Report: Merchants Struggle to Balance Consumers’ Rising eComm Demands With Regulatory Mandates

Consumers have become accustomed to simple, nearly effortless payments online. That simplicity entails risk for consumers and the eCommerce companies that court them. While payments technologies advance quickly, often outpacing legacy security measures, compliance mandates remain as stringent as ever, even when new payment methods are brand new. This advancement causes eCommerce companies to face a difficult choice: adopt innovations quickly and attempt to develop a new compliance and security strategy in tandem, or fail to innovate and be left behind in a competitive marketplace.

In The New eCommerce Ecosystem Mandate Playbook: Delivering Seamless Payment Experiences, a PYMNTS collaboration with Citi, we examine the challenges facing eCommerce organizations attempting to modernize payments and maintain security and compliance at scale.

Additional key findings in the report include:

• Better user experiences for consumers at scale means removing hindrances to simple, intuitive interactions from touchpoints. Consumers want the seamless experiences they are used to online to serve as a baseline for their customer experiences. When eCommerce companies deliver those experiences consistently, they can remain competitive and keep consumers engaged. When points of payments friction like false declines and slow payments processes are limited, the risk of consumers becoming disengaged falls dramatically. Creating those experiences requires a new approach to payments for many eCommerce companies.

While it is clear that the requirements for a proactive, seamless payments strategy include simplified compliance monitoring and reporting, banking integration and a mechanism for intuitive digital payments management, getting started can be a challenge even for large global brands and retailers.

• A realistic view of the costs and rewards of seamless payments is essential for success. Meeting the challenge of secure, seamless payments may necessitate the creation of an entirely new innovation strategy for eCommerce companies. This strategy may entail a detailed review of current payments models. While starting the process may be simple, an accurate view of the availability of human resources to accomplish the task is also critical. Though conducting a technology self-audit is a good way to determine technology needs before launching a seamless payments initiative, process and resources are dependent variables.

An organization should develop a clear plan to devote human resources to the seamless payments strategy creation and rollout process, or work with a technology solutions provider that can eliminate the need for a dedicated team to work through implementation details.

• Instant payments are vital to emergent “micro-economies.” Delivery drivers and other individuals who are instrumental in keeping the eCommerce supply chain functional frequently depend on frictionless payments. Ensuring that payments are timely and secure is a key determinant of business success. Instant payments power entrepreneurial growth and retailers and marketplace supply chains, allowing them to collaborate and develop ecosystems that offer consumers more product and service choices and greater payments security.

As eCommerce companies expand their operations, payments innovations present new compliance and user experience challenges. Companies seeking to innovate securely need to enact an agile payments strategy to meet consumer and regulatory demands to avoid non-compliance and consumer disengagement.

To learn more, download the report.