Splitit Eyes Wallets and Orchestration to Reset Merchant-Customer Dynamics

The “What’s Next in Payments” series exploring the dynamic service economy has focused on the evolution of payments companies as they add a range of offerings that once were the purview of card networks. The networks have traditionally provided merchant clients with improved checkout experiences and deep data analytics.

In recent years, payments firms and FinTechs have also been integrating services such as lending, processing and fraud management solutions.

John Beisner, head of client success at Splitit, told PYMNTS in an installment of the series that for FinTechs extending their range of services — and in the case of merchants extending Splitit’s credit card-based installment options to shoppers — “the first part is just making sure that the consumer knows what’s available and the mechanics of it. How do they use it? What advantages are brought to them as they go through the purchase process?”

Splitit’s approach in the service economy is to construct an orchestration layer that — through its platform model and connections to merchants, processors and issuers — lets customers pay for purchases over time using cards. The full purchase amount is withheld, which is paid down in installments.

“We’re expanding our service offering with more capabilities via the processor and the issuer … based on the demand by these various players,” Beisner said.

Among the near-term initiatives lies the ability to let processors participate in the transaction and give the issuer channels through which to make direct offers to the consumer amid a merchant interaction. Additionally, Splitit is embracing artificial intelligence to review transactions and improve fraud-fighting capabilities.

Upgrading Transactions

As to the changing dynamics in the competitive arena of installment payments, Beisner said, “you’ve got the typical buy now, pay laters. You also have bank financing offers and other FinTechs involved in making financing offers to consumers.”

“We think that by orchestrating that, bringing it into a single experience… we’re doing that at a level where it’s not just eCommerce, but it’s also for in-store transaction,” he said. “So, we’re trying to bring all of that together and provide a very focused capability to enhance the consumer experience. We’re also making sure that we maintain the relationship between the merchant and the consumers.”

Consumers, in turn, discover that they can manage their funding more adroitly and find the spending power to “upgrade” their purchases to bigger-ticket choices as they don’t have to take out new loans to do so, he said.

“We’re spending time getting out front of the transactions so that the consumer understands that they have options and that these are not loan-based options,” Beisner said.

The checkout experience remains the same, as consumers enter their card details (or if they are already registered with a merchant, one-click checkout is an option). Splitit is also adding digital wallets to the mix, including Google Pay, Apple Pay and Samsung Pay, he said.

“We’re going to be announcing very soon a significant wallet integration where the merchant does not even need to be signed up, where the customer can walk in with their wallet into any storefront and make a purchase — and then decide how they want to split those payments up,” he said.

Splitit will also be rolling out a service where the merchant and the consumer share in the cost — “and we’ll still be using the ‘open to pay’ on a card to make that decision,” rather than a new loan, he said.

For Splitit and any FinTech, Beisner said, “the market is changing so much that you really do have to be focused on innovation and bringing new things to market.”