The Top 3 Forces Accelerating Omnichannel

By Pete Rizzo (@pete_rizzo_)

With rapid development currently engulfing the payments space, one week can feel like one year. As a result, it can be difficult for merchants and retailers to understand when to best capitalize on a new idea that could propel their business forward.

Brent Warrington, CEO of Austin-based payment processor SecureNet Payment Systems, has watched omnichannel accelerate from an idea to an epidemic in just a few short years, and has seen firsthand how merchants can struggle under the weight of the new decisions that are transforming the point of sale. However, he does stress one thing: merchants need to begin making these tough choices.

“Multichannel, omnichannel, whatever you choose to call it, isn’t something that’s created as a new way to monetize the payments industry,” Warrington told PYMNTS.com in an interview. “This is consumer behavior.”

Warrington, who will speak today at Money2020 in a Panel entitled “Omni-Channel Payments: The Movement Away from Card Present & Card Not Present,” further supports his assertion by identifying three key factors that he believes are accelerating the growth of omnichannel:

1. The clear acceleration of software to the point of sale

2. Consumer studies continue that show consumers are embracing mobile

3. The U.S. EMV migration.

Warrington says SecureNet is helping prepare merchants for this transition by providing a robust solution that allows merchants to enable app store transactions, manage their inventory in an omnichannel environment, and ultimately, gain control of their own mobile ecosystems.

For more on how omnichannel is changing payments and how merchants should prepare, PYMNTS.com spoke to Warrington in an exclusive interview.

What Problems Does SecureNet Solve For Merchants?

To put it simply, we solve for friction with our merchants, whether it be horizontally or vertically. We’ve seen some pretty interesting plays over the last couple of years, in solving for friction vertically as we think about merchants who move into multiple channels whether it be online, offline or mobile.

What we see everyday when we work with our merchants is that there’s also friction that’s being created vertically across their businesses when they introduce multiple channels. At SecureNet, with our platform and our technology, we’ve figured out a way to solve for all this by offering them a complete end-to-end payment platform.

How Does SecureNet Respond To Mobile Questions?

The type of questions we get are really around how can we help them solve for multichannel, multiple providers that they have in their ecosystem. Merchants are dead focused on how to take friction out.

But, there’s another piece that comes with this friction and that is the economics. In some areas, for merchants, a multichannel strategy has become cost-prohibitive. So, by owning the platform and a single integrated solution, and offering complete access to all channels with one key, we’ve been able to not only help our merchants become smarter, help them innovate, own their own ecosystem, but taken significant expense out of their payment system as well.

Do Merchants Believe Omnichannel Is A Priority?

This has evolved so rapidly over the last few years, when we would see interest from some of our larger, enterprise merchants. They’ve always been focused on it, but they’ve been able to solve it through brute force and tremendous amounts of capital.

I think one of the things that we’re seeing here is that this is really accelerating and moved in all the way to the SMB. Every day our merchants come to us and they talk to us about how we can solve for this problem.

For Warrington’s full answers, as well as his predictions on what’s next for merchants and retailers operating in the omnichannel space, listen to our full podcast below.

*If you have trouble with the audio player above, click here.

Brent Warrington Chief Executive Officer, SecureNet Payment Systems

With over 18 years of experience in advancing commerce in the payments industry, Brent delivers skilled leadership for SecureNet’s growth initiatives and market expansion strategy as Chief Executive Officer.

Brent is an experienced industry leader, providing strategic direction for the evolution of multi-channel, seamless payments integration, as well as oversight of long-term strategy initiatives and the daily operations of all business divisions.

Prior to joining SecureNet, Brent played a vital role in a number of successful executive management teams including CEO of FundsXpress Inc., a successful online banking startup, and Senior Vice President and General Manager of ePayments at First Data Corporation. Brent also served as Vice President of Marketing for Great American Insurance Company, where he was responsible for developing industry-leading comprehensive online and offline marketing strategies.

When Brent finds a rare moment away from the office he can be found at his Texas ranch, likely planning his next hunting or fishing expedition.