Open Payments: The Next Generation of Payment Orchestration

After several arduous years of slow economic recovery in the global business sector, we are finally beginning to see a shift back toward the growth mindset. 

Operational excellence remains a requirement for continued survival, especially within the payments space — but how can this excellence be achieved today?

Recently, Spreedly’s President Peter Dougherty sat down with Karen Webster, CEO of PYMNTS, to discuss corporate mindsets shifting back to growth. 

Payments lie at the heart of growth, as an optimized payment system can play a substantial role in a business’s financial stability and management. While payment orchestration has proven to be a positive disruptive force in the industry, it too must evolve to keep up with evolving capabilities.

The rise of Open Banking in the UK and EU have started new conversations on the future of payments and payment orchestration, as the ability to share information with payment service providers becomes ever more flexible in the eyes of regulators. 

Join us as we reflect on Peter’s discussion with PYMNTS to discover the possibilities of open payments.

Dusting Off the Growth Playbook with Open Banking Payments

For companies getting back into the swing of operating internationally, opening lines of business in a new country can be an essential first step. To do so, however, you need to know a few key pieces of information, such as the banking and fraud rules in a given region.

If your last venture into international waters was several years ago, Open Banking may not have even entered the scene yet. As you shift your focus from cost containment back to financial expansion, you need to consider how Open Banking payments have impacted the payment space as a whole.

After all, determining the optimal payment methods for both your target customers and local suppliers and vendors within a specific area is vital to becoming an established business in a new location. 

As Peter puts it, facing the music of Open Banking is really about “being prepared for the unknown” and figuring out the best path to getting to market quickly. 

How Increased Data Access Calibrates Growth

So, Open Banking is the new normal, but how, exactly, does it support your business’s growth?

It all comes down to data sharing. 

Access to data belonging to customers and other businesses can give you a more precise picture of your diverse target audience. In the U.S., for example, consumers may be more eager to engage with merchants offering deals in the wake of ongoing interest hikes and financial hardship. Customers are looking for the path of least resistance that can also offer the greatest return, be it lower fees or heightened efficiency. 

When it comes to attracting customers to your payment experience, one vital factor to keep a close eye on amidst technological advancements is fraud. A decrease in fraud can equate to lower prices for customers, driving customer loyalty while also helping you hit your growth goals.  

Optimizing your payment mix can also play an important role in attracting customers in new regions. To win as much business as possible, Peter reveals that businesses must provide a “diverse set of payment methods” and ensure they can enter new markets without being tied solely to a single vendor. 

Speaking from the point of view of a business owner, Peter says:

“I want to have options. I want to be able to leverage the openness of a payments platform freely to be able to make the choices to build that best-of-breed payment stack to win in these new markets, to let me continue to grow.”

This thought process applies not just to new markets but to markets where your business is already established as well. What matters most is leveraging an open payments platform that gives you the “optionality to make the best choices without being tied to legacy integrations or contracts.” 

Wait, an Open Payments Platform?

Open payments represent the natural evolution of payment orchestration as it becomes more interwoven with Open Banking technologies. An open payments platform, like Spreedly, acts as a digital meeting place between the payment orchestration strategy and Open Banking capabilities.

As Spreedly itself adapts to the open payments approach, Peter notes the importance of being able to work with a diverse selection of brands and payment service providers:

“I think what’s exciting about our world as an open payments platform is we have that openness, that inclusiveness to work with the best brands in the world, the best technology companies in the world to provide a ton of value to our merchants.”

Rather than being the product itself, payment orchestration is now becoming a facet of the broader open payments approach. Payment orchestration provides you with the technical infrastructure necessary to streamline tasks like payment vaulting and fraud prevention. 

With your system optimized via payment orchestration, an open payment platform can take things a step further by providing the optimal environment for you to collaborate with specific payment service providers in new regions. Payment performance has become a fundamentally important piece of any merchant’s value proposition, making it vital to embrace open payments and the advantages it offers. 

“Success and failures happen in a fraction of a section.”

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A simple one percentage point difference in your approval rate can be the deciding factor of whether your business is cash flow positive, or being forced to raise capital. These days, it’s no longer enough to incorporate payment orchestration within a legacy payment system — you must consider how to implement a comprehensive open payment solution from the very start of your growth strategy. 

Spreedly’s Open Payments Platform Enables Quick Adoption of New Technologies 

At Spreedly, we change with the times. While payment orchestration was once our core service, we recognize the necessity of embracing open payments.

Building an open payments platform in-house requires substantial time, resources, and manpower that many growing businesses aren’t prepared to invest and manage long term.  Spreedly’s platform provides merchants with quick and easy access to modern payments technology, allowing them to build a best-in-breed payments stack. 

Talk with the Spreedly team today to discover the power of open payment capabilities. 

Download the Payments Orchestration eBook Below