Every consumer wants to shop on their terms. For retailers, meeting demand for an ever-expanding range of payments and digital services no longer has to be costly or complex.

The evolution of e-commerce offerings continues to gain pace. After a sustained period of digital acceleration that brought a wave of new shoppers online, having the ability to meet a broad array of consumer preferences for their experience is table stakes.

To keep pace, online retailers continue to add new services to their e-commerce offerings. Whether that’s satisfying consumers who want to use digital wallets or Buy Now, Pay Later to pay for items or have flexibility in their last mile choices. 

However, group executive business banking at CommBank Mike Vacy-Lyle said: “Offering customers different payment methods and integrations traditionally requires merchants to complete multiple, complex website and cart integrations, costing time and money.” 

To simplify the process of connecting new services and reduce the operational and technical load for retailers, CommBank has launched its new PowerBoard payments orchestration platform to a limited selection of business customers. 

The solution – once rolled out more widely from mid this year – will allow merchants to simply “plug in” once, select from a menu of payment options and activate them for customers, including currently available features such as traditional card payments, digital wallets, like Apple Pay and Google Pay, and Buy Now, Pay Later alternative payment methods. PowerBoard is set to integrate additional payment methods such as domestic payment methods like eftpos and PayTo and digital gift cards. (These features are currently in development and anticipated to be released in future platform upgrades.)

“The benefit of PowerBoard for merchants is the simplicity and ease with which they can now access these services. It means they can keep up with market changes and future-proof their business while achieving technology efficiencies,” Vacy-Lyle says.

To deliver this solution, CommBank has partnered with the fintech and payments orchestration platform Paydock. This will combine the best global technology with bank-grade standards to give merchants peace of mind and meet enhanced security, fraud, data, and cyber standards. 

CommBank national manager retail & e-commerce David Martin adds that the solution can have a broader impact on retail businesses. 

“We’re hearing from retail clients that eliminating multiple integrations and not having to constantly update means they can redirect their attention, and budgets, to what matters. It leaves more time to focus on customers and growth within the business,” Martin says.

Western Sydney-based, Sydney Zoo, is one business that’s turned to PowerBoard to deliver a seamless and world-class online experience for its community, said Sydney Zoo IT manager Ronan Alonzo.

“With simple and collaborative planning and execution, we’ve been able to integrate PowerBoard online,” Alonzo says. “PowerBoard will further enable Sydney Zoo to go to market very quickly with more options for our guests, turn new features on and off as we need, and it will allow us to quickly take advantage of new innovations as they become available”.

In addition to payment methods, PowerBoard will simplify other technology integrations, such as enhanced security tools that support merchants to detect and prevent fraud. Having stronger fraud prevention can help retailers build and maintain trust with customers and may reduce the costs associated with chargebacks.

CommBank’s executive manager merchant technical sales and go to market Colin Baines says “PowerBoard gives retailers a single API that’s set to provide access not only to payments but third-party fraud monitoring, logistics and reporting”.

“The platform will be ever-changing, it’s designed to evolve and bring retailers of any size best-of-breed services as new providers come into the market. As it consolidates access, it also centralises reporting and unlocks richer data and insights across all services.”   

• To find out more about how PowerBoard can enhance your retail business, contact David Martin at insights@cba.com.au

Things you should know: The information contained in this article is published solely for informational purposes and provides general market-related information, and is not intended to be an investment research report. It does not take into account your objectives, financial situation or needs. You should consider seeking independent financial advice before making any decision based on information contained in this article. The information in this article and any opinions, conclusions or recommendations are reasonably held or made, based on the information available at the time of its publication but no representation or warranty, either expressed or implied, is made or provided as to the accuracy, reliability or completeness of any statement made in this article. PowerBoard is currently available to a limited amount of merchant customers which will be rolled out more widely from mid-2023. Eligibility criteria, terms and conditions and fees apply to CommBank’s merchant services. Please view our Merchant Agreement, Financial Services Guide and Operator and User Guides at our Merchant Support Centre.

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