Lily Varon

Principal Analyst

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Blog

What We Learned In The Forrester Wave™: The Merchant Payment Partner Market Has No Leaders

Lily Varon 3 days ago
What three questions should you ask when evaluating the merchant payments provider market? Find out in this blog previewing the findings from the new The Forrester Wave™: Merchant Payment Providers, Q1 2024.
Blog

Payment Methods Don’t Matter — Payment Experiences Do

Lily Varon 7 days ago
Retailers and consumer-facing brands have been so busy chasing the next hot payment method that they’ve missed what customers really want when they make payments. Learn how to start incorporating experiences into your payments strategy.
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Digital Payments Have Surpassed Traditional Payments In The US

Nicole Murgia February 29, 2024
Read this Forrester blog for data insights on what digital payment methods consumers are using instead of credit cards and cash.
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Payment Processing Is Not Commoditized: Optimization Tactics

Lily Varon September 19, 2023
Forrester’s data shows that, in 2023, more than one in 10 US online adults encountered a technical failure at the point of checkout. And about the same number said their online payments were rejected because their card on file had expired. Despite (many!) other priorities, smooth checkout should top your to-do list. It’s elementary: Failed […]
Blog

Prepare For New Billing Technology To Grow Your Business

Lily Varon April 6, 2023
Billing is one of the most important technologies for the future of your business. I know … lots of tech categories say that. Here’s why billing tech is so powerful: With rapid reinvention and relentless innovation on our doorsteps, firms need billing technology that enables — rather than hinders — their adaptability, creativity, and resilience […]
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Retailers: Your Gift Card Strategy Needs A Refresh

Nicole Murgia February 7, 2023
Gift cards are more than products — they are strategies. Get a glimpse of how companies are making the most of this.
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Predictions 2023: Payments Players Focus On Fundamentals

Lily Varon November 10, 2022

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Four Key Takeaways From The 2022 State Of Retail Payments Survey

Lily Varon September 29, 2022
Four in five software decision makers at US retail companies are adopting or plan to adopt payments software in 2022, Forrester data shows.
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What Merchants Want From Their Payments Provider

Nicole Murgia June 14, 2022
As part of the latest Forrester Wave evaluation of the merchant payment provider market, we spoke with 23 customer references (i.e., merchants like retailers and brands) about their experiences with their current payment provider.
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Merchant Payment Processing: Champion/Challenger Models Make Vendors Earn Their Volume

Lily Varon June 1, 2022
For our latest evaluation in the merchant payment provider space, Forrester identified 11 leading vendors - learn more about our findings.
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The Five Tenets Of A Sticky Retail Subscription

Lily Varon October 14, 2021
Subscription offerings from brands and retailers have been popping up everywhere. But as many subscription services have found — and Rent the Runway’s recent IPO filings also underscore — creating a compelling subscription includes getting customers to subscribe and then keeping them subscribed, with continued value from that subscription. Otherwise, churn and operational complexity can […]
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The Deferred Payment Market Has Officially Taken Off

Lily Varon December 14, 2020
It’s safe to say that our email inboxes, social media feeds, and online shopping trips have been filled with endless holiday promotions and shipping delay notices. But this year, we saw a new term pop up more than ever: “Buy Now, Pay Later.” In my latest research, “New Tech: Deferred Payment Providers, Q4 2020,” I […]
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Merchant Payment Providers: Key Takeaways From The Forrester Wave™ (Q3 2020)

Lily Varon September 23, 2020
For our latest evaluation in the merchant payment provider space, Forrester identified 10 leading vendors and spent the last four months analyzing their offerings via a combination of briefings, demos, capability assessments, and customer reference checks. Specifically, we evaluated ACI Worldwide, Adyen, Cybersource, Fiserv, Global Payments, J.P. Morgan, PayPal, Stripe, Worldline, and Worldpay from FIS. […]
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The State Of Digital Payments Acceptance In US Online Retail

Lily Varon April 17, 2020
Amazon Pay, Apple Pay, Google Pay; alternative payments are a hot topic. And they are key to seamless checkout experiences, especially while consumers shop on their smartphones. But which options are merchants offering? And which are consumers actually using? Forrester dove into 100 retailer sites to determine the state of alternative-payments acceptance in US online […]
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PayPal Is Acquiring Honey To Increase Its Stickiness With Consumers

Lily Varon November 21, 2019
(Get it? Sticky!) It’s PayPal’s largest acquisition to date. PayPal’s core value proposition is in alleviating shoppers’ concerns about providing personal financial information during the online checkout process — and that remains as valuable as ever. But here’s what the Honey acquisition means for PayPal moving forward: The Honey acquisition extends PayPal’s role in the […]
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FORRward: A Weekly Read For Tech And Marketing Execs

Brigitte Majewski November 18, 2019
Nike Just Does It First, the age of the customer shifted power away from institutions to individuals, drastically reducing the control companies had over their own brands. Then came Amazon: The competitive juggernaut ripped whatever shred of control brands had left, leaving them to figure out the algorithmic enigma of eCommerce while competing on price […]
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SaaS Billing Technology: A Sleeper Agent For Business Agility

Lily Varon November 18, 2019
“When [billing] goes well, no one cares. When it goes wrong, it’s the end of the world,” one business customer summed up. As a digital business strategist, you may not think billing technology is in your purview. But your ability to keep up with market changes and the quality of your customer experiences will depend […]
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Facebook Has The Scale To Build A Strong Payments Business But Not The Consumer Trust

Lily Varon November 13, 2019
Only 5% of US online adults polled say they would trust Facebook to provide digital payment services, well below Amazon, Apple, and Google. Here's what digital businesses need to understand about Facebook Pay.
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Money20/20: My Five Key Takeaways

Lily Varon November 5, 2019
Lines between fintechs and merchants will continue to blur, and other key learnings.
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Website Localization: The Seven Keys To Success

Lily Varon October 21, 2019
For retailers and brands, website localization is key to your success in global markets. It is difficult (and unrealistic) to localize 100% of your content in every market, but our research reveals several crucial features to tailor your offering and message. My latest research, “Seven Must-Haves For Successful Website Localization,” highlights the must-have features and […]
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