Open API Architecture is Now a Prerequisite for Merchants
Tuesday, December 13, 2016
Posted by Wolfgang Berner to Secure eCommerce, Payments and Industry Trends
Share this:
Next generation merchants, including global players such as Uber and Airbnb, have built their success on openly accessible APIs and technologies that are constantly evolving to meet market needs. Because they have built their products and services on openness, they also expect an open technical setup from their payment providers. This puts pressure on payment providers to deliver state-of-the-art payment technology.
Open RESTful API architecture has now become a prerequisite, while other formats are effectively showstoppers, because they show that API vendors are not able to keep their API up to date. The open environment that is delivered by intuitive, RESTful API architecture is favored by developers who are looking for superior flexibility when creating innovative products. The advantages that are delivered by such an open technical setup mean that REST has become central to modern web solutions.
Software developers – regardless of whether they are on the merchant side or developing payment solutions for payment providers – have high expectations when evaluating a potential service. They expect the initial positive feedback in the first five minutes, the first success within 20 minutes, and a complete sketch for a solution within 45 minutes. If it does not deliver, the option will simply be discarded. Not being able to deliver the essential technical setup that is now expected can present a major obstacle to growth, and stop the pitch process for a payment technology provider before it has even begun.
The UP eCommerce Payments API reflects the shifts in market expectations that have occurred in recent years. A single, unified API ensures simple integration and streamlined processes, as well as automated merchant onboarding. We acknowledged, in the course of developing the API, that the technical platform alone is not enough. When an API evaluation is expected to yield results within minutes, it must be accompanied by intuitive and interactive tutorials.
Developers now expect interactive documentation that gives instant access to the payment system, and is capable of providing real-time feedback and showcasing the capabilities of the API. A 100-page PDF just does not cut it. Just as websites wish to maximize the conversion rate of online shoppers, interactive documentation needs to guide developers through the evaluation process and convince them that the API will deliver the tools they need. This is what we call “developer conversion," and this is a concept that we had in mind in developing our own developer documentation.
Related Blog Posts
What Will the World of Post-Pandemic Payments Look Like? [Dave Birch Q&A]
Dave Birch is a leading global authority on payments and digital identity, who is no stranger to predicting what the future of financial services has in store. After delivering the keynote presentation at our recent ACI Edge Virtual: Banks & Intermediaries, we gathered some insights from Dave on what the world of payments could look like, post pandemic.
The Rise of “Invisible Payments” in Latin America
For retailers throughout LATAM (and the world), driving sales and loyalty depends on keeping up with top payment trends, which are invariably driven by consumer demands. “Invisible payments” is an emerging trend that is already paying benefits for a host of retailers — and it could be a game-changer for Latin America.
Digital Payments in India: Delving into Diwali Festive Season Spending [Q&A]
While many retailers around the world have just entered their busiest period of the year – kicking off in earnest with U.S. Thanksgiving and the increasingly global phenomena of Black Friday and Cyber Monday – there are some markets where these busiest of periods have already occurred. An extended China Singles Day raked in roughly $100 billion at the start of November, while India’s festive season, culminating with Diwali in mid-November, was widely expected to witness strong growth of online sales in particular.
Do Merchants Have the Right Tools to Tune Their Engines for the Innovation Race?
2020 has been a year of many, many changes, across nearly all walks of life and business. One beacon of light is that these circumstances have pressed the digital acceleration button, in some cases advancing digital uptake and innovation by years, within a matter of a few months.
Confronting Disruptive Pressures in Issuing [Customer Q&A]
We are at the dawn of an industry overhaul. The banking industry is facing disruptive pressures on multiple fronts, but particularly in payments. More competition, increasing regulation, and growing consumer expectations, payment types and channels. Plus, for issuers, there is the additional challenge of remaining relevant and at the center of the customer relationship, which has never been more complex.
Strong Customer Authentication: New Rules Will Trigger Profound Changes in Many Organizations [Q&A]
One of the biggest industry issues for the payments community right now is strong customer authentication (SCA) – the new regulation for card payments, including card-not-present or eCommerce payments. This is due to come into force on December 31, 2020 in the EU, and on September 14, 2021 in the U.K. ACI recently brought together industry stakeholders for a webinar entitled Competition Versus Compliance: How an SCA Exemptions Strategy Can Grow Your Business. I spoke with these stakeholders about the challenges, but also opportunities, that SCA will bring to the payments industry.
The Two Sides of Payments Modernization in Asia: Real-Time and Financial Inclusion
Home to nearly 60 percent of the world’s population, as well as some of the most dynamic and diverse markets, the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region plays a critical role in shaping the world economy. The diversity of the region is also evident in its payments landscape, with almost every country forging its own path towards payments modernization.
The Fight for Fuel Customer Loyalty Is On
In 2019, price determined where 59 percent of consumers chose to purchase their fuel, and more than half opted to pay at the pump, preferring to simply pay for gas and go.
Payments Modernization in the Cloud: An Inflection Point in the History of Payments
Public cloud is one of the big buzzwords in payments right now. While a few years ago financial institutions were reluctant to embrace the technology, they are now among the most likely to do so. ACI discussed the topic of Payments Modernization in the Cloud during a recent webinar, moderated by Finextra’s Head of Research Gary Wright. Katrin Boettger caught up with the panellists — Ciaran Chu, head of cloud at ACI; Peter Hazou, business strategy leader at Microsoft and Lu Zurawski, practice lead, retail banking at ACI — about why the COVID-19 pandemic might be a further catalyst for the worldwide adoption of cloud technology.
From "Access to Cash" to "Access to Digital" – How Innovative Thinking Is Keeping SMEs Trading
With millions of people in London and the wider U.K. having endured lockdowns and restrictions, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a massive impact on our shopping habits. While some supermarkets have struggled to keep up with customer demand and social distancing rules, many small, local business have adapted to the crisis quickly, efficiently and in innovative ways. While supermarkets have run out of delivery slots, smaller businesses are now offering local deliveries whilst providing safe digital payments options. They are also selling goods that the big supermarkets have run out of because traditional supply chains have been interrupted.