Building consumer trust through payments

The role of payments in building trust: Checkout.com's chief revenue officer outlines how a diversified PSP model can set retailers apart in the digital economy

Following the recent news that many European retailers were affected by a major payment provider outage, Antoine Nougué, Chief Revenue Officer of Checkout.com, tells RetailTechnology.co.uk how to build resilience and consumer trust with payment technology.

In the rapidly evolving world of the digital economy, relying on a single payment service provider (PSP) creates risk. With the frequency and sophistication of cyber attacks growing, and other factors impacting a PSP’s ability to perform for retailers, having all eggs in one basket puts a retailer’s brand at risk.

Our own research shows that friction plays a large part in lost sales, with as many as 45% of consumers not retrying a payment following one failed attempt. This points to a lack of brand trust, and ultimately loyalty. The risk is lost customers.

It’s time to recognise that diversification—partnering with multiple PSPs—isn’t just a hedge against downtime or a compliance workaround; it’s a strategic imperative that can drive revenue, sharpen competitive edge, and improve customer experience.

Why stick to one when you can optimise across many? 

Imagine you’re the owner of an online retailer expanding into new markets. Your current PSP might excel in Europe but falter when processing cards in Southeast Asia or offering regionally preferred alternative payment methods (APMs).

Instead of abandoning the provider you already know, you can integrate a second (or even third) PSP with stronger local capabilities. This layered approach means fewer false declines, which directly translates into higher acceptance rates—and more success during the checkout stage for a consumer.

Testing and learning: a race won on data, not loyalty

When you add another PSP to your tech stack, you’re effectively adding another horse to the race. By monitoring transaction success rates, authorisation speeds, and cost-per-transaction across providers, you gain actionable insights into which processor delivers the best results in each market or payment method.

In practice, this could mean routing low-value domestic transactions through a high-speed, low-cost acquirer, while sending high-value cross-border payments to a provider with stronger anti-fraud tools and deeper local scheme relationships. Over time, this granular optimisation can reshape your bottom line.

Cost control and competitive pricing

Not all PSPs charge the same fees or profit margins. With multiple partnerships, you can steer transactions through the least expensive route—saving anywhere from a few pence, to significant percentages on high-volume payments. Even small per-transaction savings compound into substantial annual gains. And if one PSP attempts to lock you into less favourable rates, you always have an alternative ready.

Resilience in an unpredictable landscape

Downtime and outages are inevitable—even the most reputable PSPs experience hiccups. When your site is live but payments are blocked, every minute of inoperability equals lost revenue and customer trust. A multi-PSP setup acts like an electrical grid with multiple suppliers: if one line fails, traffic is automatically rerouted, keeping transactions flowing. This resilience is particularly critical for businesses with narrow peak periods—think ticketing sites or seasonal retailers—where every minute counts.

Enhancing customer experience with choice

Today’s consumer expects more than Visa and Mastercard. From e-wallets to “buy now, pay later,” regional wallets to direct bank debits, payment preferences are diverse. No single PSP covers every option. By layering providers, you can offer your customers a broad menu of payment methods, reducing cart abandonment and engendering loyalty.

Unified orchestration: making complexity manageable

Of course, integrating multiple PSPs raises concerns about complexity: fragmented reporting, disparate application programming interfaces (APIs), and the burden of compliance. That’s where payment orchestration platforms come in. Acting as a middleware layer, they consolidate data into a single dashboard, automate routing rules driven by machine learning, and streamline adding or swapping providers. The result? The benefits of diversification—higher acceptance, lower costs, greater resilience—without the headache of juggling multiple integrations.

Setting up for success 

Retailers with in-house payment expertise and a commitment to optimising every aspect of their customer journey stand to gain the most. If you’re laser-focused on reducing fraud, minimising chargebacks, or cracking new international markets, a multi-PSP approach will deliver the flexibility and performance you need. Likewise, companies serving both B2B and B2C segments—where payment preferences diverge widely—will see immediate benefits from broader payment method coverage.

Diversifying your payment service providers isn’t a “nice to have”—it’s a crucial element of a modern, resilient, and customer-centric commerce strategy. By adopting multiple PSPs in concert with an orchestration layer, you unlock superior approval rates, cost savings, richer data insights, and an enhanced checkout experience.

In today’s competitive landscape, that edge can make the difference between thriving and merely surviving. It’s time to think beyond a single provider and embrace a modular, optimised payments ecosystem that scales with your ambitions.

Checkout.com also recently announced a new partnership with major ecommerce marketplace, eBay.