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Five Components of a Successful Global Payment Strategy

Five Components of a Successful Global Payment Strategy

At Nuvei, we believe that payment partners should do more than just facilitate safe and convenient transactions – they should work with their merchants / partners to accelerate their growth.

Throughout my 14 years at payment industry, I’ve personally seen merchants expand globally by making good choices with their payment partners – they reduced losses, reached a wider customer base, and took in revenue seamlessly. These gains were achieved by realizing that payment strategy has a direct impact on business success and adopting the right technology for their companies.

In 2019, we commissioned a research paper from payment consultancy Edgar, Dunn & Company. It confirmed that payment strategies bear a real impact on payment partners’ bottom lines; 78% of merchants surveyed reduced costs as a result of their payment strategy, and almost third saw their revenue increase by more than 10 percent. The paper concluded that “the payment strategy has been established as an essential tool in a merchant’s arsenal.”

So how can you take your payments to the next level? I’ve compiled what I believe are the five most important components of a successful payment strategy.

1. Cater to your target geographies

Localization is everything, and that becomes even more relevant when you expand to international markets. The last thing you want is for customers to bounce at the payment page stage because they don’t understand how to pay.

By knowing your target market – the language, the currency, the local payment preferences – you can remove international barriers. Specifically, your payment page should automatically detect the geolocation of a transaction and display the local language and currency accordingly. Needless to say, it should understand the needs of customers in all your target markets.

At the same time, your payment page should be flexible enough to allow customers to easily choose from a variety of languages and currencies.

Finally, user experience can be enhanced by tailoring the payment page to the region in terms of theme and appearance wherever possible.

checkout-screenshot

2. More payment options = more sales

Just as language and currency preferences vary across the globe, so do payment method preferences. We live in an era where a lack of flexible and secure payments methods results in enormous customer abandonment levels.

While credit cards are still the go-to-method of payment for many customers in Europe and North America, these preferences are changing. For example, some consumers do not have access to a credit or debit card, and others avoid using them because of online payment security concerns or fear of debt.

By the end of 2021, alternative payment methods are expected to account for nearly 55% of global e-commerce transactions, and it’s been shown that conversion rates can be improved by 30% be offering the top three payment methods rather than only one.

In short, it has become vital to provide consumers with choices.

A payment provider should be aware of customer preferences in a given region and in a given industry and should customize the payment process accordingly. For example, the best payment partners will offer services that analyze a shopper’s address, device information, and purchase preferences (amongst other data) in real-time, and tailor the payment experience for that shopper. Your payment provider should also continually analyze the situation for changes and be ready to adjust, because trends are constantly changing.

apms

3. Choose the right payment partners

As online payments become more complex, a successful payment scheme increasingly requires multiple relationships.

Our study shows that 94% of merchants have contracts with more than one payment partner, and of these, 82% have taken on more payment partners over the last 3 years. These findings demonstrate the evolving diversity involved in payment acceptance, particularly as merchants continue to grow.

It follows that the ideal partner offers a wide variety of connections to a global selection of acquirers, payment methods and risk management systems. It also provides reconciliation management, thinking ahead to a time in the future when your business needs are more complex. A multi-acquiring partner supports your business as it expands, even globally, via a seamless single connection, enabling full control over your entire payment funnel.

Here’s a basic checklist to get you started when choosing a new payment partner. Do they offer the following services?

  • Uninterrupted service, even during peak times
  • Security and compliance to regulation
  • Scalability
  • Diverse and adaptive payment methods
  • Transparency
  • Quick and simple integration
  • Optimized transaction features
  • Robust fraud prevention
  • Powerful back office

A full-stack payment solution will make online payments as seamless and efficient for your customers as possible, freeing you up to focus on your core business.

4. Provide a seamless, frictionless payment experience

Customer abandonment at the checkout stage is one of the most frustrating things that a merchant can see in their purchase funnel. However, you can take measures to minimize this, such as:

  • Offer an omnichannel checkout solution, which ensures that your checkout page functions properly across all devices and browsers.
  • Facilitate one-click purchases by saving credit card and alternative payment method information for later transactions.
  • Recover declined transactions by suggesting a second mode of payment in cases where the first has been declined.
  • Be integrated with Visa Account Updater and Mastercard Automatic Billing Updater, services that automatically update details of expired or updated cards.
  • Establish more control over customer behavior on your checkout page by testing and comparing different scenarios (A/B testing).

5. Take control over your payment processes

As you’ve probably already realized, your payment system should never be just set-up-and-forget. Payment networks and customer preferences are constantly changing, and you need to keep up – so a good payment provider will offer a back-office suite that supplies you with all pertinent data and gives you control over your payments.

For example, the Nuvei Control Panel allows you to retrieve payment data in a way which is convenient for you by scheduling reports according to your timetable and according to your chosen parameters.

But actionable insights are useless if you can’t take action. That’s why Nuvei’s back office lets you compare cross-provider transaction volumes, approve refunds, create subscriptions, and more. The system has comprehensive reconciliation services, especially relevant the more payment providers you use, and smart routing, which allows you to define optimized acquiring routes in real time with the help of an advanced AI prediction engine.

Conclusion
Our research and experience have shown that a successful payments strategy can have a major impact on the success of a business, but in order to do so it must fill many roles. Choosing the right combination of payment technology partners is one of the most important decisions a business owner will ever make.
Businesses do better when they work with a network of payment providers, ensuring access to multiple acquirers and taking advantage of additional features, such as business intelligence and fraud prevention tools. And if they want to perform on the global stage, an agnostic and intelligent payment system is an absolute necessity.

Optimizing your payments
Unsure where to start, or what’s best for your business? Contact us today and a payment expert from my team will help you construct a payment strategy that will help grow your business in the right direction for revenue growth.

 

Adi-Cahana.png (365×365) Stanimira Trencheva is Nuvei’s VP Client Relations, Digital Payments. She’s worked at Nuvei for fourteen years in various roles, including Head of Risk and Compliance and Operations Manager. Today, she manages a team of seven in the client relations department. Her team is responsible for strategic planning, account management, and the overall success of our SME partners. Hailing from Burgas, Bulgaria, Stanimara holds a degree in Italian philology and a master’s in business administration. In her spare time, she enjoys spending time with her family.

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