Creating A Seamless Checkout Process

🤔Understanding Payment Orchestration Let me break it down for you: In the 1990s, with the rise of Ecommerce, the first payment gateways came into existence. However, they lacked today's advanced collection and reconciliation tools. The 2000s saw integrations between developers and gateways due to limitations in serving all customers through one gateway. By the 2010s, PSPs transformed, introducing alternative payment methods, fraud prevention, and global payments in local currencies. The 2020s witnessed a shift, with over 60% of retailers using multiple payment providers and payment orchestration becoming essential for businesses. What is Payment Orchestration? Drawing from the world of music, payment orchestration functions similarly to a maestro harmonizing an orchestra🎼 This system blends multiple payment processes, offering an efficient and streamlined transaction route. It centralizes various gateways, ensuring a smooth consumer checkout. Integrated reporting provides a unified data view, and "smart routing" auto-directs transactions through the best route. Europe's e-commerce data shows that roughly a quarter of Mastercard's payment authentications in early 2021 failed. Smart routing in payment orchestration aims to combat such issues. Business Research Insights predicts that by 2027, the payment orchestration market will be valued at nearly $5 billion. Key advantages of payment orchestration include: 1️⃣ Cost and Time Efficiency: Merchants can choose lower transaction fees from a range of providers. 2️⃣ Increased Conversion: Improved customer experience boosts conversion rates. Factors like smart routing, diverse payment methods, and local currency support play significant roles. 3️⃣ Transaction Success: With the rise in digital payments, ensuring transaction success becomes vital. Payment orchestration can notably reduce decline rates. 4️⃣ Customer Loyalty: Offering preferred payment methods enhances the buying experience, fostering customer loyalty. 5️⃣ Global Expansion: For businesses aiming globally, understanding regional payment preferences is crucial. 6️⃣ Rapid Scaling: Merchants can swiftly integrate solutions supporting business growth. 7️⃣ Fraud Reduction: A consolidated platform with multiple payment methods aids in fraud prevention. 8️⃣ Automatic Reconciliation: This feature minimizes errors, saving internal resources and enhancing efficiency. 9️⃣ Real-time Ledgers (RTLs): RTLs provide almost instant financial data visibility, ensuring transactional integrity. I highly recommend downloading this #fintechreport by Axerve (that I used as a source for this piece) for more interesting info on this topic: https://lnkd.in/eUTPpJiP Find this helpful? [ 𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗼𝘀𝘁 ] Anything to add about this subject? [ 𝗶𝗻𝘃𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 ] Nice story, Marcel. Next! [ 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 ] #fintech #payments #paytech #digitalpayments #fntechindustry #paymentorchestration

Alternative Payment Methods (APM's). There was a scramble a few years ago from every PSP and Acquirer to offer as many APM's as they possibly could. PPRO did very well out of this scramble and many platforms still utilise their rails for APM accessibility, alongside 3-4 other enabler players that have entered the market more recently. The big question for me is what are the leading APM's that a PSP or Acquirer really needs to be enabling for a fast growing UK retailer that is opening up their sales channel cross border into Europe in 2024. ______________________ Here is my view as a starting point (there are many more but I'm taking an initial launch focus here).👇 ⦿ Unique local payment methods: Germany - SEPA Direct Debit / giropay / SOFORT Netherlands - Currence iDEAL B.V. Spain - Bizum Poland - BLIK & Przelewy24 Sweden - Swish Switzerland - TWINT ⦿ Local Card Schemes (these can sometimes be co-branded ventures with Mastercard and Visa): It is worth noting that access to local card schemes can also be a limiting factor if your acquirer doesn't offer support for them. Good examples of these are: France - GIE Cartes Bancaires Belgium - Bancontact Denmark - Dankort Check the connectivity of your acquirer in regards to these local schemes. ⦿ BNPL: One of these providers should really be offered in the ever growing and competitive BNPL market if you are a retailer (depending on niche retail sector or B2C vs B2B requirements, EU focus again): Klarna Clearpay (Afterpay) Zilch Mondu ⦿ Other: PayPal - Still very popular in a variety of EU countries, PayPal should still be offered as a payment method for UK retailers looking to sell into Europe. Digital Wallets are just a given in 2024, if you still aren't offering Apple Pay and G Pay, you are falling behind your retail competition, period. Pay by Bank - Is the open banking payment method ready to challenge the legacy APM players in the EU? For me, the answer is currently no. The reason being that I have heard the payment flow is a bit of a mess compared with the slick checkout flows we are moving towards with Pay by Bank in the UK (over a dozen payment flow screens was referenced with one specific EU bank in order to complete a payment!). ______________________ It would be great to hear from my network on other APM requirements that you have encountered in recent times and further recommendations for UK retailers selling cross border to the EU.

Let’s cut to the chase ➜ Complex checkouts are conversion killers. The simpler the path from cart to completion, the higher the revenue. It's not just about fewer clicks, it’s about creating a seamless, intuitive journey for your customer. Here’s a streamlined approach that has significantly bumped up our conversion rates: [1] Minimise steps: Every extra field in the checkout process can drop your conversion rate by 10%. Keep it lean. [2] Transparent pricing: No hidden fees. Surprise charges at checkout are the fastest way to lose trust and a sale. [3] Multiple payment options: More ways to pay mean more completed purchases. Include digital wallets and localised payment methods. [4] Guest checkout option: Not everyone wants to create an account. A guest checkout can increase conversions by reducing friction. [5] Reassuring security features: Highlight security badges and encryption assurances prominently. Trust breeds transactions. Implementing these strategies led to a 35% decrease in cart abandonment and a significant boost in customer satisfaction and loyalty. Have you streamlined your checkout process recently, or have you ever abandoned a cart due to a complex checkout experience? Share your insights or changes that made a difference! #checkout #experience #online #digital

Agentic Commerce: “when your AI shops, BNPL and PoS Financing solutions could becomes everyday money💰” As consumer agents move from recommending to transacting; finance solutions like BNPL transition from being checkout options into “programmable cashflow” feature for daily spend What the data already says (before agents even arrive): ❇️ In the Tabby | تابي study, 77% of users say they’ll definitely use BNPL more for essential shopping this year, with another 17% “likely.” The text notes no meaningful difference by age or gender; this is broad-based behavior (see chart on page 4) ❇️ Essential purchases already outweigh discretionary ones, and in Saudi Arabia the shift is strongest (66% of first orders and 67% of total orders are essentials vs 61%/51% in the UAE). The report also highlights cash-flow management and not convenience as the main reason in KSA (page 7) ❇️ The summary (page 8) calls BNPL a money management tool helping shoppers plan monthly spending rather than just impulse buys —————— Why I am suggesting that “agentic commerce” will 10× embedded finance (and its “naughty posterchild,” BNPL) provided the policymakers don’t halt the progress: ⏺️ Autonomous budgeting: Agents will run rolling cash-flow forecasts and pick installments only when they smooth liquidity vs. income cycles which will turn BNPL into automatic bill-smoothing, not impulse fuel ⛽️ ⏺️ Dynamic tender routing: Agents will choose the optimal rail (A2A, wallet, card, BNPL line) per basket, fee, and settlement— this will result in BNPL getting picked far more often for daily spends when it beats alternatives on net cost + cash-flow ⏺️ Contextual underwriting: With permissioned first-party data, agents continuously update affordability signals, enabling micro-limits and shorter plans for everyday spend which means safer growth with lower loss rates ⏺️ Invisible UX: Agents collapse the checkout. Friction drops to zero, and “pay in 4” becomes a default setting, not a decision while driving frequency and retention ⏺️ Merchant economics: Agents will optimize for total basket conversion and repeat rate; merchants will surface BNPL earlier (search), fund incentives, and accept instant settle BNPL to cut working capital friction ⏺️ New use cases: Subscriptions, utility bills, school fees, fuel/top-ups, transit, micro-health, mid-ticket categories become more BNPL-friendly when orchestrated by agents ⏺️ Programmable safeguards: Hard limits, repayment autopay, and real-time nudges are coded into the agent which means growth with guardrails (so enough of the negative rhetoric) —————— So what? Agentic commerce in my opinion has the ability to upgrade embedded finance to “always-on financial choreography.” If essentials are already the majority of BNPL usage today, agents will accelerate the shift from discretionary to daily, making BNPL an operating system for household cashflow 💸 Hosam | Litesh | Zain | Oliver | Christoph | Sanjiv | Sami | Khalil | Ramana

I just spent 47 hours optimizing checkout for a fitness and wellness brand. Here's how we turned their biggest revenue leak into a 14% conversion boost. Last month, a D2C fitness and wellness brand reached out with a problem that's haunting most e-commerce founders: "Our traffic is great, our products are selling, but we're losing customers at the final step." When I dug into their data, the picture was clear: → Customers abandoning carts during lengthy checkout flows → Returning buyers frustrated with re-entering the same details → Zero visibility on who was leaving and why → No way to retarget lost customers Here's exactly what I did: Hour 1-15: Audit & Analysis I mapped their entire checkout journey. Found 8 friction points and 3 critical data gaps. Hour 16-32: Solution Implementation Integrated Razorpay Magic Checkout to: 👉 Pre-fill customer information automatically 👉 Reduce checkout steps from 6 to 2 👉 Create detailed abandoned cart tracking 👉 Enable real-time retargeting capabilities Hour 33-47: Testing & Optimization A/B tested the new flow, monitored user behavior, and fine-tuned the experience. The results after 30 days: ✅ 14% increase in conversion rate ✅ 5x faster checkout process ✅ Complete abandoned cart visibility ✅ 35% recovery rate on abandoned carts The biggest insight? Most brands treat checkout as a technical afterthought. But it's actually where your entire funnel either converts or collapses. This client went from losing 7 out of 10 customers at checkout to converting nearly 8 out of 10. Same traffic. Same products. Different checkout experience. The lesson I'm taking to every client now: Your payment flow isn't just about collecting money, it's about respecting your customer's time and removing every possible barrier between intent and purchase. For fellow consultants and founders: What's the biggest conversion killer you've seen in e-commerce? Drop your thoughts below.

Amazon’s most profitable marketing decision cost them $0. And it taught us a lot about human behaviour. In the late 90s, Amazon had become the world’s biggest online bookstore, but they had a problem. People were adding products to their baskets… then dropping off. It doesn’t sound disastrous, but it was silently killing them. - Conversion was plateauing - Abandonment rates were climbing - Customers were stalling at the final step Not because they didn’t want to buy. But because the process made it too easy to hesitate. So Amazon made one tiny change… They introduced: 1-Click Checkout. No forms. No logins. No typing in your card for the 10th time. Just one button. Click. Confirm. Done. The result? - Abandonment rates dropped - Conversions shot up - Revenue surged And analysts estimated the feature generated billions in additional revenue over the next decade. All from removing one step. Why did it work? Because humans hate friction. Now here’s the irony... In B2B, we do the exact opposite of what Amazon learned 20 years ago. Brands spend months refining their funnel, working on brand awareness, nurturing the mid-funnel, just to hit people with… “Book a demo” at the bottom Which usually means prospects have to: - Fill out a form - Check their diary - Wait for a follow-up - Sit through a 30-minute call - Just to understand what the product is Then they wonder why lead gen is slow. Lesson: Stop making your CTA a barrier Amazon removed friction and made billions, it’s time B2B companies did the same. ——— Follow me for more B2B marketing Niall Ratcliffe

What if I told you that your payment system is quietly leaking millions of dollars every year — and you don’t even see it? Let’s learn a case study by Tranzzo. Most conversations around payment orchestration focus on connectivity, compliance, and coverage. But the real threat to revenue often hides in plain sight: your routing logic. Revenue leakage from poor routing rarely shows up as a red flag. Merchants don’t usually “see” the missed approvals — they only notice slightly lower revenue, unexpected churn, or strange fluctuations in conversion metrics. Each misrouted transaction quietly erodes unit economics, and the damage only becomes obvious when it’s already significant. 👉 From my experience, key sources of hidden loss include: 🔹 Grey zone transactions - delayed approvals that temporarily block cash flow and reduce operational predictability. 🔹 Overpaid transaction fees - static routing often sends payments through suboptimal PSPs, unnecessarily increasing costs. 🔹 Data loss for fraud and risk models - limited routing insights reduce the predictive accuracy of anti-fraud algorithms. 🔹 Short-term channel optimization - focusing solely on the cheapest PSP or corridor can negatively impact customer lifetime value (LTV), especially in cross-border payments. Industry data confirms the impact - approval rate gaps between optimal vs. suboptimal routing can range from 5% to 12%, depending on vertical and geography. For large merchants, that difference translates directly into millions of dollars annually. I have had a conversation about this topic with the team at Tranzzo, who’ve spent years refining adaptive smart routing for merchants across Europe, America, and MENA. Their approach to dynamic orchestration — routing decisions made in real time, based on live data: 🔹 PSP uptime and latency 🔹 Geo-specific approval trends 🔹 Currency conversion efficiency 🔹 Even time-of-day performance patterns In practice, this means the system continuously learns and adapts. Every payment is routed along the optimal path to maximize approval rates while minimizing costs. The benefits extend beyond cost efficiency — merchants gain faster settlement cycles, improved cash flow predictability, and stronger customer trust. 👉 The key takeaway In a fragmented global payments ecosystem, relying on a single acquirer or static routing logic is no longer viable. The real competitive edge lies in the ability to adapt transactions dynamically, at scale, and in real-time. The question I keep returning to is: how many merchants are silently leaking revenue today — and how many will take the strategic leap to treat routing as a core part of their growth playbook? #fintech #payments #paymentorchestration

Founders focus on sales & marketing but often overlook what’s more important—actually closing the sale. The checkout experience. As e-commerce evolves, Indian customers have become pickier. They don't just want to buy your product—they want security, seamlessness, and an experience while doing it. Customers at the checkout page are the highest-intent customers, and losing them is unforgivable. Here’s what I learned while scaling Dr. Vaidya's by RPSG Group from 50 to 5,000 orders/day: 1.Fewer clicks and steps in checkout mean higher conversion. 2.When customers see a trusted payment interface, cart abandonment drops. 3.Single-click checkout leads to higher conversions, and multiple payment options help (card, UPI, BNPL, etc.). It doesn’t seem so important from the outset, but choosing a payment partner is crucial. When we switched to Razorpay, they checked the boxes: 1.Faster checkout, clean experience 2.Fewer abandoned carts 3.Multiple payment options Customers experienced a sense of familiarity, trust, and ease when interacting with it. And this led to real business outcomes. The e-commerce space is maturing in India, and operating a brand is now more science than art. Customers care, and the small things matter. Agree? PS: This shirt is my latest e-commerce purchase. It was a super clean checkout experience. Guess the brand and gateway :) #ecommerce #conversion #d2c #india #startup

Want to improve your cart experience without breaking conversions? 🤔 Here's how. The cart page is one of your store's most underestimated conversion assets. Everyone talks about homepages and product pages, but let’s be honest – no one’s buying if your cart doesn't feel like a natural next step. Here's how you can optimize the cart for a smoother checkout and keep your conversion rates intact: ✔ Minimize friction, not features Keep it clean – but not empty. Let customers edit quantities, remove products, and see costs transparently. Don’t hide shipping or taxes until checkout – it’s a trust-breaker. ✔ Don’t push upsells – position them Instead of popups, try smart inline recommendations (“You might also like”) based on cart contents. Keep it helpful, not pushy. ✔ Mobile-first always wins Ensure buttons are easy to tap, forms are short, and autofill works like magic. Cart abandonment is brutal on mobile – design to convert. ✔ Test, test, test A/B test changes with clear goals: higher checkout rates, faster cart completion, etc. 💡 What works for one brand might tank another’s conversion flow. The cart is the bridge between browsing and buying. Don’t let it be a roadblock. What’s one cart tweak that improved your store’s performance?👇 #shopify #ecommerce

Nothing was broken. But something wasn’t working. At Nappa Dori, a brand known for craftsmanship and design, everything looked fine. The site was polished. The systems were stable. No glaring bugs. And yet… people kept dropping off at checkout. 📉 As product folks, we’re trained to look for errors, latency, broken APIs. But this wasn’t that. This was friction. Too many fields. Repeated inputs. A checkout that didn’t feel as smooth as the brand itself. This made the flow feel harder than it needed to be. The team made one smart move: they added in Razorpay Magic Checkout. Customer details auto-filled. Checkout got 5X faster. COD risks were flagged automatically. Behind the scenes, Razorpay Magic Checkout pulls saved addresses and payment info using just a mobile number. The SDK handles everything: UI, coupons, payments, and even flags risky COD orders using machine learning. ✅ This one change and conversions were up 7.3%, repeat orders were higher, and the checkout finally matched the brand. For me, the takeaway is simple: 1️⃣.Growth sometimes comes from doing less, not more. 2️⃣.Removing friction is as powerful as adding features. 3️⃣.Product and engineering decisions directly shape revenue. And here’s why it matters now. Friction doesn’t just cost you customers, it costs you more when traffic is peaking. Which is why as festive sales surge, small checkout improvements can protect margins and unlock disproportionate growth. Because at the end of the day, money doesn’t just move because of what you sell. It moves because of how easy you make it for someone to say “yes.” Product folks, what’s the one product fix that saved you this festive season❓