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Guide to Omnichannel Payments

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The GoCardless content team comprises a group of subject-matter experts in multiple fields from across GoCardless. The authors and reviewers work in the sales, marketing, legal, and finance departments. All have in-depth knowledge and experience in various aspects of payment scheme technology and the operating rules applicable to each. The team holds expertise in the well-established payment schemes such as UK Direct Debit, the European SEPA scheme, and the US ACH scheme, as well as in schemes operating in Scandinavia, Australia, and New Zealand. See full bio

Last editedJune 20222 min read

The way that consumers make purchases is constantly changing, and people are increasingly looking for different ways to pay for goods and services. Businesses need to keep up with these trends by offering their customers various options, with online and mobile payments now an essential component of any business model.

While all of these different options make life much more convenient for your customers, you now have to deal with diverse and complex payment systems. This is where omnichannel payment processing comes in. Essentially, this means that multiple payment channels are combined into a single channel, offering a more consistent and integrated user experience.

Read on to find out more about omnichannel payments solutions and how they could benefit your business.

What are omnichannel payments?

First of all, it’s important to answer the question: what is omnichannel payments? To put it simply, it’s a way of combining all the different ways in which your business carries out payment processing. With payments coming in from all different sources, such as ACH payments, debit cards, Apple Pay and more, it’s essential to find a way to simplify this.

Omnichannel payments solutions integrate payment processes and offer a single view of your customer interactions. Customers will have a single, consistent experience of the checkout, no matter which payment method they choose. What this means is that when they reach the checkout, they will be offered various payment options, and then will go through a consistent series of pages with the same company branding until their payment is complete.

Important considerations for omnichannel payment processing

If you decide to use omnichannel payments, then there are various things you need to take into consideration. Perhaps the most important factor when implementing omnichannel payment processing is data integration. Many businesses use a variety of different third-party payment providers for things such as mobile payments and online payments, which holds them back from offering an omnichannel experience.

This means that all data relating to payments must go through a single processor, no matter what payment method is chosen. In other words, don’t use a different system to check for ACH and credit card payments, just use one integrated payment portal for all kinds of payment.

Omnichannel payments and security

As with any kind of payment processing, security should be prioritised when you make the switch to an omnichannel payment system. Some payments are more secure than others, and there are a variety of different standards that need to be followed depending on the specific payment type.

In addition to this, there are some features that you should check to ensure a secure payment experience for your customers. Tokenisation is essential to protect your customers’ sensitive data, and encryption can also be a useful way to keep payment information safe.

What are the benefits of omnichannel payments solutions?

There a number of reasons why you should consider switching to omnichannel payments, which include but are not limited to:

Offering your customers a seamless experience, with consistent branding throughout the payment process. This helps to build customer relationships and trust, and can in turn have a positive effect on sales.
Optimising operations efficiency and reducing IT costs over time.
It’s easier to follow customer activities across a variety of touchpoints to fully understand their purchasing habits. This data can be accessed in real-time by managers in order to get quick insights.
Thanks to this easily accessible data, it’s quick and easy to implement changes in response to a changing market.
Purchasing products and services becomes much easier and more convenient for customers, meaning they are more likely to make these purchases.

Overall, switching to omnichannel payment processing is a win-win situation, offering a better experience for customers and greater insights for the business.

We can help

GoCardless helps you automate payment collection, cutting down on the amount of admin your team needs to deal with when chasing invoices. Find out how GoCardless can help you with ad hoc payments or recurring payments.