Accelerating Global Expansion with Payment Orchestration

Expanding your operations across borders means integrating with local payment processors and managing multiple payment service provider (PSP) relationships. Add to this the complexities of complying with local and global regulations, adding local currencies, and accounting for interchange and conversion fees that can vary by provider, and it becomes clear that scaling your global ecommerce business can be overwhelming.

Payment orchestration simplifies the process of expanding globally. By leveraging PSP relationships and pre-built integrations included in a payment orchestration platform, merchants can easily launch in new markets without the need to source new payment providers or integrate directly. Instead, only a single API integration is needed to connect to the platform itself—opening up a world of payment methods, providers, currencies, and more. 

Payment orchestration offers several features that simplify and optimize a merchant’s international payment operations.

Centralized Management

In addition to offering existing integrations and relationships, payment orchestration also centralizes the management of PSPs. So, there’s no need to integrate or maintain integrations with each individual provider. All providers can be managed through a single platform.

Performance and Cost Optimization

Payment orchestration dynamically routes payments to different providers to optimize authorization rates based on the most reliable provider. In the event of an issue, this provides a fail-safe so transactions are still successful. Additionally, transactions are directed to the most cost-effective provider to reduce interchange fees. 

Advanced Technology

Payment orchestration provides an abstraction layer that allows you to implement and scale payments without worrying about the complexities of currency exchanges, alternative payment methods, data reconciliation, and more.

Scale Seamlessly

Payment orchestration helps merchants onboard and scale faster to take advantage of market opportunities as they arise. It is much easier to move into a new market with an established provider that maintains relationships worldwide.

Reduced Scope for Compliance

Compliance requirements are often laborious and challenging for merchants to meet, especially across multiple countries with different regulations. Orchestration platforms can reduce the scope of PCI compliance, GDPR, and other compliance standards through tokenization, which keeps card data off merchant systems.

Provider-Agnostic Approach

It is important for orchestration providers to maintain neutrality and give merchants full control over routing decisions using a rules-based approach. In some cases, payment orchestration platforms will route traffic to providers that provide a financial incentive to do so. It is in the merchant’s best interest to look for a “provider-agnostic” platform, meaning the platform does not prefer any provider over another. 

Customization and Flexibility

Payment orchestration providers should offer the ability to tailor solutions for specific regions, business models, and business units. A one-size-fits-all approach is not suitable.

Integration Capabilities

Orchestration providers should offer depth and breadth of integrations with various payment services and methods. A wide variety of providers will make a difference in how fast you can go to market. 

Transparency and Trust

Merchants should understand their track record and look for providers that offer full transparency if an issue arises. This will speak to the provider's openness and ability to build a trustful working relationship.

Enterprise-Grade

Not all payment orchestration providers are fully enterprise-grade, and some may not have fully integrated and actually processed payments with all of their payment partners. Find out where they are currently processing transactions and the volume they are handling in the regions you plan to do business.

Customer Support

Orchestration providers should offer an SLA that addresses the level of support you will receive in the event of an issue, including response times and access to skilled level one or two engineers. 

IXOPAY’s Senior Director of Global Advisory Services, Aaron Chesley said, “We see payments orchestration going deeper into other parts of the value chain. For example, there are other players in the payment value chain that are often very focused and specialized, like loyalty, fraud, or subscriptions, that can realize value. Payment orchestration, at its core, is seen as one API that lets you work with the multiple APIs of all the different payment providers. The role of payment orchestration is to make things easier for clients.”

Payment orchestration can significantly simplify global expansion efforts for merchants by providing a unified interface for managing multiple payment integrations, optimizing performance, and ensuring compliance across different markets. It is now an imperative for businesses looking to operate globally while optimizing payment processes, improving customer experiences, and increasing revenue growth. 

When selecting an orchestration provider, merchants should carefully evaluate the platform's customizability and ability to support their specific needs. As the payments landscape continues to evolve, payment orchestration is poised to play an increasingly critical role in enabling merchants to navigate the complexities of global expansion and drive growth in new markets.

Want to learn more? Check out a full replay of the webinar referenced in this post.