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and foreign bank fees. Merchants can pass through
payment options without dealing with multiple
banks and intermediating processors. And consum-
ers and merchants alike keep more of their own mon-
Don't leave alternative • Promote international credit, debit products
ey with every transaction.
payments on the table Merchants who accept only Visa, Mastercard and
American Express overlook equally important credit
By Dale S. Laszig and debit card brands in other parts of the world.
China UnionPay, the world's third-largest payment
DSL Direct LLC network after Visa and Mastercard, reported that it is
accepted in 100 countries besides China. Bancontact/
s merchants expand their global footprints, Mister Cash is a leading debit card issuer in Belgium,
many are surprised by the diversity of pay- and Brazilian prepaid card Elo stated it has a base of
ment methods across countries and continents. more than 50 million consumers.
A For example, Alipay is the leading payment
scheme in China, and bank transfers are more popular Studies have shown that customers who don't find
than credit cards in Germany. their top-of-wallet credit cards at checkout have a
higher risk of abandoning shopping carts. Direct ac-
"Retailers that use native currencies and payment methods ceptance of all major payment card brands eliminates
are impressed by how differently consumers transact in foreign transaction fees and reduces the risk of lost
other parts of the world," said Dmitry Savchenko, Chief revenue.
Executive Officer and founder of Payzoff, a global payment • Include prepaid products
gateway and SaaS platform. "Supporting these various Prepaid products are popular among numerous de-
payment methods can help business owners improve mographics and widely used in developing coun-
margins and rapidly scale." tries that lack traditional payments infrastructures.
General purpose, reloadable prepaid cards are also
While merchants may find it easy to attract shoppers a useful budgeting tool for banked and unbanked
from around the world to their sites, they've learned it's consumers. Consumers can obtain prepaid accounts
not nearly as easy to turn shoppers into buyers, especially without sharing personal information or credit his-
shoppers who don't find their favorite payment options at tory.
checkout. Some merchants would like to boost conversion
rates by accepting more payment methods, but have no idea Many prepaid products include value-added servic-
where to start. Others, who have successfully incorporated es, like currency conversion and loyalty programs.
hundreds of payment schemes into ecommerce sites, Prepaid schemes are not subject to interchange and
have described the integration as simple, affordable and are prefunded, which increases reliability and makes
adaptable. them less prone to chargebacks.
• Support mPOS and mobile wallet formats
Following are several approaches to helping merchants
expand their payment offerings. Mobile and virtual wallet usage is expected to ex-
ceed $3 billion by 2022, according to a recent study
• Partner with global payment gateways by Zion Market Research. E-wallets function in much
Merchants can work with global payment gateways the same way as physical wallets. Transactions are
to facilitate alternative payment acceptance. Soft- fast, secure and frictionless, eliminating many of the
ware developers and digital content providers can fees associated with traditional payment cards and
use available application programming interfaces to international transactions.
adapt global platforms for diverse industries, which Alipay noted that its e-wallet has no transaction fees
may include online subscription service providers, and is supported by Visa, Mastercard and 65 finan-
dating and gaming sites, social media, and donation cial institutions; its escrow feature enables consum-
carts. Many of these gateways also provide advanced ers to verify that they are satisfied with a product
analytics and risk management services to enable or service before releasing funds to a merchant. The
providers and end-users to assess the profitability global e-wallet scheme ecoPayz stated it supports 45
and performance of alternative payment acceptance. currencies in 159 countries and supports up to three
• Automate international compliance ecoCards in multiple currencies.
Accepting alternative payments can take the guess- • Facilitate real-time bank transfers
work and ancillary fees out of cross-border transac- A promising innovation, real-time bank transfers
tions. Consumers can confidently check out without leverage the secure credentials of online banking
worrying about delayed currency conversion rates accounts while keeping payment card data out of
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