Inclusive global payments platform, Ecommpay, has published a new white paper championing the role of payments professionals as profit generators – not just costs to a business. Featuring research amongst a number of e-commerce businesses, the new white paper – Making Payments a Profit Centre – explores how the payments function is being repositioned as a core driver of growth.

As Arturs Gocs, Chief Operational Officer at Ecommpay explains, it is critical for e-commerce businesses to adjust their thinking of payments as a cost centre. “For too long, payments has been seen as a cost to a business – rather than a revenue generator. 

“A wide range of e-commerce retailers were interviewed for our new white paper to discover how they are improving customer experiences and driving profitability through payments. Internal attitudes to payments are being transformed, with many securing C-suite participation and creating cross-functional steering groups to elevate payments internally.

“We found that where perceptions of the payments function’s value within the organisation are changed, new revenue streams are unlocked, as well as customer experience enhanced for long-term growth. Gaining internal support appears to be the single biggest factor in turning payments into profit.”

Key findings

• Gaining internal support, especially from C-suite executives, is the single biggest factor in turning payments into a powerful driver of profitability
• Spotify sees payments as fundamental to the customer experience; it works with external partners to optimise performance
• Blink Pet Foods found investing in the payments function incrementally more rewarding than other opportunities
• Outsourcing can save 12.5% on account-to-account transactions and reduce manual work by 520 hours/year
• Using Large Language Models for fraud detection and dispute resolution can lead to fewer false positives and 60% faster fraud identification
• Optimising routing and fee calculation can deliver up to 26% savings on debit card fees

Cross-border e-commerce is expected to continue its rapid growth trajectory, with some predicting it will accelerate almost three times as fast as overall online business.  It is vital, therefore, that the role of the payments function is recognised for its contribution to overall business success. 

The companies interviewed for the Ecommpay report place payments in a range of different functions, but all agreed that the active participation of C-suite executives helps reposition how payments are seen internally – and makes delivering change a lot easier. And C-suite participation means more than achieving buy-in and regular reporting. It means an active role for C-level executives in steering committees and groups dedicated to payments.

Contributors to the research included Spotify, Blink Pet Food, the Vendorcom payments community and sustainable fashion retailer Finisterre.