What are integrated payments? 4 benefits for business

Key takeaways:

• Integrated payments connect your existing system to a payment processor, streamlining the entire transaction process and creating a seamless checkout experience.

• This integration provides numerous benefits, including improved efficiency, enhanced security, and better financial management.

• Integrated payments also improve the checkout experience, and speed up the transaction process, leading to higher customer satisfaction.

Digital payment popularity is constantly increasing as digital wallets account for 50% of global eCommerce transaction value in 2023, a number that’s expected to rise to 61% by 2027¹. But accepting digital payments as your business scales, expands into new markets, or faces increasing operational complexity requires more than a connection to a payment processor.

Integrated payments offer solutions that embed seamlessly into a business’ existing software systems, allowing for smooth and efficient transaction processing. Customers can complete transactions directly on your site or app without being redirected to a third-party site, which can improve conversion rates.

Integrated payment solutions also come with a centralised dashboard for managing all payment activities, which simplifies the process of tracking transactions, handling disputes, and generating reports. They sometimes also automate the reconciliation process, reducing the need for manual bookkeeping and minimising errors.

Learn more about key features, benefits, and how to find the right solution for your business.

What are integrated payments?

Integrated payments refers to an integrated payment processing system that connects your point-of-sale (POS) system to a processor. This works with your website checkout, mobile shopping app, and brick-and-mortar POS, and accepts digital payments including cards, mobile wallets, and more.

For eCommerce businesses, this may mean that the eCommerce payment processing seamlessly integrates with your eCommerce platform, allowing customers to complete transactions without leaving the website. This ensures a smooth user experience for the customer and you. This also lets you enjoy features like automated reconciliation and centralised management, which are key benefits of integrated payment solutions.

How do integrated payments work?

Integrated payments work by connecting multiple payment and financial services so they can share information with each other. For example, if an online shopper decides to buy a new sweater, an integrated payment system works together to handle the transaction with minimal disruptions:

1. The customer adds the item to their cart and inputs payment details via an integrated checkout that keeps them on your site.

2. The checkout shares payment information with a payment gateway that passes it along through processing for verification.

3. The gateway receives payment approval (or rejection) from the customer’s bank and passes this back to the checkout.

4. The checkout confirms the transaction and completes the order.

If this was a non-integrated payment, the customer would be bounced from your site to a third-party checkout to share their payment details. Then, the customer returns to your checkout screen to confirm the order. These extra steps add friction to the process that can turn customers away and increase the chance for payment failure and other bugs to pop up.

Do you need an integrated payment system?

Any business that accepts digital payments can benefit from the efficiencies of an integrated payment system. But there are five signs you should consider before making a switch:

1. Your customers frequently abandon their carts due to a complicated or off-site payment process. An integrated payment system can streamline checkout, keep customers on-site, and improve conversion rates.

2. You find yourself spending a lot of time manually reconciling transactions. An integrated payment system can automate this process, saving you time and reducing mistakes.

3. You’re expanding internationally and need an integrated payment system that can scale with your business by offering a wider range of payment methods. You also want a reliable provider that can handle higher transaction volumes.

4. Your business is growing and a basic payment processor may struggle to handle increased transaction volumes. An integrated payment system can scale with your business.

5. You want to improve your payment processing security with an integrated system that offers advanced security features like tokenization and encryption to protect customer data.

From customer experience to business security, all-in-one integrated payments can streamline processes for any business looking to address these challenges.

4 ways integrated payments benefit your business

Non-integrated payment systems leave more of the work to you, which creates additional business challenges. First, manual work increases the chance of human errors especially as you scale. Second, if you’re not an expert on user experience (UX) design or checkout security, implementing an efficient payment system can be difficult.

Here’s how integrated payments account can benefit you. 

1. Improve your user experience at checkout

The most obvious customer perk is improved UX throughout the checkout process. With integrated payments, you can reduce the steps required to make a purchase and customers can complete a transaction without leaving your site. This makes the entire checkout process faster and more intuitive, reducing the likelihood of cart abandonment.

Integrated payment systems also let you customise the payment interface to match your brand’s look and feel. This can help you maintain a professional and cohesive user experience. You also benefit from localised checkouts where customers can see their local currency and preferred payment methods automatically, reducing friction that can frustrate customers or increase abandoned carts.

2. Streamline your payment process

An integrated payments solution can automate payment processing, invoicing, and reconciliation to reduce the need for manual intervention, saving you time and reducing errors. This efficiency can lower your operational costs and improve overall business operations.

Payment automation is particularly valuable for SaaS companies that require recurring payment processing across various plans and payment schedules. Solutions like Airwallex can also integrate with your accounting software, providing real-time payment data.

Integrated payments track other data, too, like cash flow and inventory updates, all in one dashboard. With all of this information at your fingertips, you can identify areas for improvement and make informed, strategic decisions about your business.

3. Increase your revenue

Integrated payments have several advantages to boost your bottom line. The efficiencies that reduce manual labour and improve the checkout experience also decrease abandoned carts to increase conversion rates, driving revenue growth.

Beyond that, integrated systems support global payments that can help your business expand internationally. You can accept multiple currencies from more local payment methods, plus offer localised checkouts that dynamically update pricing based on location. This helps you reach new audiences and provides a sense of trust and security to support sales.

4. Secure sensitive customer and business data

Advanced security is a benefit of integrated payment systems that play a significant role in protecting you and your customers. This typically includes data encryption, tokenization, and compliance with international standards such as Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI-DSS). This framework provides basic requirements to protect payment data, businesses, and consumers.

Many integrated payment solutions invest in fraud detection. These advanced security features can protect your brand’s reputation from a wide range of security threats. This ensures the integrity of your transactions and builds trust and confidence.

Integrated payment alternatives

Integrated payment solutions are popular for their efficiency and can help your business scale, but they aren’t the only solution available. Businesses might need alternatives due to cost constraints or high-level customisation needs that off-the-shelf integrated systems don’t provide.

Here are some alternatives:

• Manual payment processing, where you would collect the payment and handle reconciliation yourself. This is suitable for businesses with low transaction volumes but can be time-consuming and prone to error.

• Third-party payment processors offer hosted gateways that take your customer off-site to checkout and initiate a payment gateway. They're easy to set up and use, but this isn’t as seamless as integrated payments. 

• Custom solutions are highly tailored payment systems built specifically for a business’s unique needs. These offer highly customisable features but could require significant time and effort.

Each of these systems can process a digital payment, but the benefits must be weighed against cost, UX, and efficiency‌. Integrated payments are much better suited for businesses at scale, especially if you want to expand globally.

How to get started with integrated payments

You need to find the right payment service provider to get started with integrated payments. End-to-end providers like Airwallex are ideal. We provide a Business Account, payment gateway, and processor, and customisable payment solutions from low-code checkouts to powerful APIs that help you scale.

Once you find a PSP like Airwallex that you like, setting up integrated payments is easy.

1. Create an account with the chosen provider. This usually involves providing basic business information and completing a verification process. Configure your business profile, including payment methods, currencies, and other settings.

2. Integrate the payment provider with your systems. Decide whether to use pre-built integrations (if available) or to develop a custom integration using the API. Work with your development team to integrate the payment provider into your existing systems. Use the provider’s sandbox environment to test the integration thoroughly.

3. Set up payment methods and rules. Configure the payment methods you want to offer, such as credit cards, bank transfers, and digital wallets. Set up rules for transaction routing to optimize for cost, speed, and success rates. 

4. Test your new payment integrations on your website and other platforms to identify and address any issues before a full-scale rollout. Monitor transaction performance, success rates, and any potential issues and adjust your payment setup to improve performance and customer experience.

Streamlined payments with integrated solutions

Integrated payments are great for streamlining your financial operations, enhanced security, and improving customer experience. With Airwallex’s Payment Solutions, you can easily improve your customer experience, increase your revenue, and streamline your business operations while benefiting from advanced security features.

Airwallex can also scale with you as your business grows, handling increased transaction volumes, while supporting multiple payment methods and currencies as you enter new markets.

Beyond just payments, Airwallex also offers a wide range of financial solutions including multi-currency accounts, and foreign exchange and transfers, which helps streamline your entire financial operations.

FAQs on integrated payments

What is an example of an integrated payment?

Any payment made via an integrated payment system is an integrated payment. Think shopping on Amazon or another major retailer’s site.

These businesses are so large that they offer multiple payment methods to serve their wide range of customers, including cards, ACH payments, digital checks, and BNPL services. As a global service, marketplaces like Amazon also have to consider localisation, like preferred payment methods, currencies, and localised prices and language.

Integrated payment systems allow on-site checkouts, initiate transactions, and identify the best processing route for cost and efficiency.

What is an integrated payment method?

An integrated payment method is also just an integrated payment. Integrated payment solutions can accept several payment methods, including credit cards, mobile wallets, and more depending on the merchant’s setup.

What is the difference between integrated and non-integrated payments?

Integrated payments are processed with an integrated payment system designed to streamline processing and merchant management. Integrated systems connect point-of-sale systems, payment gateways, processors, and other payment services to unify the system for maximum efficiency.

A non-integrated payment doesn’t process through an integrated system, which can negatively impact user experience by bouncing customers to a third-party site. The largest differences impact merchants, as non-integrated payments lack key features like automated reconciliation, routing optimisation, and transaction data recording.

Sources:

1. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1111233/payment-method-usage-transaction-volume-share-worldwide