85 Percent of Merchants with Multi-Acquiring Strategy See Rise in Conversion Rates, per Global Report from ACI Worldwide and Edgar, Dunn & Company

OMAHA, Neb.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Eighty-five percent of merchants that have adopted a multi-acquiring strategy have seen an improvement in conversion rates, according to a new study by ACI Worldwide (NASDAQ: ACIW), a leading global provider of real-time digital payment software and solutions and Edgar, Dunn & Company, an independent payments consulting firm. The report explores the acquiring strategies adopted by leading global merchants and payment service providers (PSPs) to determine the operational, financial and other benefits derived from a multi-acquiring strategy and an acquirer-agnostic payments gateway.

According to the report, multi-acquiring offers multiple benefits for merchants and PSPs. In addition to increased conversion rates, both merchants and PSPs highlight resilience and a reduction in operational costs as the main benefits. Access to alternative payment methods (APMs) and the ability to support cross-border eCommerce are additional advantages.

The report finds that 57 percent of merchants and 70 percent of PSPs worldwide currently work with multiple acquirers. Forty percent of merchant respondents that use a single acquirer today want to use multiple acquirers in the next 12 months, while 70 percent of PSPs plan to increase the number of acquirers they use within the next 12 months.

“It is clear from our study that the majority of merchants and PSPs globally recognize the benefits from multi-acquiring,” said Benny Tadele, vice president, global merchant solutions, ACI Worldwide. “Merchants working with multiple acquirers express a high level of satisfaction, seeing an improvement in acceptance rates as well as the ability to access a broader range of payment methods. With connections to multiple acquirers, PSPs can tailor their service more precisely to meet the needs of individual merchants. They can provide access to the optimal mix of local and cross-border acquirers, to acquirers best suited to handling transactions of different types, in different verticals, and to those supporting the payment methods most relevant to the merchant’s customer base.”

“This study has found that merchants and PSPs are developing different strategies to address the need to deploy robust payment acceptance solutions,” said Mark Beresford, director, head of the retail practice at Edgar, Dunn & Company. “Payment orchestration that encompasses intelligent routing of payment transactions across geographies for different payment types is now critical for the largest merchants and PSPs.”

Summary of key survey findings for merchants

• The top three reasons why merchants work with more than one acquirer are resilience (21%), to reduce operational costs (18%) and to improve conversion rates (14%).
• 85 percent of merchants that have moved to multiple acquirer relationships have seen an increase in conversion rates, with 23 percent of respondents increasing their conversion rates by more than 10 percent.
• 71 percent of merchants that use a multi-acquiring arrangement are either satisfied or very satisfied with this approach.
• 40 percent of merchant respondents that use a single acquirer wish to swap to a multiple acquiring arrangement in the next 12 months. Reasons given include the desire to gain flexibility and access to APMs (17%), to reduce operational costs (17%) and to build resilience in their acquiring options (15%).
• It is mainly smaller merchants that have single acquiring relationships (30%), primarily due to cost efficiencies or commercial reasons (60%).

Summary of key survey findings for PSPs

• The top reasons PSPs use multiple acquiring relationships are resilience (24%), to reduce operational costs for merchants (21%) and to improve conversion rates (13%).
• 45 percent of PSPs see flexibility as the primary benefit of being acquirer-agnostic.
• 66 percent of PSPs that use a multi-acquiring arrangement are either satisfied or very satisfied with this approach.

For more information, please download the research reports: Multi-Acquiring and the Benefits for Merchants and Multi-Acquiring and the Benefits for PSPs.

About ACI Worldwide

ACI Worldwide is a global software company that provides mission-critical real-time payment solutions to corporations. Customers use our proven, scalable and secure solutions to process and manage digital payments, enable omni-commerce payments, present and process bill payments, and manage fraud and risk. We combine our global footprint with local presence to drive the real-time digital transformation of payments and commerce.

© Copyright ACI Worldwide, Inc. 2021

ACI, ACI Worldwide, ACI Payments, Inc., ACI Pay, Speedpay and all ACI product/solution names are trademarks or registered trademarks of ACI Worldwide, Inc., or one of its subsidiaries, in the United States, other countries or both. Other parties’ trademarks referenced are the property of their respective owners.