The right payment infrastructure can mean the difference between one less click on the way to checkout and therefore one more sale, says Volusion CEO Troy Pike in this month’s “Payments Orchestration Tracker.”
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Like Volusion, many merchant aggregators see their mission as helping small to midsized merchants thrive in a global marketplace. To do that, according to Pike, aggregators must be sure that merchants on their platforms have all the payment options available to them so that they, in turn, can offer them to their consumers. Benson concurs. He said his company seeks to build the type of payments infrastructure and optimization once available only to a handful of industry titans and bring those features to small merchants hungry for competitive functionality.
Providing a smooth checkout experience to customers is crucially important for merchants of all sizes. Any obstacle in the payments journey, such as a declined payment or even a processing delay, can be the turning point between completing a sale and chasing a customer away to a competitor.
“When you’re competing for a sale, just one extra click could be the difference between winning and losing,” Pike said. “Taking friction out of the transaction process is just as important, if not more, for the little guy [as it is for a large merchant].”
Merchant aggregators must be equipped to offer merchants their customers’ desired payment methods and a seamless checkout experience. 
Pike said there is tremendous demand from his merchants for every type of payment method available — with many wanting different options when operating in different regions or environments.
“It can be credit cards, it can be store credit cards, it can be your Apple Pay or Google Pay — and when we get outside of the U.S., there are even more alternative payment methods,” Benson agreed. “Obviously on the back end, the merchant needs to be set up for success, because if the consumer’s payment method is declined, or it’s a false positive [for fraud], there’s a good chance you lose that individual.”
Payments orchestration can be vital for aggregators looking to customize merchants’ checkout pages to reflect the growing and global variety of payment methods. Handling payment gateways via a third-party API removes significant pressure on aggregators to confront unexpected payment obstacles. It also has the power to boost their bottom lines.
“Payments orchestration allows us to get a greater return on every development dollar that we put toward [payment processes] and reduces our maintenance costs,” Pike said. “It’s a space of a lot of unknowns, many of which are in some ways uncontrollable. Payments orchestrators reduce our exposure and help on the cost front as well.”
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