Scaling Acquirer Workflows
By Barry Levett, Founder and Executive Chairman, SmartPesa
In an earlier article, we’d spoken about how acquirers could scale rapidly with SoftPOS. In the last two years, we’ve helped our clients accelerate merchant acquisition with SoftPOS implementation across three continents. However, with transaction volumes increasing at breakneck speed, scaling the technology is not enough to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage.
Scaling the Technology is Not Enough
Acquirers need to scale every part of the rollout – from the initial onboarding and approvals, to marketing outreach, reconciliation and service follow-ups. The complexity increases with the involvement of multiple stakeholders internally and externally, with varying demands according to local practices / languages.
Scaling the Entire Workflow
The end goal should be to have merchants up and running within an hour of registration, and every part of the workflow digitized, automated and paperless.
1. Digital signup: As first step, merchant data is gathered digitally through an easy-to-use app or via a website and transmitted to the acquirer via secure methods.
2. Automated eKYC: Leading acquirers are adopting Electronic Know-Your-Customer (eKYC) tools to speed up and in most cases automatically approve applications. There are numerous AI/ML based eKYC solutions providers available to acquirers, each providing convenient APIs through which all processes can be automated.
3. Consistent look-and-feel: As with any quality service provider, each acquirer’s products and services should have a consistent familiar look-and-feel and branding, and this extends to mobile apps especially in today’s world. The sense of familiarity and trust can help to drive adoption in the market.
4. Clear, accurate reporting and settlement: Information is needed in every business – for acquirers and merchants alike. Being able to easily retrieve (in-app or on-portal) information on transaction history, settlement status, receipt information, utilisation etc is a necessary pre-requisite. For acquirers in particular, access to a MIS reporting engine can assist in understanding merchant needs and where marketing efforts can be better directed.
5. Integrations: Single sources of truth help increase trust in data. At SmartPesa, we specialise in integrating with acquirers’ existing systems such as Merchant Management Systems and Payment Hosts. While the SmartPesa platform has its own databases, integration with existing systems does provide single source of truth assurance to our customers.
At SmartPesa, we work with our clients to not only scale their technology but partner with them to help scale their entire business.
