The payments business used to be simple, consumers would pay with cash or cheque and merchants would offer trusted customers credit, and even accept IOUs.

Technology has marched on however, and credit cards, debit cards, prepaid vouchers, and store cards have all been added to the mix. Customers are even reaching a point where they have started to trust alternative payment solutions, such as mobile wallets and payment apps.

The payments industry has become increasingly complex for the retailer, who on the one hand wants to satisfy each customer’s personal payment preference, but on the other hand wants to keep it simple enough for the store cashiers and back office staff to manage on a daily basis.

Very importantly, the retailer also has a duty to protect its customers, and their information, from the numerous criminal syndicates operating globally today. These syndicates are continually evaluating how to steal payment details and other personal information from retail stores and their customers. Major retailers doing millions of transactions daily are a prime target for criminals to make easy money.

So how can a retailer balance the requirements of offering its customers their preferred payment method, in a safe and secure and easily understood manner, with the cost and complexity of implementing several different payment methods? This is where a 3rd party switch plays an important role in bringing it all together.

There are many different contributors in the payments value chain. For example, in a Point to Point Encryption project the acquiring bank, the PED supplier, the retailer’s POS vendor, the switch provider, the QSAs, and the software developer, all play different and equally important roles, in completing the project and ensuring that the customer’s payment is processed efficiently and securely.

Merchant’s therefore need to co-ordinate these various different parties into a workable end-to-end solution. Ecentric as the 3rd party switch is able to bring it all together and play the role of middleman in this kind of payments implementation.

By providing a single end-to-end solution, Ecentric makes sure that all the disparate roles, middlemen, and technology suppliers, work smoothly in conjunction with one another. This forms a seamless end-to-end payments experience which benefits both the customer and the merchant.

Ecentric’s solutions bring it all together, enabling merchants to accept multiple payment types and offering a variety of value added services at the point of sale, all while ensuring that transactions are securely processed and that sensitive customer data is protected.