Unify, recognize, convert: making the case for connected payment experiences

If you’re like many businesses, your payment infrastructure resembles a patchwork quilt of disconnected systems—each requiring separate management, integrations, and compliance.

Unified commerce addresses these inefficiencies by:

Reducing integration costs. Unified commerce provides a single integration point. This consolidation can dramatically lower development and maintenance costs—a critical advantage if you have legacy systems that make integration difficult.

Streamlining vendor management. Siloed systems typically mean you have multiple vendor relationships with different contracts, support requirements, and relationship needs. By unifying these systems, you can simplify vendor management and potentially negotiate better terms.

Decreasing compliance scope. Handling sensitive payment data entails substantial regulatory and security requirements. Unified commerce can help you minimize your compliance efforts with tokenization, so sensitive payment data never touches your servers. Customer data is stored in Visa's enterprise-level, tier-4 data centers so you can eliminate the expenses associated with managing 300+ PCI DSS security controls.

Improving operational efficiency. Unifying your reporting across channels helps eliminate the time-consuming task of reconciling data from multiple systems. This visibility enables faster, more accurate decision making and better resource allocation.

When shoppers are consistently identified across touchpoints, they feel valued and understood. This is good business, too: 67.9% of consumers said a compelling rewards program was a top feature they wanted from merchants.¹

Yet it’s difficult to maintain this recognition as customers move between channels. Unified commerce helps identify customers across all interactions and throughout their entire buying cycle through tokenization.

Tokenization can offer:

Higher repeat purchases. With Token Management Service, you can generate secure customer profiles that track buying behavior across channels and payment types. This helps you recognize customers regardless of how they engage with your business, creating the continuity that builds long-term loyalty.

Increased average order value. When customers can easily access their preferred payment methods—such as credit debit, or buy now, pay later—they're likely to spend more per transaction. Research shows that 68% of consumers² want omnichannel rewards or loyalty programs, directly linking recognition with larger purchases.

Reduced cart abandonment. Recognizing returning customers means they won’t need to re-enter their payment details, helping you combat card abandonment, a major source of potential lost revenue.

Better loyalty program performance. Unified commerce gives you a complete picture of customer behavior across channels so you can create more effective loyalty programs that help you identify high-value segments, understand preferences, and develop targeted rewards for better engagement.

Friction creates opportunities for customers to abandon their purchase. Research confirms this reality: 43% of consumers say complicated checkout experiences significantly reduced their desire to interact with preferred brands.³ These friction points translate directly to lost revenue—especially across channels.

Data show that 42% of shoppers in the U.S. used their phones last time they shopped, whether it was online or in-store.⁴ So businesses that offer frictionless experiences across digital and in-store channels can boost conversion by giving customers a unified experience.

Unified commerce tackles these conversion barriers by:

Boosting conversion rates. Technologies like Click to Pay can reduce checkout time and increase conversion, particularly on mobile devices where friction can have a greater impact.

Improving authorization. Data show that tokenized transactions boost authorization rates by 4.6% compared with traditional PAN-based transactions.⁵ This could represent substantial revenue that would otherwise be lost.

Reducing fraud costs. Tokenization enhances security, reducing fraud by an average of 31% without adding friction.⁶ More good transactions are approved and, simultaneously, you can lower your fraud-related expenses.

Expanding acceptance. Easily add new payment methods as customer preferences evolve so you're never turning away sales.

The business case for unified commerce is compelling: recognize customers consistently to build loyalty, unify systems to reduce costs, optimize payments to improve conversion, and build scalable infrastructure for growth.

The potential return on investment comes from multiple directions:

• Revenue gains through higher conversion and authorization rates
• Cost savings from simplified operations and consolidated systems
• A competitive advantage through superior customer experience
• Future-proofing through adaptable infrastructure
   

We offer unified commerce solutions for both digital and in-person payments:

Unified Checkout helps you make every payment experience easy and frictionless by ensuring that customers’ preferred payment types are available at checkout. With support for new payment methods being added all the time, your business can add them quickly as they emerge.

In-person Accept helps you offer customers a smooth checkout experience with secure, contactless payments on smartphones and point-of-sale (POS) devices. You can upgrade legacy point-of-sales systems with modular POS devices that easily integrate with your existing payment devices to our network.

The path forward begins with assessing your current situation:

1. Where do my customers experience friction?
2. Where are operational inefficiencies driving up my costs?
3. Which of my channels are disconnected?
    

From there, you can develop a roadmap that addresses your most pressing challenges first.

Unified commerce helps you deliver the seamless experiences customers demand while creating the efficiencies your business needs. Talk to our experts to make sure you're well-positioned for success in an increasingly connected landscape.