At the heart of economic change
As the global economy progresses towards digital, it affects countless businesses and shapes the daily lives of millions across the world. While driven by vision and revenue, most digital economy trends are rooted in and reliant on technological capacity. The payments industry is a core element of any change happening in the economy today, providing a backdrop for digital transformation, facilitating customer-centered service development, powering current business models, and enabling new ones.
About payment gateways
What the payments industry is to the economy, payment gateways are to the payments industry. Allowing businesses to accept payments online, they are a tool that fulfills the core objective of virtually any commercial project: to get paid.
In general terms, a payment gateway is a part of a merchant's customer-facing interface designed to collect transaction data and share it with the merchant’s acquiring bank for processing. Depending on the application, payment gateways can work with online or offline touchpoints, as well as a combination of both. Different modes of operation are achieved through adopting different payment scenarios and pairing with various external services.
Underneath the surface, payment gateways are used to store, arrange and edit the transaction and account data. They also act as a convenient analytics tool, aiding data-driven decision-making. The overall functionality is normally defined by the specific use case combined with the level of detail provided by the payment service provider (PSP).
‘How a payment gateway works’ – schematic showing the main elements in a payment solution that involves a payment gateway: merchant, ecommerce store, payment service provider, various types of integration]
A case for customisation
A payment gateway that ‘just works’ is, by all means, a good starting point. In fact, some businesses might find that a well-built basic payment solution is all they may ever need for their purposes.
However, the booming ecommerce, mass digitisation of the service ecosystem, and growing customer expectations suggest both increased competition and a new set of business and technological requirements.
Besides, businesses often find they need to pay closer attention to their branding in order to stand out from the crowd and build more meaningful relationships with clients and prospects.
Payment gateways, being a critical part of the user interface both visually and functionally, are pressed to follow the lead and anticipate more options for customisation. The ability to deliver custom payment solutions in a busy market determines whether a business is able to adapt and push for success in the way of:
Innovation;
Business logic optimisation;
Regulation compliance;
Security;
Compatibility and integration;
Customer satisfaction and loyalty;
Competitiveness;
Relevance;
Brand awareness.
Blockers
There is a conundrum though. Regardless of the growing demand, most businesses are unable to develop their own custom payment solution from scratch. This is mainly due to the resource-heavy development and maintenance. To illustrate, some of the building blocks include:
An extensive team of highly qualified payment IT professionals;
Costly, complex, and time-consuming development and maintenance, as well as integration with the main global payment schemes (aka. Visa/Mastercard);
Multiple system set-up, such as server infrastructure and development environments;
Intricate payment- and account-data bulk automation;
Difficult-to-automate customer onboarding and compliance procedures.
White label
Market-ready white label services allow you to customise a ready-made solution until it matches your unique set of requirements. It can then be launched under your own brand in a matter of days, compared to months of iterative development, testing and calibration in the case of building a new service.
A good white label payment gateway acts as a construction kit, enabling you to add or remove parts, adjust both the look and functionality, and integrate the solution into a wider network of services. The more flexible and well thought-through the solution is, the more readily it is altered to reach the following benefits:
Comprehensive solution
When set up correctly, a white label payment gateway is a complete payment service covering the basic functionality, security features, as well as certifications and integrations necessary for a full payment cycle. This normally includes PCI DSS compliance, the most recent 3D Secure 2 version, integrations with various alternative payment methods, analytics and account management functionality.
Hassle-free integration
Depending on the region and market segment, a payment solution may be required to accommodate local legislation and market specifics by adding the necessary features and integrations.
White label payment solutions usually have a development team behind them, helping merchants and PSPs to mix and match business and technology partners, acquirers, payment schemes, processing centers, alternative payment methods, 3rd party services etc.
Future-proof innovation
The demand for innovation in ecommerce and fintech is obvious to anyone remotely familiar with the topic. The payments industry goes hand in hand with constant technological evolution, development of new types of services and payment paradigms.
Businesses are driven to revise their workflows and probe new market niches due to the increased competition, regular legislation updates, and growing customer expectations.
Whether you are looking to adapt your business to the changing circumstances or push the envelope, a reliable, innovative and scalable white label payment solution will help you align your operations with your long-term business values.
About Norberts Millers
Norberts Millers is the Payment Gateway Product Owner at DECTA. Norberts has been active in the payments IT industry for 7+ years, always eager to learn more about the client needs from various perspectives. He has carried his curiosity-driven approach through multiple roles - support, compliance, business analysis, and now product ownership. His in-depth understanding of the industry allows him to deliver modern payment solutions for a variety of clients, from small ecommerce merchants to major financial institutions.
About DECTA
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