What are single platform payments or unified payments?

In any region where your business operates, you have to make a slew of decisions about payment solutions: Who should handle risk and fraud? Which partner should act as an acquirer or payment gateway?

With so many players in the payment processing game, it’s difficult to decide how to deal withonline payments. A number of payment solutions claim a one-platform experience, but instead are a patchwork of legacy technologies that don’t work. And partial solutions create blind spots and lead to downtime along the chain.

A retailer weighs the benefits of a unified payment solution.

Trulyunified payment solutions, which stay consistent no matter where you do business, come with many benefits. Here are the top three.

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1: Improve flexibility and agility as a company

Today’s shopper demands more from every experience, and unless you are flexible as a company, that can be difficult to deliver. Improving customer experience means offering a dizzying variety of easy payment options. You have to accept online payments, mobile payments, offer flexible returns, and provide an endless aisle, which lets customers browse and order products not available in store. This means a seamless experience, giving people payment options on their own terms. Withone payment platform, the seamlessness is practically built in.

With traditional systems like banks, even though your time is money, you may lose a lot of it. That’s because banks move slowly and operate according to decades-old protocols. With a platform that is both a tech company and an acquirer, you get the benefits of a bank plus the speed of an agile startup that moves quickly to adapt to new scenarios. Another advantage of a single-platform payment solution: the online and physical retail worlds have officially merged. When your payment processor lives in both worlds, it gives your brand true omnichannel appeal.

2: Use payment solutions to save costs across the board

Plenty of companies don’t realize how quickly payments-related fees add up. For an American retailer doing business abroad, the tab can includeinterchangeand integrity charges, card scheme fees, and charges for payment terminals and other hardware. Keeping track of all this requires significant time from staff, who must study up on how charges are calculated. “If you’re selling handbags and shoes, you should focus on that, not the details of all these contracts and fees,” says Eric Mahecha, Adyen’s Vice President of Retail Business Development. “Payments are no longer a commodity. It should be a strategy.”

Using a single-platform payment solution means eliminating all those headaches. According to a 2018Forrester studycommissioned by Adyen, a business using one platform instead of several can minimize the following:

• PCI compliance and other regulatory fees
• monthly service charges
• dispute management fees
• terminal certification fees
• support fees

For an organization with approximately $2 billion (USD) in revenue, Forrester found that using one payment platform means a cost savings of 15 basis points per transaction and total savings of $5.8 million over a three-year period.

3: Make expanding easier

One of the hardest parts about doing business in a new corner of the globe is understanding local business climates and customs. Do most people pay online? Do they like shopping online as much as in physical stores? Instead of worrying about these questions – or whether people pay with Swiss francs or Brazilian boleto – you should be concentrating on big-picture issues.

Large companies sometimes dedicate as many as half a dozen staffers to handling payments in new markets. But using one payment platform means you can say goodbye to all that. With one company and one consolidated payment solution, your staffers can be reassigned to more impactful tasks.

In a 2018 Forrester study commissioned by Adyen, Forrester created a composite organization based on interviews with four Adyen retail clients. Prior to Adyen, the organization dedicated staff time to managing multiple payment partners in various markets, something it no longer needed after using Adyen.

The company realized 75% organizational efficiency in launching new payment solutions in new markets. Over 3 years, for an organization with approximately $2 billion in revenue, the company saved more than $600,000.

As a business owner, your options for payment processing may seem endless. But one thing is certain: using one payment platform to handle it can help you save costs, expand more efficiently, and grow your business from day one. Also make sure to check outbest practices for platform paymentsbefore you start.

Benefits of single-platform payment solutions

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