We are less and less shocked when the payment terminal asks us if we want to pay for our purchase in several installments, or when a website offers us that same option. Deferred payment is no longer a distant alternative that requires going through customer service, providing financial documentation and waiting for the risk department's evaluation. Now these processes are automated and it is the payment gateway that allows the client to have direct access to these services, managing a process that previously could take hours or days in a matter of seconds.
Integrating payment gateways was a necessary step in the digitalization process that the retail, leisure, gym and restaurant sectors have experienced in recent years, which already have online reservation and inventory management platforms. “At Adyen we make this integration as easy as possible so that businesses can be managed easily from the same platform,” says Juan José Llorente, Country Manager of Adyen in Spain and Portugal. The next step is to provide an immediate financial service.
In recent years, Adyen has evolved from a payments platform to an innovative fintech platform. It no longer only processes payments and collections, it now also offers instant credit solutions to businesses. “It is taking the service we offer in the payments part one step further. We studied the needs of the businesses with which we usually work and we saw that developing the capacity to provide loans made a difference in the service,” explains Juan José Llorente, Country Manager of Adyen in Spain and Portugal. The recipients are always regular corporate customers, those whose spending behavior and commitment to payments they already know, so there is a wide margin of safety.
At some point, these businesses may have the urge to make a purchase for a large amount and need liquidity immediately. “Let's imagine a company, for example, a food delivery company, where one of the suppliers needs an advance payment. Applying for a bank loan is an option, but it takes time. At Adyen we have developed the ability to offer pre-granted capital through the platform in those transactions for an amount that we estimate we will recover,” says Llorente.
Having liquidity immediately and without paperwork allows the affected business not to have to close, nor be forced to divert its own financial resources to carry out that acquisition. He adds that: “this option makes the platform a partner of that restaurant, or the business in question. And, of course, this initiative to facilitate credit contributes directly to loyalty.”
By having a unified payments platform, Adyen has the capacity to unite the acquisition and issuance of cards, whether physical or virtual. This jump makes a significant difference for brands and provides fluidity to funds, avoiding scenarios in which their lack could paralyze payments to suppliers. “We are using this alternative a lot with travel agencies to expedite payments to airlines, hotels or other transportation companies. These payments are usually made through a virtual card, but in our case, since everything is unified on the same platform, we can go faster, without having to immobilize that amount of money,” says Llorente.
Behind these innovative services around payments in the B2B environment there is an important technological development, although it is shown to the client in a very simple way. “In many cases we do it via API. If it is not possible, it is integrated manually, but always in a very scalable way,” adds the Country Manager of Adyen. “It's a small initial effort.”
This dynamism of Adyen as a pioneering financial technology platform in unified commerce in Spain makes life easier for companies and, by extension, for the end consumer. It is now possible to buy on social networks through a link (pay by link), pay through Click to pay or use Bizum in physical stores and e-commerce. Like businesses, individuals can benefit from deferred payment. “It is a credit without paperwork that increases the possibilities of conversion and increases the value of the ticket. If I know that I can pay for a vacuum cleaner in three monthly payments, I might opt for a higher model, even if it is more expensive,” says Llorente.
They can also take advantage of open banking. “It's a one-time transfer from your bank account to the card to make a large payment, like a vacation reservation or plane tickets,” he says. All of these transactions offer enormous flexibility when choosing how to make the payment and always with very high levels of security. An example is network tokens, the term with which the slang of the digital payments sector refers to what the average citizen identifies as 'remembering the card' in applications or businesses with regular payments (Cabify, Amazon, competitions sports...). In reality, it is a unique and encrypted code that associates a specific card with a specific merchant.
“This system has an additional advantage: when the card expires, the token automatically assumes the new one without having to enter the digits of the new one. Thus, clients avoid losing subscribers when their card expires and users save having to update the data of their new card,” highlights the Country Manager of Adyen in our country.
All of the above are innovative ways to assume payments and enable spending immediately that help keep businesses running and stimulate consumption. Two points, without a doubt, essential for the economy to continue growing.
