A computer besides a wallet, symbolizing payment gateways, online payment and ewallets

E-Wallets or Payment Gateways – A Comparison

Christoph Laurer Leave a comment

When we compare e-wallets or payment gateways to payment with card or cash, we often evaluate the former as more convenient. That might be a bit of an overstatement, really. Holding your credit card in front of a card reader does not exactly sound like much work, does it?

No, what really makes modern digital payment methods so powerful is their feature-richness and flexibility. For example, you can simply conduct cross-border payments or transfer tiny amounts of money with digital payment methods. And even if you are bound to our own four walls (for some reason), you can pay for goods and commodities with just a few clicks. 

But payment does not equal payment. Behind the scenes of your checkout page, in the technical profundities of the software, it makes a huge difference whether the payment happens via an e-wallet balance or a digital bank or credit card transfer, facilitated by a payment gateway. 

Payment Gateways vs. E-Wallets? Not Quite!

However, make no mistake and don’t take “Payment gateways or e-wallets” literally. The two are not exact opposites: You need PGs to process a transaction no matter what. The real question is: How exactly does using e-wallets vs. regular payment providers influence the payment process, especially regarding user experience? 

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A person holding a credit card facing an online marketplace, symbolizing online payment and the payment gateways in charge of the transfer

How to Tell Payment Gateways from Payment Service Providers (And Which One to Choose)

Christoph Laurer Leave a comment

Digital platforms are the go-to spots for e-commerce – and terminals for countless payment transactions. 

Whatever platform a customer uses (be it Amazon, Etsy, a niche marketplace for specific goods like Chewy or a “meta-marketplace” like Check24), they will have to pay for their order at some point. That’s when Payment Service Providers and Payment Gateways make their appearance. It’s their job to detect fraud and validate the purchasing agreement. And ultimately, to debit accounts and move money.

But what exactly is a marketplace payment system and what is the difference between a Payment Gateway and a Payment Service Provider? This article will provide: 

  • A definition of Payment Gateways in contrast to Payment Service Providers
  • An overview of the parties involved in online marketplace transactions
  • Next steps for building your own Payment Gateway
  • Access to a Free White Paper About Payment Gateways

Let’s start. 

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A software developer working on coding a payment gateway

How to Develop a Payment Gateway – in 4 Stages

Christoph Laurer Leave a comment

Online marketplaces are complex systems. This complexity is reflected in the Payment Gateway needed for such platforms.

As a marketplace owner, you always have the option to integrate payment systems, offered by external Payment Service Providers. Depending on your business strategy, that might suffice. But using an off-the-shelf PSP will also limit your opportunities. You can’t evolve your marketplace to your preferences if the PSP doesn’t move along with you:

  • You want to offer payment methods, according to customer demand? The PSP must support them.
  • You want to scale up your business and move to new markets? The PSP must be set up to handle higher transaction numbers and adapt quickly to local financial regulations.
  • You want to enable customers to pay via a prepaid e-money balance and securely store their payment instruments? The PSP must offer an electronic wallet.
  • And so on…

Thus, ambitious marketplace owners might decide to build a custom Payment Gateway and remain in control over payments. As the company behind CoreWallet, the flexible software foundation for payment and e-wallet applications, we are familiar with creating Payment Gateways. It’s important to approach the development process with a clear plan. To help you master the technical challenges, we have compiled the common stages of such a Payment Gateway project for you.

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A photo of Stephan Noller, CEO and co-founder of Ubirch, besides the interview topic of digital identity in fintech

finquiry #5: Stephan Noller on Digital Certification in IoT 

Christoph Laurer Leave a comment

Over the course of the coming years, the web could permeate even more aspects of our lives than just computers and smartphones. The new smart devices are fridges and bicycles, forklifts and robotic vacuum cleaners, trucks and industrial machinery. In this internet-of-things, devices measure data points to adjust their workings and exchange data with users. 

But how do IoT devices record, store and transfer their data in a secure manner? And is decentralized technology the right approach technology for identification and certification in the internet-of-things? Internet Entrepreneur Stephan Noller has answers – and provides insights into the development of Europe’s first digital vaccination certificate.

Our Guest: Stephan Noller, CEO at UBIRCH

Psychologist, Internet expert, deep-tech serial entrepreneur. Cologne, Tel Aviv, Dubai. Stephan Noller has pursued software, blockchain and data-exchange projects with international appeal. He is the founder and CEO of UBIRCH GmbH, but he also co-founded a variety of other businesses, like Calliope gGmbH, which created an educational micro-computer for schools, or nugg.ad, the European market leader for targeting technology.

Together with a consortium of renowned companies, the Cologne-based company has developed and is operating the official infrastructure of the EU Digital COVID Certificate for Germany.

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A hand holding lollipos, which stand for loyalty programs

How You Build a Wallet-Based Loyalty Program And Profit 

Christoph Laurer Leave a comment

One of the key drivers of growth and profitability is customer retention. You may be converting a nice piece of your traffic into sales. But you need a healthy customer retention rate, i.e. your ability to keep a paying customer over a period of time. Else, you will be spending more money over time on acquiring new customers.

The cost of acquiring a new customer is high. According to Harvard Business Review that cost can amount to 5 to 25 times more than it takes to retain a customer. That is why you will see a lot of businesses have implemented a loyalty program to entice people to return and increase retention.

But what would a higher retention rate mean for merchants? According to Bain & Company, a 5% increase in retention rates can raise profits by more than 25%. By having a loyalty program in place, you end up spending less while simultaneously increasing your profits by targeting your existing customers.

With this article, we want to help you build a thriving business as a merchant or marketplace platform owner by granting customers the incentive of loyalty points. We outline how you can integrate a loyalty program into a payment system built with CoreWallet. The article will answer the questions: 

  • What is a loyalty program?
  • What types of loyalty programs exist?
  • How to set up a point-based loyalty program for your business – on the technical side?
  • Why will you benefit from implementing your loyalty program with CoreWallet?   
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An empty roll of toilet paper representing entrepreneurship failures

Entrepreneurshit – 6 Common Failures of Entrepreneurs and Start-Up Companies

Matthias Gall Leave a comment

“Don’t fear failure, learn from it.” That’s what my coffee cup says. 

Matthias Gall, co-founder of trimplement
trimplement co-founder Matthias Gall is not shy to talk about entrepreneurial setbacks.

Easy for it to talk. 

Sure, entrepreneurial mistakes can teach us valuable lessons. But honestly: Some failures are nothing you can just brush off. For instance, when you have launched a company and it goes downhill. You will have invested capital and time, plus you have employees you may not want to lay off. In hindsight, it might make a good story for a F*** Up Night. But wouldn’t we prefer if it all had just worked out? A coffee cup does know nothing about the nuances of entrepreneurship. 

I can speak from experience. Over a decade ago, my two co-founders and I established our fintech software company trimplement as a German limited liability company. As matters stand now, it turned out pretty well for us. A lot could have gone wrong, though, and I want to help aspiring entrepreneurs avoid such mistakes. 

Here are some common failures newly minted company founders face – let me tell you, I know them from experience.  

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Two people with VR goggles, representing interactions with the metaverse and its payment systems

How FinTechs and BigTechs Bring Payment to the Metaverse

Natallia Martchouk Leave a comment
Photo of Natallia Martchouk, co-founder of trimplement
trimplement co-founder Natallia Martchouk takes us on a trip through the thrilling prospects of payments in the metaverse.

The Metaverse has been one of the hottest topics in business and tech in the last few months. Is this only a buzzword and a hype or does it have a real longer-term potential to become the “next big thing”? You can find supporters for both opinions. However, a lot of big consultancy companies believe that there is no way to fail for the Metaverse.

For example, according to CB Insights “the metaverse could represent a $1T market by the end of the decade”. Deloitte has published a white paper about the potential of the Metaverse and they believe in even higher numbers: “The metaverse may become a paradigm shift for consumer and enterprise behavior, analogous to the introduction of smartphones. It could create a potentially massive new market, with recent estimates of the commercial opportunity as high as $13 trillion and five billion regular users by 2030.” Accenture has launched the Accenture Metaverse Continuum business group to help their clients to understand and make use of the Metaverse opportunities. Its head Paul Daugherty stated that “The next generation of the internet is unfolding and will drive a new wave of digital transformation far greater than what we’ve seen to date, transforming the way we all live and work”.

I’m also rather on the optimistic side of supporters believing that Metaverse is not the hype but a next step in the technological, social and economical development of mankind. 

However, before we analyze the current development status and prospects of the Metaverse, paying special attention to the payment topics, let’s review what “Metaverse” actually means and how it is different from “Web 3.0”.

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Three board game pieces symbolizing German companies getting into fintech

5 German Companies Blossoming Into Fintech Players

Christoph Laurer Leave a comment

We don’t only buy from them. We also pay with them. 

In contemporary e-commerce and digital service platforms, we observe a growing number of players who enter the realm of fintech. Those originally non-financial companies understand that offering embedded financial services has become a key success factor. And for some: A profitable side business (if they can sell their self-built payment or wallet systems to other companies).

Those companies realize their fintech ambitions in various forms: Some just rely on external partners and simply embed financial services, such as insurance or loans. Others have higher aspirations and aim at core payment processes. They want to run their own payment solutions. Perspectively, external enterprises or customers not associated with their primary business should use them, too.

If we had to guess: The former paragraphs had specific brands pop up before your mind’s eye. Apple, Amazon and Google. WeChat, perhaps. And of course, the term “Pay” attached to all of them. 

But besides the big names, non-financial companies from various industries have broken ground in fintech. 

And as we have a certain affinity to the German fintech scene, we want to take a look at 5 of new fintech players from Germany and where their ambitions lie. Here goes, from B to Z:

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A violet LEGO brick, symbolizing the platformization of fintech and Stripe's and Klarna's role in it

The Platformization of Fintech: What Stripe and Klarna Do Right

Matthias Gall Leave a comment
Matthias Gall, co-founder of trimplement
trimplement co-founder Matthias Gall shares his thoughts on the ongoing platformization of fintech.

In the financial industry, we are never shy to celebrate a good rivalry. Neobanks compete with banks who compete with fintechs who compete with Google, Amazon or Apple who compete with each other (and WeChat). Yet, the industry has also become known for promising partnerships. Technical providers, fintech platforms, merchants, telcos etc. combine their resources and expertise. 

I can relate: Where partners with different backgrounds support each other, it’s easier to create approach problems from different angles and overcome obstacles (shoutout to my co-founders here). Likewise, partnerships between fintech companies allow them to tackle new portions of the market and improve customer experience or services – and that’s often the goal. What’s more, where technological partners join forces, we can also see huge jumps in innovation regarding infrastructure. Those companies often lay the groundwork for other companies to utilize in their products and services. 

For me, the recent co-op of fintech platform Stripe and Buy Now, Pay Later provider Klarna stands as a prime example of this later case. The cooperation of those two effectively presents a straightforward route to BNPL for single online shops and platforms. Online businesses just have to tie in the Stripe integration and their BNPL is basically ready to go. 

However, this would not be as significant, if both Stripe and Klarna had not become known for their extensive service portfolio. Stripe acts as a payment facilitator for online marketplaces while, at the same time, being a fintech platform itself. It’s an expression of a trend some in the industry call the platformization of fintech. 

What do I mean by that?

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A credit card used for payment on an online platform

How Online Card-Based Payments Function

Christoph Laurer Leave a comment

On today’s online platforms, we face an extensive choice of (digital) payment methods, some of them fairly non-traditional (like blockchain-based payments), some having been around for a while (like credit card, direct debit, vouchers and gift codes). In some countries, payment methods that bridge the online and offline spheres of web shopping remain popular, too, such as cash-on-delivery. In others, BNPL and e-wallet-based payment flows are popular. This article will take a deep look into one specific form of online payment, though:

Card-Based Online Payments

These include all manners of payment cards such as Credit Cards, Debit Cards and Prepaid Cards. They may exist in purely digital form or have a physical equivalent. In any case, local banks issue the cards and they operate on the rails of international or domestic Payment Card Schemes.

In the following paragraphs, we will focus on credit card-based payment systems, presenting their basic flows and involved parties (like issuer, acquirer and so on). This article will examine in detail:

And go! 

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