Can Mobile Solve A City’s Transit Payment Challenges?

High transaction success rates can indicate an efficient payments operation, but keeping them high is no easy feat.

False positives, payment gateway malfunctions and incorrect data entry can all cause them to slip, running the risk that users may grow frustrated and take their business elsewhere.

This risk is even greater now that the pandemic has upended normal shopping behaviors, driving an increasing number of consumers online to shop and pay, with retailers having experienced a 14.8 percent year-over-year growth in digital commerce in the first quarter of 2020. The surge in eCommerce is making efficient digital payment options an important part of maintaining a healthy cash flow.

Among all the tools at merchants’ disposal to help accomplish this feat, smart routing is rapidly gaining traction. The latest Payments Orchestration Playbook explores how leveraging artificial intelligence (AI)- and machine learning (ML)-enabled smart routing techniques is helping merchants make the most of their payments systems, providing up-to-date data information on which payment gateways yield the highest transaction success rates and making decisions about how to process individual payments that much easier.

Across The Payments Orchestration Ecosystem

The pandemic is driving consumers online to shop and pay, and expansion of the payment gateway market shows no signs of slowing. It is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11.1 percent by 2027, when it will reach a total valuation of $87.6 billion.

As the demand for digital payments surge, however, the systems that used to keep them secure are falling short. Algorithmic tools designed before March are having trouble predicting consumers’ behavior during the pandemic, and some firms are upgrading their fraud screening systems so they are better able to predict consumer behavior. ClearSale, for example, is updating its app integration with Shopify to ensure merchants on its platform are equipped with strong fraud protection systems as cybercriminals continue to exploit the pandemic to their advantage, such as with COVID-19-related phishing schemes.

Still, other fraudsters are hoping to lure victims with false promises on payment efficiency. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission of the Philippines, for example, has issued a recent warning against Bitcoin Revolution, which is touting a transaction success rate of 99 percent.

For more on these and other payment orchestration news items, download this month’s Playbook.

Leveraging Payments To Unify The Transit Experience

As U.S. states continue to lift stay-at-home restrictions and other nations open their borders, demand is soaring for more touchless, seamless transit payments to help consumers navigate safely as they travel.

In this month’s Feature Story, David Block-Schachter, chief business officer at mobile app Transit, explains how standardizing payments portals can pro­mote a more unified transit experience and what it could mean for the future of transit.

Deep Dive: Smart Routing And Transaction Success Rates

Firms of all shapes and sizes are feeling the pressure to keep their transaction success rates high in the face of a pandemic-induced cash flow crisis. Smart routing systems, which provide real-time analyses of which payment gateways are best for each unique transac­tion, can help. This month’s Deep Dive details how.

About The Playbook

The Payments Orchestration Playbook, a PYMNTS and Spreedly collaboration, is a monthly report series examining how merchants can optimize their payments processes to satisfy customers and maximize their revenues.