Innovate and Integrate to Accumulate: Investing in Payments Systems to Drive Growth

Today’s merchants face numerous challenges, which boil down to one central issue: how to succeed in a constantly changing, complex market, while also investing for the future.

Merchants need to deliver on growing expectations around the customer experience in an increasingly competitive environment, while battling growing costs and squeezed margins. This pressure extends through the whole business for every merchant, in every sector, and it’s driving merchants to look into every corner of their operations for ways to cut costs and redirect resources.

Taking Payments and Fintech for Granted? (A Lyrical Edition)

Based on a very quick search of the Googles, there are 128,014 songs that contain the lyrics “take for granted”— from the likes of Mary J. Blige, Social Distortion, Madness and Frank Sinatra as well as countless other great (and not-so-great) crooners. And that would make for a sizable Spotify playlist… and I do love my Spotify playlists (I’ve been on a Wham! kick lately).

Instant + Open Payments = A Winning Combination

I recently joined a panel discussion at EBAday 2018, alongside representatives from across the payments ecosystem, and the clear consensus was that real-time payments will be the new normal. This was evidenced by some of the interactive polls carried out.

Choice and Flexibility Help Digital Entertainment Merchants Catch Their Customers

Gaming and Digital Entertainment is one of the fastest growing verticals within the broader merchant sector, as boundaries continue to blur. Many forms of entertainment that once only took place in the physical world, or through the purchase of physical goods, have gone fully digital – with significant ramifications for businesses that provide payments services to suit a wide range of merchant needs. I spoke with Andy McDonald, ACI’s vice president of merchant payments, to find out more.

The Telco Transformation Tight Rope: Balancing Risk and Reward

In a previous blog post, we looked at the towering mobile payments opportunity for those MNOs and MVNOs that can build customer trust and convenience through innovation to become a digital marketplace.

But, it is safe to say that while the digital marketplace model could be a real opportunity for telcos, taking this route is not without some risk.

Consumer Payments: Will ‘Request for Payment’ Be the Next 'Big Thing'?

This week, NatWest announced that it has teamed up with British mobile phone retailer Carphone Warehouse to trial a new online shopping system that lets customers pay directly through their bank account, without using a debit or credit card.

Money20/20 Europe: A Payments Extravaganza and a (figurative) Carnival of Sorts (to borrow from R.E.M.)

According to the Googles, “payments” translates as “betalingen” in Dutch. And if I’m using the word correctly, betalingen is on full display! Last week, Amsterdam brought many highs (and not of the stereotypical Amsterdam variety), very few lows (Antonio Banderas as a no-show, unexplained flight delays both departing and returning), a couple of surprises (Stu co-winning the Payments Race, celebrating Mark’s fake birthday) and some great memories. In addition to our presence at the ever-lively Money20/20 Europe, we hosted a corporate event commemorating our 20^th anniversary in the Netherlands—welcoming regional ACIers and customers alike (and enjoying a most densely delicious and decorative cake).

A Rocky Mountain High on Payments Innovation

We were so high last week; in fact, we were a figurative mile high… in sunny Denver for our annual ACI Exchange user conference. And among the myriad highs during the week was our own ‘Un-conference,’ which generated major buzz that sparked an enormous appetite for some tasty innovation. Some of the ideas generated included the following:

Telcos Must Walk Before They Run When It Comes to Mobile Payments Innovation

The mobile payments market is growing fast, fueled by technological innovation and consumer demand. With each consumer predicted to own, on average, nine connected devices by 2021, there is no doubt that we can expect to see an exponential rise in the number of devices and applications used to make mobile payments over the coming years.

The Merchant Balancing Act: Operational Costs vs Customer Experience

There is no excuse any more for a poor payments experience, but retailers are tasked with a delicate balancing act – not only balancing payments fraud and friction, as we explored in a recent blog post – but also cost and customer experience. With many areas of the business competing for resources, should retailers be cutting costs when it comes to payment acceptance, or focusing on delighting the customer through innovative payment experiences?