eCommerce Merchants Strike Seamless Payments, Regulatory Balance with Orchestration

Online spending volume has expanded in the past few years, with the value of digital payments worldwide expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15% between 2021 and 2028. This includes both business-to-business (B2B) and consumer-facing payments, presenting intriguing new opportunities for today’s merchants. As online payments become more prevalent, however, lawmakers worldwide are beginning to pay closer attention to digital data security and privacy.

Regulators have therefore stepped up their efforts to keep digital transactions secure, adding new requirements to standards such as the Payments Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) — which sets security and privacy guidelines for all companies handling and processing credit card information — that have existed for a decade or more. This includes rules such as the European Union’s 2018 Payment Services Directive (PSD2), as well as the messaging protocol known as 3D Secure which is aimed at strengthening card authentication measures. Complying with these shifting rules while still offering the seamless experience their customers need is, therefore, top of mind for today’s businesses, no matter their market.

In the latest Payments Orchestration Playbook, PYMNTS analyzes the challenges and frictions merchants face worldwide as they look to comply with regulations such as PCI DSS, 3D Secure and other such requirements. It also takes a quick look at how payments orchestration can enable businesses to overcome these frictions, help them bring new products to market more swiftly and provide seamless experiences for their own customers.

Around the Payments Orchestration Ecosystem

New online financial regulations have taken shape swiftly within the EU, with laws such as its General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) requirement to add further protections for the use and sharing of personal user data. Three years after the rule’s ratification, EU regulators are imposing harsh fines on companies that have failed to comply with GDPR’s requirements. Luxembourg regulators issued the largest GDPR penalty on record to eCommerce platform Amazon just last year, fining the company approximately €746 million ($811 million). Ensuring they can protect user data and keep customer payment experiences seamless is therefore critically important for merchants as they wish to stay competitive, making implementing technology such as tokenization or payments orchestration a must.

Another company facing strident penalties for failing to comply with GDPR is search engine and technology provider Google. The company is facing a fine of about €100 million ($109 million) after France’s highest administrative court, the Conseil d’État, recently upheld a January ruling by the country’s data privacy watchdog, the Commission nationale de l’informatique et des libertés (CNIL), that Google’s cookie-storing policy violated GDPR guidelines. The policy made it difficult for EU consumers to avoid online trackers of their personal data, the watchdog stated in its ruling. Such developments indicate a growing need for companies to ensure they keep pace with shifting regulatory requirements as they look to provide swift and personalized online experiences.

For more on these and other stories, visit the Playbook’s News & Trends.

How Payments Orchestration Can Help eCommerce Merchants Strike A Balance Between Seamless Payments And Regulatory Requirements

Consumers anticipate easy and personalized payment experiences in today’s retail environment, especially when purchasing online. eCommerce merchants must especially find ways to stand apart within this increasingly saturated market. This makes supporting a diverse selection of swift, convenient payment methods crucial to compete, said Yulia Drummond, CEO of eCommerce swimwear brand Voda Swim in a recent PYMNTS interview. It is also essential for merchants to offer these seamless payment options in a way that is compliant with shifting regulatory requirements.

To learn more about how eCommerce merchants can leverage payments orchestration to help balance easy payments with compliance requirements, visit the Playbook’s Feature Story.

How Payments Orchestration Can Help Merchants Navigate Changing Regulatory Requirements

eCommerce sales within the U.S. alone grew by 14% year over year, reaching $871 billion in 2021. This growth was reflected worldwide as consumers within the Asia-Pacific region and Europe also moved to conduct more of their typical transactions through online channels, and as digital payments become more familiar and more prevalent worldwide, lawmakers are taking notice. Such lawmakers have taken steps to put into place new regulations designed to protect against rising online fraud, money laundering and other malicious digital activity. Businesses that wish to support the rising variety of online payment methods and channels customers wish to use must therefore be sure they are complying with these new regulations.

To learn more about how payments orchestration can help merchants navigate shifting regulatory requirements, visit the Playbook’s PYMNTS Intelligence.

About The Playbook

The Payments Orchestration Playbook, a PYMNTS and Spreedly collaboration, is a monthly report series examining how merchants can optimize their payments processes to satisfy customers and maximize their revenues.