Voice of the Industry

Redefining retail: payments shape the future of commerce

Thursday 1 September 2022 08:37 CET | Editor: Irina Ionescu | Voice of the industry

The transformation of shopping and payments sparked by the pandemic looks set to continue, says Ben Laluc, VP, Product, Digital Commerce Solutions at Cybersource. Cybersource’s 2022 Redefining Retail Report examines the challenges and opportunities accompanying that transformation and offers recommendations to retailers on how to capitalise on it.

 

Over the past couple of years, many people have adapted the way they shop, generally:

  • Placing orders online or on a mobile app for delivery or collection.

  • Paying in store using contactless, digital wallets, or self-service checkouts. 

  • At times, while out to eat, appreciated using QR codes to look up a menu, order before eating and simply leave the table when done.

On top of that, we have also entered the age of the mobile shopper. As our recent Global Digital Shopping Index revealed, mobile devices are increasingly at the heart of the way people like to browse, shop and pay.

So, what do these changes in the retail landscape mean for retailers? How can retailers take advantage to enhance the customer experience across their operations, and unlock more value? Here are some insights and recommendations from Cybersource’s 2022 Redefining Retail Report to help retailers make the most of this exciting phase in retail's evolution.

The value of experience

Retailers know full well that personalising the shopping experience is a powerful way to drive sales, especially in the digital world, where it can help boost conversions. But, as the end of third-party cookie support approaches, retailers will need to find new ways to gather intel about their customers and their history, habits, and preferences. 

One way to securely gather data in a way that personalises the experience for the customer and creates a frictionless check out is to use a token management service. The service connects payments, customer data, and other network tokens into a single proprietary network token to provide a 360-degree view of each customer's buying behaviours, across channels and card types. These insights can be later used to create enhanced experiences for customers online and in-store through personalised advertising, promotions, payment options, and more. All of which helps to foster customer confidence and brand loyalty.

To further protect their brand and grow market share, merchants will want to optimise every touch point in the customer journey. That requires an end-to-end management approach that extends beyond checkout to delivery and aftersales, in order to support customers objectives in terms of how they interact with merchants’ brands, online store, mobile app, and staff members.

New channels and opportunities

To avoid getting left behind, retailers understand they need to continue innovating. Aware that having a digital presence now goes beyond an ecommerce website and mobile app, many are looking to engage their audiences and accept payments across a wider variety of channels, including social media.

Increasingly seen as a sales channel in their own right, social media platforms have allowed brands to scale up at an extraordinary rate. Being creative with livestream shopping campaigns and themed online events has enabled retailers to open new purchasing opportunities within their wider omnichannel strategies. At the same time, retailers haven't forgotten about the importance of the physical store: staging live events in store, providing a showcase environment, having options for fast pick up and delivery calls for major transformation but are key approaches to enticing shoppers back to the high street. 

Cybersource can help retailers accept payments securely across multiple channels and devices. Our payment platform and integrated services make it quick and easy to add more payments options to meet customers’ demands and enable faster go-to-market. With a single connection to our payment platform, merchants can keep pace, no matter how fast or how far payment preferences evolve, or how many channels they want to sell through.

Fraud prevention

New opportunities inevitably bring new risks. When adding a new payment option, merchants must assess the associated risks and create new rule sets in their fraud prevention system, especially around security and validation. With the right tools and data, they can go beyond effective fraud prevention and optimise their fraud strategy to accept more good payments. This helps improve the experience for genuine customers and capture more revenue. 

Our Decision Manager fraud and risk management platform supports merchants’ fraud strategy optimisation by:

  • Providing advanced, data-rich machine learning and 260+ validation tests to automatically assess transaction risk and generate accurate scores.

  • Enabling them to create business rules based on channel, country, product line, and more.

  • Allowing them to test and refine new fraud rules and strategies before they go live.

  • Delivering an integrated dashboard for case management and review that helps merchants make faster, more accurate decisions.

The expertise and insight of our Managed Risk Analysts are invaluable to a merchant’s business as they adapt to evolving customer needs.

Seizing the opportunities

To take advantage of the exciting opportunities in today's dynamic market, retailers need to understand who their customers are, how people want to shop, and how payment methods are evolving. Working with partners like Cybersource can help retailers cut through the complexity and deliver the experiences that meet customers' expectations and help drive revenue. 

To find out more about the role of payments in redefining retail, download our report.

 

About Ben Laluc

Ben Laluc is the VP of product for Digital Commerce Solutions at Visa. His focus since joining in 2012 has covered customer success for Enterprise Merchants, Omnichannel solutions, and product leadership for point of sale (POS) and digital channels. Ben now leads a global product team focused on making it fast, easy and secure to accept payments in digital channels and increase merchants’ conversion rates. Prior to working at Cybersource, Ben has a background in business banking, marketing, and sales at the Societe Generale group, Michelin, and ATP. 

 

 

About Cybersource

At Cybersource, we know payments. We helped kick start the ecommerce revolution in 1994 and haven’t looked back since. Through global reach, modern capabilities, and commerce insights, we create flexible, creative commerce solutions for everyday life—experiences that delight your customers and spur growth globally. All through the ease and simplicity of one digital platform to manage all your payment types, fraud strategies, and more. Knowing we are part of Visa and their security-obsessed standards, you can trust that your business is well taken care of—wherever it may go.


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Keywords: ecommerce, ecommerce platform, online payments, payments , merchant, omnichannel, omnichannel payments solution, online fraud, fraud prevention, livestream shopping
Categories: Fraud & Financial Crime
Companies: Cybersource
Countries: World
This article is part of category

Fraud & Financial Crime

Cybersource

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