When launching a digital business, many companies lean toward a DIY approach when it comes to handling payments. Integrating with platforms like Stripe, Adyen, or PayPal offers the promise of speed, flexibility, and control. This approach works well at first – but as digital businesses grow across borders, the landscape of global ecommerce becomes exponentially more complex.
Managing transactions, taxes, and compliance across diverse geographies is no longer just a payment challenge – it becomes a full-blown operational discipline. Consequently, what starts out as an efficient way to get to market fast often evolves into an unsustainable drain on time, resources, and focus.
That’s where the cracks begin to show.
For many companies, a DIY payment infrastructure feels like a natural choice. It offers autonomy, and in the early stages, it works. However, beneath that initial convenience lies a set of challenges that only intensify with scale. Among the most common are:
Setting up payment flows across regions requires more than just connecting a few APIs. Over time, businesses are forced to maintain a growing tech stack: gateways, fraud tools, tax engines, invoicing systems, compliance layers, and more. Scaling this infrastructure isn’t just complex – it’s expensive and resource-intensive.
Standalone setups often lack comprehensive fraud detection or chargeback handling. Companies end up stitching together multiple tools, which can leave blind spots, especially when navigating international regulations. The risk isn’t just operational; it’s financial and reputational.
From reconciling multiple payment service providers (PSPs) to managing VAT/GST filings and delivering localised customer support, internal teams quickly become bogged down in non-core tasks. What was once a nimble setup becomes a bottleneck.
These issues aren’t hypothetical. Businesses that started with DIY setups frequently report being overwhelmed, especially when facing tax audits, chargeback disputes, and compliance updates in multiple markets.
It’s a recurring story: a company chooses Stripe or another PSP to launch quickly. Success follows. Growth accelerates. Then, the operational burden hits hard. They’re soon spending valuable resources on:
Navigating tax obligations across jurisdictions,
Chasing chargebacks and handling fraud manually,
Managing outdated code and compliance updates,
Reconciling payments across multiple currencies.
And, perhaps most significantly, they lose focus. Internal teams that should be building products, improving UX, or driving expansion are buried in back-office tasks.
Rather than pitching a replacement, the Merchant of Record (MoR) model emerges as a strategic upgrade – a framework that directly addresses the growing pain points of global ecommerce.
For many businesses, it’s not about choosing one path over another, but about smart coexistence. They continue managing payments in-house for well-understood local markets, while delegating more complex or regulated regions to a trusted MoR partner.
As the official seller, the MoR assumes responsibility for:
Payment processing and local compliance,
Global tax calculation, collection, and invoicing,
Fraud detection and chargeback management,
Regulatory updates and financial reporting,
Payout and reconciliation workflows.
The result: streamlined operations in the background, while your brand and customer experience stay front and centre.
Adopting a MoR model isn’t about losing autonomy – it’s about gaining resilience. It’s a move toward operational efficiency, reduced risk, and smoother international expansion.
A flexible MoR approach provides a clear path forward, whether implemented exclusively or alongside existing systems, especially for companies looking to:
Simplify cross-border commerce,
Stay ahead of tax and compliance risks,
Refocus internal teams on innovation,
Reduce overhead and eliminate redundancies.
Global ecommerce infrastructure isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution, and it shouldn’t be your team’s full-time job. In today’s fast-moving landscape, the smart choice isn’t building everything in-house – it’s partnering where it matters to unlock scale, efficiency, and peace of mind.
Is your current setup holding you back? Discover how the MoR model can help you scale faster, smarter, and with more confidence.
At Nexway, we handle:
Payment collection and management,
Global tax management and invoicing,
Fraud prevention and risk liability,
Reconciliation, reporting, and payout,
Regulatory compliance, everywhere you sell.
The best part? It’s seamless. You stay in control of your brand and customer experience, while we take care of the operational heavy lifting behind the scenes. Let’s talk about how Nexway helps digital businesses grow without the operational drag.
Lika Faiskanova is a Sales and Account Manager at Nexway, specialising in driving global growth for software and SaaS businesses. With experience across international sales and business development, she brings a sharp focus on growth and customer success.
Transform and scale your online business with Nexway, a global ecommerce and payment solutions leader. With over 20 years of expertise, Nexway optimises every aspect of digital monetisation for medium to large enterprises. From global payment acceptance to subscription management and tax compliance, our 360-degree approach ensures streamlined operations and global market expansion.
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