payments, A2A, and Open Banking to avoid creating new silos or duplicating systems and payment providers. This ensures a consistent user experience across channels—a concept we refer to as “omnichannel on steroids.”
Merchants understand the tremendous value that data can provide, which is why Clive Humby famously described it as the “new oil”. However, its true value remains limited unless all transactions are consolidated. This then allows a single view of customer activity and helps prevent fraud losses. A unified payment processing platform delivers improved management reporting through a digital portal, simplifies reconciliation, and reveals valuable insights.
Merchants now have access to a broad range of payment service options. When provided as part of a unified payment processing platform, these services perform more efficiently. Examples include Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC) to increase revenues from international shoppers and loyalty reward programmes to boost customer retention and engagement.
The importance of advanced fraud prevention services has grown due to the rise in criminal activity. Network tokens (NTs) are the latest technology that merchants should be implementing, and they work best in a unified payments environment. NTs offer superior authorisation rates, enhanced protection, and lower scheme fees.
A unified merchant payment processing platform delivers many operational efficiencies, cost savings, enhanced data security, and improved management reporting and customer insights. Removing channel silos and consolidating systems makes supplier management easier and cheaper, improves customer support, and accelerates the introduction of new payment options and technologies. That is why merchant demand is growing. At Worldline we call this “one commerce” and look forward to discussing its potential with enterprise merchants across Europe.
Pavel Polechtchouk is a Senior Solution Consultant at Worldline with over 15 years of experience in the payments industry. He specialises in developing optimal payment strategies and solutions for large European retail merchants.
Worldline helps businesses of all shapes and sizes to accelerate their growth journey – quickly, simply, and securely. With advanced payments technology, local expertise, and solutions customised for hundreds of markets and industries, Worldline powers the growth of over one million businesses worldwide. Worldline generated EUR 4.6 billion in revenue in 2023.
Every day we send out a free e-mail with the most important headlines of the last 24 hours.
Subscribe now