- PSD2 has required stricter authentication for payments meaning that streamlining the complex payments landscape for merchants and reducing friction has never been more important in ensuring cart conversion
- Axerve Advice’s Transaction Risk Analysis sent 98.9% of the total transactions managed by Axerve to issuers as frictionless payments while still meeting PSD2 requirements – resulting in issuers not needing to apply two-factor authentication in 89% of cases.

Axerve, Payment Partner to Grow, specialising in creating accessible and frictionless payment solutions for Ecommerce and physical sales, today announces the release of a new white paper, ‘New technologies and trends in digital payments in 2022’. The white paper explores the drivers behind growing digital payment forms worldwide and assesses the impact that the proliferation of new digital payment methods is having on merchants.

In the purchase process, payment is a delicate phase because it determines the transition from the purchase intention of the customer to the actual sale and the less friction there is at this juncture, the more pleasant the customer experience. Therefore, in order for merchants to maintain high customer experience and cart conversion, it is essential that payment is as frictionless and immediate as possible, while still being transparent and above all safe and compliant with relevant PSD2 regulations. In this context, solutions that manage the growing number of complex multi-channel payments for retailers while delivering hyper-personalised services – aka services that respond to the specific needs of the merchant, based on their target demographic habits and preferences and geographical regions - is important for customer experience.

This is increasingly a challenge for merchants as multiple digital payment types such as cryptocurrency, Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL), contactless in-store payments such as SoftPOS, and Ecommerce tokenization, that Axerve outlines in the white paper, are increasingly popular meaning that retailers must engage with multiple payment forms at checkout.

The technological response from the world of payments to the new forms of purchasing are platforms capable of satisfying increasingly complex and personalised needs, both from the point of view of the merchant and from that of the customers. A study by Accuity, a LexisNexis® Risk Solutions company, estimated that failed payments, as a result in part of problems in the management of payment flows, have cost the global economy $118.5 billion in fees, labour, and lost business in 2020.

Payment orchestration is a key tool for managing this increased complexity. Axerve’s Payment OrchestraTM manages the interoperability between all the transaction processes and types and simplifies payments configuration thanks to a new proprietary software architecture. Payment OrchestraTM can significantly cut the costs of multiple Ecommerce integrations and allows independence from payment service providers (PSPs). Its multi-solution integration system gives businesses the possibility to automatically switch payments to the best-performing provider at the time of purchase, resulting in industry-leading quick reaction times.

Precisely with a goal of combining a complex series of features and thanks to the rise of digital, all players involved in payment processing have been investing for some time in the innovation of processes, legislations, and platforms. Regulation, alternative payments, fraud prevention, and value-added services are just some of the fields in which companies and institutions are working in to improve the shopping experience for consumers and collection experience for merchants.

Similarly, compliance with PSD2 and SCA requirements has added complexity for merchants. However, knowing how to seize the opportunities of PSD2 is a great opportunity for the merchant to prevent transactions from being rejected during authentication, improving the user experience offered to their customers by the overall conversion rate. Today, this is possible with risk analysis tools, like Axerve Advice, which take advantage of the opportunity to request an exemption from applying the regular flow of 3DS protocols. Axerve's own payments data shows that by using Axerve Advice’s Transaction Risk Analysis 98.9% of the total transactions managed by Axerve were sent exempt to issuers, who did not apply two-factor authentication in 89% of cases. Out of this 89%, only 2.9% received a soft decline from issuers (however out of this 2.9%, 80.2% were subsequently sent with the SCA request and in all cases the outcome was positive). Therefore, most of the transactions deemed potentially fraudulent by the issuer have actually turned out to be genuine, as reported by Axerve Advice. Axerve has found that a huge 99.9% of the soft decline transactions subsequently passed the authentication phase. As a result, only a number of transactions as low as 0.08% of the soft-decline transactions did not pass the authentication phase; demonstrating the efficacy of risk analysis methods.

Axerve is a part of the European fintech Fabrick’s open finance ecosystem, and beyond this, the Company supports a diverse mix of institutions, international corporations, and retail chains by offering innovative technology and data security across global payment methods. Axerve helps its partners anticipate trends in the digital payments market. The Axerve payment platform processes more than 4 million requests every month, supporting customers in selecting the best solutions for their business and suggesting the most effective instruments to increase sales and boost loyalty.

Alessandro Bocca, CEO of Axerve, commented: “The release of Axerve’s white paper today underscores the significant innovation and growth in the digital payments space of recent years. In order for merchants to harness the benefits of diverse payment methods for their customers, it is vital that the new forms of purchasing experiences that are emerging are met with an omnichannel and fluid approach and platforms capable of simplifying multiple payments for merchants.

“This is an increasingly complex task meaning that retailers stand to benefit from an expert payment partner. Orchestration models such as Axerve’s Payment OrchestraTM offer consistency along the entire payment flow.”

Insights and information for the whitepaper on payment trends here

Among the growing digital trends explored in the white paper are:

• Cryptocurrency: according to Worldwide Semiannual Blockchain Spending Guide research conducted by IDC, investments in blockchain-based technologies in the world will grow almost exponentially with spending in this sector expected to grow to $19 billion in 2024.
• BNPL: according to data recently published by FIS Global, today installment payments are used for 2% of total Ecommerce transactions globally, and by 2024 it will reach 4% of the market.
• Contactless in-store payments: according to Visa research that involved 2,000 small businesses and 4,500 consumers in 8 strategic markets during the pandemic period, almost 50% of shoppers stated that they would not shop in stores that offer only payment methods that require direct contact with cashiers or shared POS terminals. Moreover, in the UK in October 2021 the contactless spending limit was raised to £100 without a PIN. In Europe the replacement of cards without RFID by banks, and the inception of digital wallets, such as Apple Pay and Google Pay, just to name a couple, are contributing to the increase in the use of mobile POS payments.
• Ecommerce Tokenization for recurring Merchant Initiated Transactions: tokenization allows the merchant to save codes replacing card data to finalize payments which offer enhanced security and shopping experiences offered to customers. Tokens, in an increasingly complex and globally competitive context, is why their integration is becoming a must-have. The global tokenization market size is expected to grow from $2.3 billion in 2021 to $5.6 billion by 2026, according to Markets and Markets.


Axerve
Part of Fabrick's Fintech ecosystem, Axerve stands for over 100,000 active customers, as a partner for business development helping them to understand, anticipate and address the needs of the market thanks to technological and innovative solutions for the point of sale and Ecommerce. Axerve supports them nationally and internationally and in every single market, integrates value-added services to meet the needs of physical and online stores with a personalized user experience, offering over 250 payment methods. The offer consists of a single platform to accept any type of payment, from all physical and digital channels, in a clear, simple and secure way, through physical and digital gateways, such as POS, Ecommerce solutions, Cashin machines, applications and value-added services; with the aim of offering an answer to all questions in the field of payment acceptance, offering new solutions (in-store, mobile and digital) adapting to the specific needs of customers. Axerve Ecommerce Solutions has a strong leadership in online payment management services in all product sectors. www.axerve.com/en

Laurent Leloup
- Fondateur et associé Finyear
- Fondateur et CEO Leloup Partners (néo-banque d'affaires, ICO, STO, Web3)
- Auteur de Blockchain, la révolution de la confiance
"La blockchain n’est pas la révolution tant annoncée, elle n’est que l’outil d’un monde lui-même entré en révolution"
- Traducteur de La Blockchain pour les Nuls et de Au cœur du bitcoin.