Publication Date: March 6, 2019
From February 19 to 21, 2019, Paysto once again participated in the Merchant Payments Ecosystem (MPE) conference in Berlin. While 2018 focused on regulatory frameworks, MPE 2019 concentrated on the practical side of business โ increasing conversion and payment efficiency.
Key trends that we actively studied and discussed concerned customer experience and geographical expansion.
๐ Growth of Alternative Payment Methods (APM) โ
Traditional card payments still dominate, but in 2019, a clear trend emerged towards the growing popularity of local and Alternative Payment Methods (APM), such as:
- BNPL (Buy Now Pay Later): Installment and post-payment models, rapidly gaining popularity in e-commerce.
- Direct bank transfers (Account-to-Account): Payments initiated directly from the customer's account, made possible by PSD2.
- Local schemes: Payment systems specific to individual countries (e.g., iDEAL in the Netherlands, Sofort in Germany), which are critically important for merchant success in specific markets.
For Paysto, this means prioritizing the development of integration with new APMs to offer our clients the most comprehensive set of tools.
๐ฏ Checkout Optimization โ
The central theme of MPE 2019 was conversion. Experts discussed how minor changes in the checkout process can radically impact a merchant's final revenue.
Our conclusions for Paysto:
- Mobile-First: The necessity of fully adapting payment forms for mobile devices, as the majority of e-commerce traffic already originates from them.
- Payment Orchestration: The use of intelligent systems that automatically redirect transactions through the most successful gateways (Smart Routing) to minimize declines and maximize profit.
The MPE 2019 conference confirmed that the future of a successful payment service is not just the ability to accept a card, but the capacity to offer merchants an intelligent, high-conversion, and flexible payment experience for each country.