Boosting business with tokenisation

By Frederic Frizzarin, Head of Pre-Sales, Ingenico, a Worldline brand.

Online shopping is becoming increasingly popular, and it’s easy to see why. With a variety of products just one click away, and services such as next-day (or even same-day) delivery, customers can enjoy a seamless retail experience that fits easily around their busy daily lives.

As such, merchants are increasingly expected to cater appropriately. This isn’t just the case online – technology and innovation are reshaping the in-store experience too. Many consumers no longer carry cash, or even a wallet, relying instead on alternative payment methods such as mobile wallets integrated into their smartphone. It’s therefore prudent for retailers to consider how they can best provide a frictionless experience if they want to remain competitive and ensure conversions in this increasingly fast-paced world.

However, as payments systems have developed, data regulations have too. As such, retailers must also consider how they can achieve full data security while continuing to provide a seamless service  for the customer. Tokenisation is a great way to remain data-secure whilst also providing a frictionless experience fit for the modern customer’s needs. Let’s take a closer look at how tokenisation works, the benefits it can provide, and how retailers can implement it.

Tokenisation and a seamless experience for customers 

Simply put, tokenisation enables retailers to save customer details safely and securely. This means that if a customer returns to an online store, their payment details will already be stored, creating an easier, frictionless checkout experience.

How a customer will see tokenisation is in the form of a “remember me” button. In the background, Ingenico will save this raw payment data on secured servers, scramble the real details into a code, and send the “token” to the retailer. The merchant then links the token to the customer’s profile, eliminating the need for them to input their details into the same site each time they visit or make purchases.

Tokenisation is also important in-store, enabling the seamless interaction of an omnichannel shopping experience. For example, should a customer buy something in-store but then phone a call centre to make a return, the call centre will be able to track and refund their purchase by using the token generated during the in-store transaction. Or, for a click and collect purchase made online, tokenisation can enable a store to match up a customer with their goods by simply scanning their card details.

In short, tokenisation is a simple and secure way to improve the customer experience and ensure continued business alignment with consumer trends.

Rich data insights and other business benefits

Tokenisation allows retailers to store customer details online securely and enable speedy one-click checkouts, but that’s not all. It also enables businesses to boost their operations through data analysis which can help retailers source the origin and ending of the payment journey, for example, or track the percentage of online vs in-store sales.

Employing tokenisation also enables retailers to implement subscription and recurring payments services, further increasing convenience for consumers. With this service, customers only have to go through the payment system once to order frequently bought items. It can help improve customer reward schemes too, as all the valuable information gained from tokenisation helps retailers to keep track of and personalise the customer experience. This promotes customer loyalty and helps businesses continually upgrade their service to remain competitive.

Implementation

By partnering with a provider that can offer the right expertise in delivering payments processing, including tokenisation, in-store, online, via omnichannel solutions it means that they know and can assist retailers in knowing what customers need, as well as how to scale.

Taking advantage of this means retailers can provide a payment’s experience across channels that is fast, secure, and gives customers the ease of use to make the checkout experience as quick and easy as possible. It can also improve customer loyalty, incentivising customers to continue shopping with the same retailers, using tokenisation to provide a smoother, more intuitive customer experience.

To learn more about Ingenico, a Worldline brand, visit www.ingenico.co.uk/omnichannel.