By Lee Jones, Director of Sales – Grocery, QSR and Selected Accounts for Northern Europe at Ingenico, a Worldline brand

In a world undergoing rapid technological change and digital transformation to improve the customer experience and adapt to ‘the new normal’, the transition to the omnichannel approach has quickly become a business priority in the retail space.

By making the most of their physical and digital resources, merchants are seeking ways to adapt operations, up their game and innovate by adding modern and flexible payment systems at the core of their business. However, the intricacies of acquiring and ensuring a smooth payment experience still represent a huge undertaking nowadays.

Many brands are still managing thousands of transactions at one time or have a payments function that is set up separately per channel and/or geographical area. As they scale, they can easily sell on an international or global level with multiple acquirers, but this can increase risk when it comes to reconciliation or even jeopardise connectivity, which could result in multiple failed transactions and revenue loss over time. Therefore, it is important that they know how to take their business to the next level.

Challenging the status quo

As part of their journey towards long-term success and customer retention, brands are leveraging their payment data to optimise and grow their business across multiple channels. To remove complexities, merchants must look to the market for available expertise that offers centralised reconciliation, a single view, competitive rates for each transaction made and the facilitation capabilities to make the full payments process as easy as possible.

The result is a seamless payment solution with simplified integration and certification processing, along with eased reconciliation, fast settlement and zero disruption for retailers, meaning they can focus on what they do best: providing quality goods and services to their loyal customers. So where does advanced acquiring fit it?

Advanced acquiring is challenging the status quo by providing game changing payments technology to cover all in-store and online needs. With alternative payments becoming the norm in many countries, offering the preferred payment methods in those specific markets is vital to boost conversions and drive customer loyalty. However, the multiplication of payment methods across various channels requires a partner able also to process and centralise all these payment methods into a single platform and provide clear monitoring.

It is for this reason that the solution provides not only acceptance but also payments processing. Critically, this type of advanced acquiring offers increased flexibility for retailers, including consolidated reporting, pricing controls, and cross-border capabilities.

Having full visibility over the payments process will empower retailers to avoid having to deal with unforeseen fluctuations in consumer behaviour or transaction volumes, fraud risks and manage costs effectively, thereby increasing room for further growth and profit.

Optimising payments for growth through a single provider

When considering a payments strategy, it is important to choose a partner who is acquirer agnostic and has global expertise in payment technology, card acceptance and acquiring. This is because it provides the foundation for a consolidated payments system. Such partners provide merchants with the tools that help them manage business performance proactively, keep one step ahead of the game and serve their omnichannel customers, who are keen to buy whenever, wherever, and however they want.

This means that they will only need to work with the one provider for all their payment needs, safe in the knowledge that acquirer agreements will be managed on their behalf. The consolidation of all the entire payment flow with a single partner translates into significant cost savings for omnichannel businesses. The right provider should handle all complexities, freeing up their resources to enable them to differentiate in other business areas.

This is achieved through the latest advanced acquiring solutions. Those merchants that take advantage of such solutions benefit from trusted expertise to assist them in delivering their expansion strategy in their home market or across borders, as well as help them grow their footprint by offering the most relevant payment methods for their markets.

Regardless if companies want to accept payments online or in-store, they can benefit from an end-to-end solution to cover all their payments needs, improve cash management with some of the fastest payouts on the market, lower acquiring fees thanks to an acquiring engine offering best-in-class scheme fee model and keep track of their transactions and settlements into one unified omnichannel reporting solution.

In the evolving world of omnichannel commerce, businesses who will gain the competitive advantage are those who will continue to explore the ever-expanding possibilities for an improved customer interaction experience and tailored engagement through their preferred devices and channels.

As merchants are looking to ease their payments pain points by strengthening their core capabilities, finding reliable business partners and tailored solutions that solve their unique challenges is the only way to remain prepared and stifle competition.