Payment products can often be a headache for retailers who struggle to cater for the needs of a global audience with a local wallet. However, one fintech payment provider believes it can change that.
Cardpay offers access to over 300 different payment methods, all through an API that integrates seamlessly with the merchant’s back end. To find out more, the Fintech Times team sat down with David Backshall, the Commercial Director at Cardpay.
So David, what is Cardpay?
In short: Cardpay is a global payments acquirer. We provide easy access to local and international payment methods for eCommerce companies looking to sell their products and services internationally.
We have payment solutions for industry verticals from travel to marketplaces, digital entertainment and beyond.
What are the major trends are you seeing in e-commerce right now?
Customer experience and user on-boarding, without a doubt. For any eCommerce business to flourish, it has to confidently answer the questions of how they acquire customers, interact with them and how they can lower the bar for entry for newcomers to the digital market.
To really set yourself apart from other brands on the digital market, you need to be as frictionless as possible. A lot of the trends we’re seeing have oriented around user experience and how to create the perfect journey from selecting a product to buying it.
Where do you see e-commerce businesses going in the next few years?
Interestingly enough, we’re seeing the vast majority of businesses venture into the world of retail and online marketplaces. We can easily point to the successes of businesses like Amazon in the western hemisphere, and the likes of Rakuten, Alibaba and others in the Asian continent.
It’s been fascinating, really, to see just how retailers are changing tact in order to re-invent and introduce themselves as digital marketplaces. The results are impressive; with many of them managing to grow their brand and increase the financial margins of their businesses too.
Above all, they’re working to provide consumers with the much-needed choice on what they select and buy.
So would you say that Asia is leading the pack in terms of marketplaces and e-commerce?
Asia’s very interesting because you can just look at the success of Alibaba during Singles Day. Reports on sales over that 24 hour period reached $38.4 billion, which is staggering. This performance is hardly surprising when we look at the longer trend of consumers though; the vast majority of payments were made through domestic payment methods (AliPay, WeChat Pay), and disproportionately via mobile.
These trends are ones that we can see throughout the entire continent. All Alibaba and other businesses are doing are responding well to what they’re seeing in China and Asia, in general. But another key takeaway is the fact that marketplaces are able to really provide consumers with variety and ease of use.
It’s been fascinating, really, to see just how retailers are changing tact in order to re-invent and introduce themselves as digital marketplaces.
What do you think made Alibaba and a few others such a dominant force?
Well, there are a couple of things to consider here. Regarding population, I think China has a distinct advantage; having a population of 1.4bn give or take. But it’s also taking into consideration just how its population has reacted and adapted to these innovations.
Asian marketplaces were able to provide a seamless shopping experience, encouraging mobile shopping and providing payment options used by local consumers. Credit where credits due: the population of Asia use these services at a faster pace than any other continent, thanks to the infrastructure created by marketplace players.
You need to combine emerging middle class, rapid growth in internet penetration, high-capacity mobile networks and the state of the art payment ecosystem to realise just what kind of monumental potential exists here.
Put simply, what we provide is one single API integration, allowing merchants to take over 300 different payment methods, allowing them to increase their conversion rates in those countries and minimize the likelihood of cart abandonment.
Do you think that this model will be replicated in other regions of the world?
I think what you’re seeing at the moment in the West is a high street that is undergoing dramatic change. Consumers are after choice and ease of use; they want to shop for what they want when they want and how they want.
In Africa and Latin America, it’s only now that we’re seeing more consumers getting online for their shopping, compared to a few years back. What they find is that there’s more choice, more accessibility, and much less hassle than if they’d have stuck to brick and mortar.
It stands to reason that more people will make that migration from offline brick and mortar to online marketplaces. With all of this happening, the former will have to really look at how it can adopt, adapt and improve in the face of this rapidly digitalising game.
How does Cardpay play in to that?
At Cardpay, we work to connect these digital merchants to the consumers that they’re looking for, allowing them to readily take payments from them using a wide range of international and domestic payments.
Put simply, what we provide is one single API integration, allowing merchants to take over 300 different payment methods, allowing them to increase their conversion rates in those countries and minimize the likelihood of cart abandonment.
In essence: we help you unlock local markets potential and start generating sustainable revenue streams.
What do you see the trends being as actual payment methods in those countries?
We observe that a preference for a local payment method varies by country.
While debit and credit card payments are tried and tested in the western hemisphere, they may not be as widespread in other regions, let’s say Brazil as an example. Consumers will, instead, prefer to use a local payment system like Boleto.
The reasons may vary too – from a lack of trust in online payments to a better convenience factor. Flexibility and ease of use are the names of the game when talking about eCommerce payments. It’s for this reason that we have an ‘open-door’ approach to payment methods, so we can help our customers find and use the right payment methods for the right country.
Do you see an increasing demand for crypto payments?
Yes, we do. We have our own crypto solution where we provide merchants easy access to accept cryptocurrencies as a payment method.
We do the conversion in the background and settle in fiat currency so they don’t have to think about the rates, or what to do with the coins. This is an in-house solution as well, so we don’t use any third parties for it. As digital content consumption accelerates we see that more and more merchants are willing to let customers pay in crypto and our payment platform can easily accommodate this.
Watch the video interview with David here:
