Payments Orchestrators Become Open Payment Platforms to Improve eCommerce Efficiency

As digital commerce evolves, businesses are constantly seeking innovative solutions to enhance their payment processes.

And providers are working around the clock to give them exactly that.

The emergence of open payment platforms, as one example, represents a significant step forward, offering a more flexible, secure and efficient approach to managing transactions, Andy McHale, senior director of product and market strategy at Spreedly, told PYMNTS.

“It’s an evolution of payments orchestration … as eCommerce has evolved over the last 10 to 15 years, consumer expectations have grown around how seamless their embedded payments experiences are,” McHale said. “The best payment experience is one that a customer doesn’t even notice.”

While orchestration focuses on facilitating transactions from point A to point B, open payment platforms encompass a broader spectrum of functionalities.

Open payment platforms aim to meet new expectations by integrating additional value-added services and providing a more seamless experience for consumers and merchants alike. This evolution, McHale said, is driven by the need for solutions that not only handle payments but also offer support tools for merchants and enhance the overall payment flow.

Understanding Open Payment Platforms

The goal of open payment platforms is to seamlessly connect and facilitate merchants’ payment flows, addressing their unique needs and helping them expand into new markets with minimal friction.

McHale gave as an example a U.S.-based streaming content platform looking to extend its reach to Latin America, Africa or Europe by leveraging the flexibility of an open payment platform without needing additional integrations.

“The nice thing about an open payments platform is it gives you flexibility. You can start small and grow into other things, and you don’t have to go get another integration to add the next piece, you can do it through the existing platform, and in many cases it’s a low-code, perhaps a toggle, or something very simple to add to a workflow,” he said, adding, “If a merchant starts as a U.S. business and wants to expand to another region, they can very easily add a second provider through their existing platform.”

This flexibility is particularly beneficial for subscription platforms, streaming content providers and marketplaces, allowing them to adapt and scale their operations.

For businesses considering the integration of an open payments platform, McHale recommended a “crawl, walk, run” approach. This method allows merchants to start with basic orchestration and gradually build upon their success.

“The payment stacks inside a merchant or ISV [independent software vendor] are high-risk things to touch. We talk about getting the building blocks going so that you see success and can grow on top of that success,” McHale said.

Vision for Open Payments

In an era marked by frequent cyberattacks and data breaches, security is paramount. Open payment platforms offer robust security measures to protect data and combat fraud.

“Security and fraud are never one-and-done,” McHale said. “You always have to be keeping up with trends, patches and breaches as they come up in the market.”

And open payment platforms provide foundational tools for PCI compliance, tokenization and secure payment method management. They also connect merchants to third-party fraud prevention vendors and other security services, ensuring they remain protected against evolving threats. McHale said this approach reduces merchants’ risk by minimizing their exposure to sensitive data.

He said Spreedly is at the forefront of the technological advancements represented by open payments platforms, continually exploring various avenues to integrate emerging technologies such as open banking, security, fraud prevention, data analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) into its open payment platform.

“We’re excited about the opportunities and interesting problems out there to solve for platforms, merchants and ISVs. It’s an interesting time in the industry,” McHale said. He noted that as these platforms continue to evolve, they will likely play a crucial role in optimizing authorization rates, reducing loss rates and accelerating time to market for businesses expanding into new regions.