_________________________________________________________ _________
Why reliability has become a strategic priority
Availability is becoming just as important as convenience. In the same study, 43 percent of consumers said they had experienced a checkout failure in the past year. In the United States, the figure was slightly higher at 49 percent. These failures could range from card readers not responding to certain payment methods being unavailable or even network outages preventing any transaction from processing.
Retailers know that the cost of a failed payment is not limited to a single lost sale. It may also mean lower trust and reduced repeat business. As retail environments expand to include self-checkout, curbside pickup, mobile applications and unattended locations, the impact of a single point of failure may increase.
This is pushing retailers, payment service providers and acquirers to rethink their architecture. Instead of treating payments as a collection of individual components, many are moving toward unified orchestration. This approach routes transactions intelligently, introduces redundancy and simplifies the payment stack so that reliability can become the default rather than an aspiration.
How payment orchestration supports choice, flexibility and growth
Payment orchestration allows retailers to manage their entire payment environment through a single, unified layer. It can consolidate multiple acquirers, payment methods and security controls. It can help ensure that the best path is selected for each transaction. And it can do all this transparently, without adding steps for customers.
Retailers increasingly see payment orchestration as a strategic capability because it supports three priorities:
■ Choice for the customer As shoppers adopt more digital wallets and expect alternative methods, retailers need the flexibility to add or remove payment types without rebuilding infrastructure. Orchestration helps brands scale at the speed of consumer behavior
■ Reliability across every payment environment From manned checkout to online to unattended retail, payment orchestration helps to reduce the risk of downtime by distributing transactions across multiple endpoints. This helps reduce single points of failure and increases authorization success rates
■ Simplified operations for merchants, PSPs and acquirers Fragmented systems create operational overhead. Retailers must manage multiple contracts, integrations, certifications and reporting tools. Orchestration brings these components together so that teams can focus on improving the customer experience rather than maintaining the technology behind it
24