Location, location, location has been the mantra in retailing since 1926. No longer. The emergence of “omni-channel” is driving major restructuring within the retail sector as merchants seek to serve the omni-channel shopper, who is keen to buy whenever, wherever and however they want. The white paper ‘Optimising payments for omni-channels commerce’ researched and written by Edgar, Dunn & Company (EDC), and commissioned by adyen, demonstrates that “omni-channel” is now a reality. The report shows how to optimise payment collection in the new business model for retailing.

This white paper does not discuss omni-channel in a generic or theoretical manner, but takes a much more pragmatic approach involving specific real-life examples (based on interviews with merchants) and tangible data about their impact. 

Omni-channel - best uses of technology

EDC found that the new mantra in retailing is “experience, experience, experience” and there are now five Best Use Cases of today’s technology which illustrate where to focus, see figure below.

Overview - best use cases

Source & Copyright©2015 - http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/28/magazine/28FOB-onlanguage-t.html

Omni-channel - best practices

The EDC research showed that there are five best practices in omni-channel retailing, see figure below.

Best Practices

Source & Copyright©2015 - http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/28/magazine/28FOB-onlanguage-t.html

Payment and fraud management in omni-channel retailing

EDC research showed that few merchants have a truly global omni-channel setup because traditionally channels are run as complete separate entities. As a result, many merchants have a payments function that is set up separately for each channel and/or each country. EDC recommend:

• merchants should evaluate the business case for consolidating the number of payment partners across channels and countries, and for centralization of internal back-office activities such as reporting and reconciliation
• using the online pre-authorization of card payment with a delayed capture of funds to reduce refunds and other techniques to simplify the omni-channel processes
• employing omni-channels to reduce fraud by using the knowledge of an attack on a specific channel to provide a warning for purchases through other channels with the same card, email, IP or all the other data linked to that specific transaction.

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CTMfile take: Omni-channel retailing is now a reality in most businesses, as are the best uses of technology and the best practices described in this report. EDC’s recommendations on how to optimise payment management and minimise fraud are critical in the overall cost effectiveness of omni-channel retailing.