MasterCard Simplifies SMB Payment Acceptance

The payments industry is ever changing. Today, unknown companies can sidestep established practices and achieve major player status, all without having to release a new product. In this financial climate, established players can be best defined by their response to new challenges.

Simplify Commerce was introduced on June 27, and represents MasterCard’s solution for remedying the open standards movement in payments.

The product provides a developer-friendly suite of tools, which small and medium-sized merchants can use to accept payments on the web. MasterCard stated that merchants can activate accounts and begin accepting payments through the Application Programming Interfaces (APIs).

What can merchants gain by using MasterCard’s new product, and can it help veterans and entrepreneurs to create the next generation of loyal customers?

To find out how the launch affects merchants and MasterCard, PYMNTS.com spoke to Debbie Barta, the product owner for Simplify Commerce at MasterCard.

PYMNTS.com: You recently released your new Simplify Commerce product, which you’re saying makes it easy for merchants to accept eCommerce and mCommerce payments. How specifically does Simplify Commerce make this process easier?

Debbie Barta: Simplify Commerce is the developer-friendly solution that gives merchants the power to accept electronic payments from any major payment brand, which can lead to additional revenue and a larger customer base.

It provides both a merchant account and a payment gateway in a single, secure package that reduces the scope of a merchant’s Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standards compliance obligations. Simplify Commerce creates an electronic payments connection between a merchant and customers, and allows easy acceptance of online and mobile payments in just a few steps. Merchants and developers can leverage the MasterCard-provided APIs available in our sandbox, activate the merchant account and quickly start accepting payments.

To make it even easier for developers, Simplify Commerce is offering easy-to-use APIs and clear SDKs (Software Development Kits) in a variety of programming languages such as Ruby, PHP, Python and Java. Mobile SDKs for iOS and Android are also available. In addition, sample source code and engineering support are accessible at www.simplify.com.

It seems like you’re taking a pretty open approach here, offering APIs and SDKs in a bunch of programming languages in an attempt to directly appeal to developers. Why are developers important here, and how does this subsequently impact merchants? 

In developing Simplify Commerce, MasterCard worked directly with merchants to design a solution that is flexible, easy and quick. Merchants, especially those managing smaller businesses, do not always have the resources readily available to help them set up the payments acceptance portion of their sites. Developers working on behalf of these merchants want easy tools at their disposal. 

Additionally, developers are creating apps and want the ability to easily accept payments for their own businesses, and we wanted to ensure that we made this process as simple as possible.

Simplify Commerce allows merchants the opportunity to accept online and mobile payments, and makes it easy for anyone who is already accepting payments to switch seamlessly to our service. Developers benefit from tools that are easy-to-use and merchants are able to quickly accept electronic payments. 

Is there a specific type of merchant Simplify Commerce is looking to appeal to? Are there any verticals or merchant sizes you had in mind with this release?

Merchants of all sizes can benefit from Simplify Commerce, but it will likely appeal to small- and medium-sized merchants as well as startups. When we designed Simplify Commerce, we sought input from the merchant community to ensure we developed a comprehensive, simple-to-use solution that streamlines the payments acceptance process for them. 

I think we all know that eCommerce and mCommerce are growing, but talk about what the ability to suddenly accept payments like this means to merchants who have never been able to do so before.

Enabling electronic payments opens the door to new customers and isn’t limited to local purchases. eCommerce is expected to grow 9 percent per year through 2017. mCommerce is projected to grow 48 percent per year during the same timeframe.^{Electronic payments can lead to additional revenue opportunities and a larger customer base. Simplify Commerce makes online and mobile payments acceptance for all major brands as simple and straightforward as possible and most importantly, does not require a significant investment of resources to get started.}

I know another important feature with Simplify Commerce is the two-day funding you mention on your site. Talk about how that will help merchants to manage cash flow and why that’s an improvement over what a lot of merchants have in place today.

In MasterCard’s conversations with merchants, it was clear that quick, accurate payments were a high priority. For some merchants, having those funds available is critical to day-to-day operations and ensuring working capital available for business use. The safety and security of knowing when your money will be available is a key benefit of Simplify Commerce.