Software in one way or another has been a key component of many enterprise functions starting in the late 90s, all the way to the present day.
Typically, you had to purchase software and receive it in a physical form, such as a CD or a floppy disk, but today, things have obviously changed. High Speed internet, web 2.0 and web 3.0 have been key to that shift, as it made accessing and using software easier than ever with the software as a service licensing and delivery model.
And this trend was clearly demonstrated by recent statistics.
According to BMC, by 2022 the SaaS market is expected to reach a value of over $200 billion, with 99% of enterprises using at least one SaaS solution in 2021 alone. https://www.bmc.com/blogs/saas-growth-trends/
Growth has been happening steadily since 2010, and the pandemic was definitely critical to this market expansion. This happened due to the sudden need for digitizing business processes that were typically carried out in person, such as payments in retail settings and general office work.
The growth of the SaaS industry is clear, and considering that you are reading this, you’re probably a SaaS owner or developer looking for solutions in regard to payment solutions and integrations.
So, with that in mind, let’s dive in further on what to look for when integrating a payment solution into your SaaS…
Why the future is software integration
Today, Application Programming Interfaces, commonly known as APIs, are constantly evolving, and this has been shown to be a continuing trend when compared to past software. In a market where customers purchased software once and had to buy the updated version a year later, there was a lot of room for coding errors and inefficiencies to fester. This is especially troublesome in the payments space, where one error could lead to non-compliance with regulations and fines.
Thankfully, the SaaS model changed this, and now customers can access the product online, and updates by the development team can happen in real time, not months later.
At Cartis we recognized this opportunity early on and partnered with Elavon to introduce our customers to their payment gateway: Converge.
It’s truly a software solution created for developers, by developers!
And they’ve made dealing with APIs and integrations easy and painless – they do this by giving you the right tools, when you need them most:
- A developer-friendly API.
- Easy, done-for-you merchant onboarding.
- Safe, secure payment processing that is PCI Level 1 compliant.
- One API for Card Present (CP) and Card-Not-Present (CNP) payments across North America.
Plus, if you integrate to Elavon through Cartis, we use one point of integration across all North America for retail, eCommerce and MO/TO transactions too!
Integrating a payment solution can free up time to focus on the bigger picture, with increased emphasis on maintaining your customer base, improving retention, and optimizing your payment process and onboarding of new customers.
Retention is especially crucial, considering that there could be a high cost to acquiring new customers, and losing valuable ones.
This point was demonstrated well in a Bain and Company study titled “Prescription for cutting costs”. In it, they demonstrate that, “acquiring a new customer is anywhere from five to 25 times more expensive than retaining an existing one”, and “increasing customer retention rates by 5% increases profits by 25% to 95%.”
https://hbr.org/2014/10/the-value-of-keeping-the-right-customers
https://media.bain.com/Images/BB_Prescription_cutting_costs.pdf
Elavon’s Converge omni commerce platform checks all the boxes…
This is especially true with retention and onboarding, because Cartis Payments gives you:
- A reduction in your time-to-revenue ratio with seamless onboarding for your customers, with top-level support, & training.
- User-friendly reporting & payment management.
- Unparalleled customer service & tech support.
Top 10 reasons to choose the Converge omni commerce platform for your SaaS payment integration:
Choosing the right payment devices and gateway is an integral step in moving your software in the right direction for your customers.
1. For starters, you benefit from one single integration to provide payments processing across North America.
Between getting a dedicated solution engineer assigned to you at no cost for the life of the project, to the well-developed simple APIs that make the integration a smooth, frictionless process, you will accelerate your certification and speed to market.
2. Full support of all payment methods: credit, debit, gift cards and ACH (US).
Your customers will be able to use your software to process and manage all forms of payments you code to.
3. Variety of integration methods available for every industry and transaction environment.
Whether you are implementing a hosted payments page, utilizing lightbox, a WebView, or are looking for full customization and control of the payment process through Checkout.js or XML API, all options are available.
Full support of card present integrated solutions allows you to unify payments for your customers with one merchant account, one consolidated statement, and complimentary reporting interface for all their credit card transactions.
4. Security features to keep your customers’ data safe.
Tokenization is a feature that more and more businesses are factoring into their payment processes. With a card manager vault, your customers can safely store credit card profiles, giving you the option to offload this function to the payment processor and maintain PCI compliance.
5. Choose your processing options.
Flexible payment options to integrate to, such as: PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Buy Button, MaterPass, and 3D Secure, so your customers can be where the consumers are, and not miss a sale.
6. Support for Level II (2) and Level III (3) processing.
Proprietary algorithms that optimize your downstream customers’ interchange and cut their processing costs.
7. Cross-border payments.
Accommodation for sales wherever they occur, with full support to accept payments in a variety of currencies through multi-currency conversion.
8. Value-add features.
As your customers’ needs evolve, your payment integration can grow to introduce the features they are looking for, whether that be recurring and installment payments, billing and invoicing, or even account updater service.
9. Customer Overview
You will have access to an organized interface to see your customers’ data. A platform with a robust dashboard gives you a full overview of your boarded merchants and their performance.
10. Reputation and third-party integrations.
A chance to be part of a partner ecosystem that has continued innovation and financial investment into its technology, with many third-party software and digital commerce shopping cart integrations.
Remember that when integrating a payment solution into your SaaS, you need to be mindful about which features are available, and how much they will truly enhance your revenues. Benefits and features in and of themselves aren’t necessarily enough!
Does the payment solution allow you to tap into the payment process, and generate an extra source of revenue? This is a great feature to have, especially because it can make a big difference to your profitability
Why partner with Cartis Payments for your payment integration
We specialize in, and have facilitated the completion of, dozens of SaaS integrations. We make it easy for you to create a scalable payment strategy, and enable you to earn more from every transaction that your customer processes! Through our ISV Partner Revenue Sharing Program, our software partners share in revenue which drives profit directly to your bottom line.
A partner in customer service can’t be overlooked. We offer an efficient onboarding process, and manage all customer service issues with your integrated customers, so you can focus on growing your sales and earning your customers’ trust.
Summary
In short, the future is integration, and this couldn’t be truer in the payments space.
Having detailed analytics, integration options, flexible billing and an open API are just a few features you want to have on the table when deciding on a payment solution.
This is why we recommend integration with Elavon through Cartis Payments.
Multiple points of integration can be a headache, so why not keep it simple? At Cartis, we provide you with one API, so there is one point of integration across all North America for retail, eCommerce and even MOTO transactions!
Skip the hassle. Click here to start your simplified integration journey today…