Intro
Building Payment Gateways have always been a developer-driven service, where technology have been handled first, and then afterwards have has the clever sales started.
One of our biggest opportunities when we created IPP, was the chance to change this. Simply, by democratizing the software – and enabling new feature sets for the broader market.
Author
Mathias Gajhede.
Have build and designed Payment infrastructure for a decade, which are giving some cutting edge opportunities on rethinking the payment market.
Think Sales - before Features
We have over the past years helped an constant larger number of Fintechs getting started and met with tons of others – talking about how they have solved the headaches about developing their software, the right way.
One of the most interesting things we have discovered, most Fintech founders don’t think about how they can charge for microservices, they look on the bigger and broader picture of a percentage and potentially a monthly retainer fee.
But – what about the others?
One of the small things - generating large revenue
I’ll give you a small one here – SMS. An good old Short Message Service.
Up to 0.5%
Most payment gateways do today offer an (free) notification on e-mail when an order have been completed, but did you know that most small business owners is willing to pay up to 0.5% extra on the transaction – if they can get a text-message?
When we launched Yourpay (a danish Fintech) in 2015, we started out with an free SMS service for the SME’s. I thought it was a good service to provide, because we all have our mobiles with us anytime.
Few years later, I got a CCO, who suggested we should start charging for the SMS-service. Being fair, we paid for it as well – so we started charging.
We saw specifically Merchants who had an ATV (Average Transaction Value) below €15, wanted to pay for this service. And a price of €0.05 – €0.07 was in the fair range.
Honestly – we provided NO extra services, we did nothing, except sending an SMS after each order.
Why micro services can make you profitable
Stripe – the Irish/American Payment Technology Giant have done an amazing job in Europe. They have labeled an fair price, and a price that we all can relate to.
But – how would it be to compete against them, and let the merchant choose to pay an higher price for your service?
Well, it is a matter of giving your merchant “the free choice”.
1.45% + €0.20
Why should a Merchant want to pay more for exactly the same?
You need to think about all the possible micro services you can find, the SMS mentioned above is one of the opportunities.
When the merchant signs up to your service, for 1.45% (and €0.20), if you can increase your revenue with additionally 1-2%, on services the merchant themself choose – this is where it gets interesting.
Most Fintech founders prefer to be transparent on their pricing, and is having a fear of charging extra for additional services. Must say, I’ve been there myself.
But you can actually charge, and still being honest to your customers about the product and opportunity they are getting – if you just ensure to label it correctly.
How Payment Gateways on IPP does it
At IPP we offer a large range of additional merchant services as part of our Plugin directory.
These services, can be activated where you as a Payment Gateway decides if you wish to charge for the service. When a merchant then installs the plugin, the charge starts for every order afterwards.
The merchant can on their daily/monthly/quarterly/yearly invoice see the additional services and pay for them separately. It is fully automated and transparent towards your customer, what you are charging for – and for what orders it relates to.
