A golden credit card, representing credit card payments and PCI DSS compliance

How to Achieve PCI DSS Compliance as an E-Commerce Business

Christoph Laurer Leave a comment

There are two important truths about PCI DSS in e-commerce environments: It’s easy to reach compliance. But it’s hard to maintain it. 

Well, in comparison, at least. Setting up a PCI DSS-compliant environment for credit card payments is never exactly “easy”. But many e-commerce companies will experience the upholding and the monitoring of measures to secure credit card data as a challenge – especially as the requirements evolve over time. In different phases of business development, e-commerce companies may find themselves struggling with: 

  • Putting up a profound strategy to uphold PCI DSS compliance over time. 
  • Analyzing the effectiveness of PCI security measures put in place. 
  • Discovering deviations from the standard required by PCI DSS. 
  • Educating their teams in putting the specifications into ongoing action. 

As an online retail business, this article may help you understand the requirements of PCI DSS, the challenges those requirements entail and possible actions to become compliant. It will: 

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A globe with pins all over it, representing local payment methods used in different countries

A Voyage Through the World of Payment Methods: How Your Customers Pay

Christoph Laurer Leave a comment

In e-commerce and online services, local payment methods grow in importance in many nations around the globe. On an international scale, the global credit card schemes have dominated online payments for a long time. But currently, they are in decline: Estimations state that in 2026, only around 16% of online payments will be conducted via credit cards.  At the same time, payment solutions by BigTech companies like Apple, Tencent and Amazon grow in favor. They are popular and well-known all over the globe. In addition, digital financing like Buy Now, Pay Later find widespread adoption on platforms. Customers flock to such payment options as they guarantee them greater financial flexibility in the face of high inflation and times of economic downturn. 

In any case, local payment methods are gaining steam: Some purely digital, some including offline interactions. Many such local payment methods have limited reach, only seeing adoption in specific regions or nations. However, sometimes a local payment method is able to expand beyond the confines of its region and become an international player. Today’s BigTech payment titans belong to this category.

Alternative payment methods encompass a variety of options, including: 

  • Bank Transfers 
  • Cash-on-Delivery
  • Direct Debit
  • Electronic Wallets
  • Voucher Payments 
  • And more…

The Payment Options Line-Up Reflects Local Payment Preferences  

Irrespective of their form, these alternative methods shape a country’s payment culture, which can vary greatly even between neighboring nations. Therefore, businesses looking to expand into new markets must consider local payment preferences. It’s estimated that up to 77% of transactions are made via alternative payment methods in some counties. 

This article is intended to assist companies in understanding the payment cultures of regional markets. It provides an overview and aims to offer businesses a starting point for their own in-depth research. The article will cover the following regions: 

  • Europe
  • Africa and the Middle-East
  • Asia and the Pacific
  • North America
  • South America

What payment methods do people in these parts of the world prefer? Let’s spin the globe a bit and have a look. 

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A person with a credit card sitting at a laptop, which symbolized online e-commerce payments

The Payment Construction: A Guide to Custom Solutions for E-Commerce Companies 

Christoph Laurer Leave a comment

In the realm of e-commerce, companies have to keep a fast pace and deliver on their target groups’ preferences. As customers demand frictionless payments, success is often defined by the smoothness and ease of transactions. Getting such payments on the road is a crucial challenge faced by many businesses. In pursuing this ideal, secure, custom payment solution often encounter roadblocks that hinder growth and efficiency. 

The good news is: Your e-commerce company doesn’t have to face such obstacles on its own. We are thrilled to announce a collaboration that will support you in optimizing payments, from start to finish. trimplement, EPAM, and CORE SE have united their experience in business consulting, payment domain knowledge, and payment software development. Doing so, we have created a free guide, we help you identify contemporary payment challenges and possible solutions. 

Let’s start right away.   

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A clarinette laying on a sheet of music, representing payment orchestration

What Is Payment Orchestration (And Why Is It a Game Changer)?

Christoph Laurer Leave a comment

Payment Orchestration describes the mechanism of integrating and handling different payment service providers, acquirers and banks on a single, unified software layer. The Payment Orchestration software executes and manages the complete end-to-end payment process. That includes payment authentication, multi-PSP transaction routing, settlement, and much more. Also, Payment Orchestration encompasses processes such as risk management, secure customer data storing, Know-Your-Customer and Anti-Money-Laundering procedures, and the like. 

A Payment Orchestration Platform (POP), or Payment Orchestration Layer (POL) is the technological framework that manages user and merchant accounts, acquirers, payment providers, fraud detection services, etc., initiating, validating, routing and processing transactions involving those parties. In addition, a Payment Orchestration Layer handles payment processes such as reconciliation, billing and settlement, payouts and reporting. 

A Payment Orchestration Layer (POL) is the entry point to and the heart of a payment system, streamlining payment automation. With POL, e-commerce platforms and online service providers don’t need to integrate every PSP and every acquirer separately. Instead, they can consume the unified API of the payment orchestration layer, benefiting from a reduced integration complexity. Moreover, a POL simplifies system maintenance and development for platform owners and merchants and streamlines interaction with third-party service providers.

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Second Hand Clothing representing payment systems in online fashion resale

How to Get Top Payments for Online Fashion Resale 

Christoph Laurer Leave a comment

Selling secondhand fashion online is as old as the web itself. 

We could argue that eBay was the first successful online marketplace to exist. 25 years later, pre-owned clothing is all the rage again with buyers and sellers. With new verve, fashion retailers have pushed into the resale market. A market which is projected to become a very lucrative one.

Brands like Dior, Chanel and Gucci have already adopted the practice of so-called branded resale. Many of their competitors are following suit. Some companies have run their online recommerce programs for a while now. A survey by statista proves them right: When it comes to digital features by luxury brands, customers look forward to resale programs above all else. For regular-income customers, the market is also in full swing. Fashion businesses in the mid-price segment have started resale programs, too. This includes those often labeled fast fashion. H&M, Shein and Zara are well on board. Even sports apparel brands adopt the practice – think Lululemon, Adidas, Nike or Decathlon.

But moving from e-commerce to recommerce comes with challenges for businesses – many of which relate to payment. This article will provide insights into the matter, discussing:

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A bottling jar with money in it, representing customer financing in fashion e-commerce

How to Tailor Consumer Financing in Online Fashion Retail? 

Christoph Laurer Leave a comment

As e-commerce continues to grow, online retailers are constantly looking for ways to increase their customer base and improve customer satisfaction. One way they are achieving this is by offering customer financing options. In this article, we will delve into: 

So, let’s get to it.

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A high-fashion purse and a smart watch, standing for buy now, pay later in the fashion industry

The Pros and Cons of Buy Now, Pay Later in Online Fashion Retail  

Christoph Laurer Leave a comment

Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) allows customers to buy something online, but pay for it after delivery. A BNPL payment can be made in installments over a period of time or as a full payment at a fixed date. Thus, the payment method is a novel variant of purchase on account, for short-term financing of goods. 

No traditional banking institutions have to be involved when paying in BNPL installments. What’s more, some BNPL companies even refrain from charging interest rates – a practice that banks still adhere to.

With the economic downturn threatening the margins of online fashion retailers, Buy Now, Pay Later can be a tool to keep customers happy in spending. 

In this article, we will have a look at the how and why. We will cover… 

  • Why the fashion industry is under pressure and how BNPL can help
  • What the core advantages of Buy Now, Pay Later are
  • What options you have when trying to get a Buy Now, Pay Later solution for your platform
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A street sign with two arrows pointing in opposite directions, symbolizing refund processes in e-commerce.

How to Build Powerful Refund Processing for E-Commerce 

Christoph Laurer Leave a comment

Returns and refunds are a major concern for retailers. One important factor is cost. In 2021 alone, the combined value of all returns in the U.S. was $761 billion. What’s more, The fees that merchants have to pay to payment providers for refunds to the original source of payment add to this amount. Building their own e-wallet-based payment system can reduce these costs while improving the customer experience. But how to build an efficient refund processing for e-commerce platforms – that’s what we want to answer in this article. 

In the following paragraphs, we will take a look at: 

  • The difference between returns and refunds
  • The typical flow of a refund in online retail
  • The challenges of refunding payments
  • The advantages of an e-wallet system for refunding
  • The process of building one yourself

And: action! 

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A picture displaying a clock and money, symbolizing buy now pay later payments

How to Build Your Own BNPL Solution

Christoph Laurer Leave a comment

Buy Now, Pay Later (also: BNPL) is shaking up the payment market. In 2020, it already made up 5% of annual e-commerce transactions, according to Bain & Company. And the trend is upward, as many online retailers plan to introduce BNPL payment options, as well. The key question for those companies is: 

What is the best way to set up a payment system that includes BNPL options? 

This boils down to the simple choice between turnkey payment systems by 3rd parties or a custom system built and run in-house.    

The first option is quicker and doesn’t require as much domain knowledge and development resources as the second one. However, it comes with disadvantages in the long run such as: 

  • Continuous fees that cut into revenue
  • Dependency on a third party regarding updates and features
  • Risk of so-called vendor lock-in, when the BNPL provider cannot deliver the service or changes the price structure, while no alternative provider is available
  • Possibility that the BNPL solution in question no longer fits the retailers’ business strategy as it evolves 

When building a custom payment system with Buy Now, Pay Later options, these problems can be avoided or mitigated. Companies are even better positioned with an e-wallet system, as BNPL processes can also be built on top of it. 

In this article, we provide an overview of how companies can build their own BNPL solution – and why this is even easier with a powerful e-wallet framework.

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A hand drops a coin into a Starbucks paper coffee cup, symbolizing the principle of a Starbucks bank

Is Starbucks Becoming a Bank? And If So, Should You Become One, Too?

Camillo Crispino Leave a comment
Portrait of Camillo Crispino, Head of Marketing at trimplement
Camillo Crispino takes a deep dive into Starbucks’ embedded finance ambitions

Starbucks could be turning into a bank. Not that they talk much about this fact. But for a few years, the coffee giant doesn’t content itself with brewing up your morning cup of coffee only. They’re brewing up their own financial services, too.

At the center of this venture stands the Starbucks App and the in-house loyalty program Starbucks Rewards. Together, those components have formed an unlikely financial services ecosystem enclosed in the Starbucks brand. The Starbucks App allows customers to order and pay contactless in Starbucks branches. And by paying like this, they also gather loyalty points for the Starbucks Rewards program to spend on benefits.

This development has only accelerated over the years. Yet, it also has suffered pushback in the recent past, when Starbucks changed the loyalty points/free drinks ratio – making some items cheaper and others more expensive in terms of loyalty points to spend getting them. Yet, the outrage only proves how popular Starbucks’ Rewards program is.  

And one other popular practice related to the Starbucks App has made headlines over the last years: As user numbers of the Starbucks App rise, so does the amount of money deposited on their prepaid cards. Electronic money laying unused on card accounts… has Starbucks turned into a bank? And is this a business model, other companies might want to adopt? 

Well, don’t start depositing your spare change into a latte cup, just yet. Let’s take a look at what’s really going on behind the scenes first. In the following paragraphs, we will explore:

  • How Starbucks turned from a coffeehouse to a fintech player
  • Which benefits the company reaps from its financial services
  • If Starbucks is actually a bank now
  • How other companies can embark on the same route as Starbucks – and profit from it
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