The Paypers' global overview of payment orchestration providers

Far from a fleeting trend, payment orchestration has swiftly emerged as an essential tool for merchants. In a bid to address the demands of consumers, both large ecommerce players and small businesses have taken measures to ensure a seamless payment experience as part of their offering, while concomitantly looking to manage the complexities associated with accepting payments across multiple geographies.

To succeed, businesses partner with payment orchestration platforms (POPs) – which help them manage their payments across multiple payment methods, gateways, payment service providers (PSPs), acquirers, and regions. Aside from their payment management benefit, POPs help with several other important aspects. For instance, when integrated into a business’s payment infrastructure, orchestration helps ensure payment security and compliance, decrease costs, and improve conversion rates. The latter is significantly important and beneficial, considering that in the 12 months ending July 2024, the average online shopping cart abandonment rate reached an impressive 73.9%. POPs also feature real-time data analytics and reporting services, which can highly benefit ecommerce players.

How the research was conducted

We know it is hard to come across a comprehensive database containing the main capabilities of POPs. That’s why we prepared an extensive infographic presenting information verified by the companies included. To showcase a clear image of each player’s offering, we reached out to them individually to learn:

1. if they offer acquiring services or are a subsidiary of an acquirer;

2. if they include fraud capabilities in their offering;

3. if they provide tokenization and whether it is proprietary tokenization, network tokenization, or both;

4. what their target groups are. 

The first criterion distinguishes between payment orchestration providers that offer acquiring services and those that do not. Given the revenue and reputational risks at play, the second one showcases whether or not the companies included offer additional fraud services. As cards are the most common payment method for ecommerce transactions, the third criterion is centred around the idea of tokenization – a key concept in the context of payments in general and orchestration in particular. 

Payment tokenization is defined as a way of replacing a customer’s payment information with a token. Depending on whether the token is issued by a card network or by a payment processor or gateway, one can further differentiate between network and proprietary tokenization. Network tokens are universally accepted, are automatically updated when the underlying card details change, and can help reduce costs, improve acceptance rates, and reduce fraud rates. Proprietary tokens are issued to protect customers’ data and enable merchants to stay PCI compliant. These tokens can usually solely be used in a particular payment ecosystem of the processor, and they are not generally transferrable.

Moreover, the infographic showcases one last important criterion, namely the target groups of the POPs featured. Whether you’re a merchant, retailer, PSP, fintech, or bank, you’ll be able to find at least one player whose offering is tailored to your specific needs. 

A separate section of our research features a regional overview of payment orchestration providers. To offer a clear picture, we’ve classified them based on their region of activity: Europe, North America and LATAM, APAC, and MEA.

To access the full infographic on payment orchestration providers and learn more about their key capabilities, download your free copy of the Global Ecommerce Report – Tackling Challenges and International Expansion with Strategic Partnerships.