Localized Payments Help Fashion eTailers Boost Cross-Border Sales

Crafting streamlined eCommerce checkouts for international customers requires merchants to tailor their payments experiences to the needs and preferences of each market. That means enabling customers to pay with their preferred, trusted payment methods and currencies. Achieving this can be a heavy lift for businesses, however.

Merchants typically turn to integrations with different payment service providers (PSPs) to enable them to offer wider arrays of payment options. Managing a slew of PSP integrations is no easy or quick task, but businesses can turn instead to payment orchestration platforms (POPs) to ease the way. Through forging one integration with a POP, eTailers can get access to a variety of PSPs, enabling the merchants to accept many different local payment methods without intensive work. POPs can also provide merchants with other, related assistance like risk analysis and support for managing transaction flows.

The inaugural issue of the Payments Powering The Platform Economy Report examines the role of payment orchestration platforms in helping merchants extend compelling purchasing offerings to international customer bases. The report also dives into the need for localized eCommerce payments and how platforms can ease digital merchants’ cross-border sales.

Around The eCommerce Payments World

Consumers staying at home are more dependent than ever on eCommerce to get the goods they need. China, the first country impacted by the coronavirus, thus serves as an example of how the pandemic may shift economic trends — such as by accelerating the push toward eCommerce. James Huang, regional vice president of greater China for cross-border payments platform provider Payoneer told PYMNTS recently that consumers who switch to digital purchasing during the pandemic are likely to retain these habits even after they become able to visit physical stores again, which makes it critical for businesses to get their eCommerce setups in order.

All eTailers need to provide convenient digital shopping experiences, but convenience cannot come at the expense of security. Gary Sevounts, chief marketing officer at eCommerce-focused fraud management and identity verification solutions provider Kount, recently discussed this issue with PYMNTS. Fraudsters are leveling up attacks to take advantage of the rise of online shopping and so businesses must be extra vigilant. Merchants can use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to help detect and thwart account takeovers and other attacks, however, Sevounts explained.

Find more about these stories and the rest of the latest headlines in the Tracker.

How Zalando Enables Localized Payment Experiences For Cross-Border Shoppers

Merchants need to offer the right payments options to appeal to customers in different geographic markets. That can mean supporting localized methods for eCommerce payments, such as paper invoices in Germany that are delivered alongside parcels and credit card acceptance used in online checkouts for customers in the United Kingdom. Effective eTailers must identify the right payments mix to appeal to customers in all their target markets, according to Rick Centeno and Kai-Uwe Mokros, payments directors at Germany-based fashion retailer Zalando. In this month’s Feature Story, they discuss identifying the payment instruments and timelines needed to encourage sales across Europe.

Deep Dive: Powering Global eCommerce With Locally Focused Checkout Experiences

Consumers are facing stress in many areas of their lives due to the pandemic and have little appetite for the added strain of confronting friction-filled experiences online. Customers demand payment instruments that are easily available and trusted in their locations and for prices listed in their own currencies. This month’s Deep Dive examines these and other factors that international eTailers must take into account when crafting purchasing experiences for customers worldwide, and how payment orchestration can help businesses meet these needs without becoming overburdened.

The Payments Powering the Platform Economy Report, a Payoneer collaboration, provides an in-depth examination of how digital payments platforms can aid merchants in overcoming barriers to securely expanding their eCommerce operations worldwide.