Why consolidated multi-acquiring makes a tangible difference to your bottom line

In a world where merchants are looking for methods to improve their bottom lines, better payment processing solutions may present the easiest opportunity to increase profits. In case you were unaware, payments are very local by their nature. Each nation has its own language, culture and technology surrounding the way payments are processed.

Therefore, without local processing partners in place, you’re going to struggle to maximize conversions and approvals, never mind gain a foothold in new markets. However, with consolidated multi-acquiring, merchants can secure the advantages of having a global reach while reaping the benefits of connecting with local acquirers, boosting their bottom lines.

What is consolidated multi-acquiring?

Consolidated multi-acquiring refers to building a network of acquirers that, together, provide payment processing coverage right across the globe. This multi-faceted network is then consolidated into one single integration which routes all merchant transactions, regardless of location.

Since it is the acquirer that is processing the payment on the merchant’s behalf, it’s vital that a merchant uses a payment provider that automatically connects the payment to the acquirer best-suited to handling that particular type of transaction.

A multi-acquiring solution allows you, as the merchant, to process payments anywhere in the world while benefiting from the local knowledge, customs, and technology used by local acquirers.

Merchants benefit in several ways from using one central integration to access a decentralized global network, higher transaction approval rates chief among them.

Multi-acquiring helps boost transaction approval rates

One of the most significant benefits of this strategy is that it uses local acquirers, which dramatically increases the chances of payments being approved.

This is down to several factors. For a start, an acquirer local to a transaction is likely to be more familiar with the currency used by the issuer than an international acquirer operating in an overseas market. Secondly, local issuers, payment gateways, and local acquirers share more information than they do with foreign entities. This increased information exchange makes the likelihood of approval increase.

Local acquirers are also much more accustomed to payment methods favored within their region. In many countries, credit and debit card payments lag behind either legacy or emerging technologies as the preferred way to pay for goods and services. A multi-acquiring solution routes the transaction to the acquirer best equipped to deal with that particular payment method, thus improving its chances of being approved.

Better yet are payment providers such as Nuvei that develop relationships with multiple acquiring institutions within each locality, cascading routing flows for secondary approval if a transaction is unsuccessful. In fact, Nuvei’s revenue optimization engine automatically determines the optimum route based on parameters such as currency, payment method, location, amount, date, and time of day, to name but a few.

By contrast, a centralized international acquirer will not be able to recover a transaction that has been declined, which hurts merchant revenues.

Multi-acquiring helps keep payment processing costs down

One of the drawbacks of using international acquirers is that they charge a fee for cross-border payments. For example, a UK-based merchant using a single international acquirer will be charged a processing fee for every transaction coming from Mexico. In addition, certain regions prefer to use local card schemes than the more recognized ones, Mexico being a classic example where more than 80% of transactions use local card schemes (Prosa, e-global) instead of the more recognized ones.

Currency conversion costs are a further disadvantage of using non-local acquirers. Many merchants processing international payments miss out on revenue because of poor exchange rates offered by acquirers and banks. In some cases, they may outright refuse to process a certain currency.

If this wasn’t enough, in certain countries local issuers may apply additional cross border fees to their cardholders when their transactions are processed by an international acquirer. This is harmful to the merchant’s revenue and reputation – the charge can be up to 1.5%, which can lead to customer complaints and chargebacks.

An all-in-one multi-acquiring solution is a solution to all these problems. Transactions are more likely to be approved, merchants can settle in local currencies at their correct value, and they also benefit from lower processing fees – all by using a payment processor that connects them to a local acquirer.

Consolidated multi-acquiring facilitates frictionless entry into new markets

One of the most significant barriers facing merchants that want to expand their operations to new territories is their payment infrastructure. At least, that used to be the case. Nuvei’s global multi-acquiring solution takes care of the entire back end of a payment system, setting merchants up to expand easily.

For instance, let’s say you’re looking to expand your operation from the EU to the expanding LATAM e-commerce market. Nuvei has existing relationships with a range of LATAM-based payment partners, so with one integration you will be connected to a network of local acquirers, payment gateways, and card schemes. You’ll be able to begin processing payments almost immediately.

This is not possible with a single international acquiring institution, or even several independent acquiring solutions. Even if they do process payments in a given region, they are still international – merchants still have to pay the increased fees detailed earlier.

Choose Nuvei’s end-to-end solution to connect to local acquirers all over the globe

Nuvei’s all-in-one solution is one of the easiest ways to increase revenue – it gives you access to a ready-built, international network of more than 200 acquirers.

The system is entirely acquirer-agnostic, achieving industry-beating approval rates by automatically routing each transaction appropriately. It is a full-stack payment service that is continuously developing, collecting and connecting new features and integrations.

If you would like to learn more about how Nuvei can help you to boost profitability and scale your business, don’t hesitate to contact me directly to discuss your specific payment challenges in more detail.