We recently published the “The Forrester Wave™: Global Merchant Payment Providers, Q4 2018” report, which identifies the 11 most significant global payment vendors that can help enterprise merchants with their omnichannel efforts. The report includes assessments of ACI Worldwide, Adyen, Chase Merchant Services, CyberSource, Elavon, First Data, Ingenico Group, Paysafe Group, Wirecard, Worldine, and Worldpay (formerly Vantiv and Worldpay).

Forrester identified Adyen and ACI Worldwide as the leaders. Forrester’s clients can read the entire report here.

Three key takeaways from our research include:

  • Omnichannel challenges are now driving payment executives’ agenda. In 2016, our inaugural Forrester Wave evaluation of global merchant payment providers revealed that two areas dominated payment decision makers’ agendas: EMV implementation and new security technology such as tokenization. Fast-forward to 2018: Combating fraud is still important, but supporting omnichannel customer buying and shopping scenarios now tops payment leaders’ agendas. Only 35% of retailers say they have the right technology to execute a consistent omnichannel strategy, and just 33% have clear visibility into consumer behaviors across channels.[i]
  • Vendors must simplify the payments stack for merchants. Winning payment providers find ways to minimize implementation complexity even in the midst of complex merchant requirements. Retailers are increasingly unwilling to burden already-overloaded IT teams with payments integration and certification work. In response, leading payment vendors are contributing to and adopting common specs such as the nexo standards in Europe, which in turn help reduce their clients’ integration burdens and payment terminal complexities across the globe.[ii]
  • New value-added services from leading providers drive merchant revenue and cost reductions. Top payment vendors facilitate transaction data analysis for deeper customer insights, provide new ways to pay that expand a retailer’s customer base, and find new means to reduce a merchant’s overall risk of accepting payments. Strong performers in this Forrester Wave rise to the occasion by offering white-labeled consumer credit that lets retailers offer customers instant alternative financing right in the checkout flow, which reduces cart abandonment rates. Other strong performers offered break-through solutions that use machine learning to help global merchants reduce customer churn and optimize approval rates across the globe.

Use The Forrester Wave™: Global Merchant Payment Providers, Q4 2018 to help evaluate payment vendors based on your strategy and business needs.

[i] See the Forrester report, “The State of Retailing Online 2018: Store Investments, Business Objectives, And Mobile”

[ii] Source: nexo standards (http://www.nexo-standards.org/).