In today's data-driven world, businesses are continuously seeking ways to leverage insights from their operations to gain a competitive edge. In this market, Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) can enhance their product set by leveraging transactional data they already have access to. By harnessing the power of data and analytics, merchants can make more informed decisions, enhance the customer experience, and drive overall growth for their businesses. This blog post will detail the benefits of using analytics and payment data provided by payment processors, focusing on the specific needs of ISV partners and different merchant-verticals.
Benefits of Payment Data for Merchants
Data-Driven Insights
Payment data provides a comprehensive view of customer behavior, preferences, and purchasing patterns. This enables merchants to make data-driven decisions and tailor their offerings to meet customer demands effectively. For example, in card-not-present settings, using data to improve the online customer shopping experience can lead to more sales conversions and decreased cart abandonment. In order to do this, one feature that ISVs can build includes autocomplete search toolbars.
This offers customers more accurate and relevant search predictions when they are initially searching for products on a merchant’s site. Additionally, autocomplete search tools can offer shoppers a frictionless checkout experience when inputting fields such as billing and shipping information. ISVs can build address autocomplete into the checkout forms they design for their merchants by combining a shopper’s IP Address with the first few numbers customers type into address form fields. According to a recent Baymard Institute study, improving checkout design and usability can lead to a 35% increase in conversion for ecommerce sales.
Streamlined Operations for Merchants
Payment data analytics can optimize various aspects of a merchant’s business such as inventory management, supply chain logistics, and pricing strategies, leading to increased efficiency and reduced costs for specific merchant-verticals.
ISVs can use customer order datasets such as those provided in the North Business Reporting API to programmatically provide merchants with analytics on customer behavior. This can help merchants predict future sales trends and give merchants a competitive edge with inventory management and sales forecasting. For example, merchants working in the retail space have found this data to be particularly helpful in estimating holiday sales of merchandise.
Additionally, many ISVs are now leveraging AI and advanced analytics to help their merchants optimize pricing strategies. Merchants in the hospitality, transportation, and entertainment verticals benefit significantly from adopting a variable pricing strategy. For example, hotels use dynamic pricing to adjust room rates based on seasonality and customer demand. Software that ISVs build can include optimized pricing within their wider business applications in order to gain a competitive edge when selling to merchants in these verticals.
Fraud Detection and Prevention
ISVs can embed analytics solutions into software to monitor payment transactions for irregularities. Some software providers use AI-powered fraud detection to identify customers who pose a high risk and prevent purchases by potential fraudsters. Specific activities that artificial intelligence can look for includes abnormally large transaction volumes, purchases at unusual times of the day, or purchases from geographic areas outside of normal ranges. Machine learning algorithms can be applied to identify suspicious transactions and flag them for further investigation.
ISVs can also accept various payment methods by building Point of Sale (POS) systems that use payment hardware that is P2PE certified, such as North’s Ingenico DESK 3500 or another P2PE-certified device combined with the Ingenico Semi-Integrated API. Terminals used as part of these payment options adhere to the highest data security standards by cryptographically protecting sensitive customer information from the point where merchants accept credit cards via the P2PE-certified device to the secure point of decryption.
Should ISVs embed analytics?
Seamless User Experience
Customizable Solutions
Competitive Edge
Conclusion
The power of analytics and payment data offers significant advantages to both merchants and ISVs serving different merchant-verticals. ISVs can gain a competitive edge and additional revenue streams by embedding analytics capabilities into their integrated payment solutions and empowering their merchant clients with valuable data-driven tools. By partnering with an ISV that harnesses these insights, merchants can make informed decisions, enhance customer satisfaction, and drive growth. As the demand for data and analytics continues to grow, embracing these technologies will be essential for staying ahead in the ever-evolving world of payments. To learn more about how North provides valuable data and analytics tools to help your business grow, contact our Sales Engineering team.