In today's fiercely competitive business landscape, optimising payment strategies isn't just nice - it's a powerful lever for driving revenue growth and gaining a decisive edge over competitors. Recognising this opportunity, Worldpay proudly introduces Payments Performance: a groundbreaking suite of vertically curated reports designed to empower merchants with insights that directly impact their bottom line.
A combination of consumer research across eight countries worldwide, real customer success stories, and perspectives from leading industry experts across the payments ecosystem, these industry-specific reports provide practical, actionable advice that allows businesses to harness the full potential of their payment strategies.
Worldplay has identified five crucial areas in a typical merchant's payment setup where strategic optimisation can drive significant business success. Here's a preview of some of the insights we offer:
User experience: smoothing the path to purchase
In this digital age, convenience is king. Our research shows that a frictionless user experience is paramount in reducing cart abandonment and increasing conversion rates.
Implementing one-click payments, storing payment details securely, and automatically updating card information when a customer receives a new card can significantly streamline the checkout process. By eliminating obstacles for the customer, you're creating a path of least resistance to completing a transaction.
Security: balancing protection and convenience
In an era of increasing cyber threats, robust security measures are non-negotiable. However, the challenge lies in implementing these tools without compromising the customer experience.
The key is to strike the right balance. While fraud prevention tools are crucial, overly stringent measures can block legitimate transactions, frustrating customers and potentially driving them to competitors. By implementing fraud tools that cause minimal disruption to the customer journey, such as biometric authentication, you can enhance account security without adding unnecessary friction. This approach helps prevent fraud and reduces cart abandonment at the same time, ensuring both security and satisfaction for your customers.
Cost: strategic advantages of payment savings
Every transaction comes at a cost, but there are innovative ways to optimise these expenses.
One such approach, particularly beneficial for global businesses, involves strategically utilising regional offices, sales outlets, or licenses of payment processors to ensure transactions occur within the same market or country. This simple yet effective strategy can re-categorise transactions from "inter-regional" to "intra-regional" or "local," potentially resulting in significant fee reductions. These cost savings can then be reinvested back into the business to improve services or passed on to customers through more competitive pricing.
Payouts: enhancing efficiency and customer control
Payments don’t just end at the point of sale. Efficient payout processes, an often overlooked aspect of the payment ecosystem, are crucial for customer satisfaction and operational efficiency.
For example, implementing self-service machines or secure online portals for payouts can empower customers to take control of their refunds and reimbursements. This not only reduces wait times and minimises errors but also enhances the overall customer experience, fostering loyalty and repeat business.
Back office: mitigating financial risks
While the spotlight often shines on the customer-facing side of payments, back-office processes are equally crucial to a company's success. Reconciliation speed, cost-efficiency and accuracy are all vital elements that can significantly impact an organisation’s bottom line and operational effectiveness.
By streamlining payment processes to ensure timely receipt of funds in appropriate currencies, companies can minimise the risk of trapped funds. Leveraging guaranteed foreign exchange (FX) rates - where a fixed rate is locked in for a predetermined period - allows a business to know exactly how much they'll receive in their local currency. This approach mitigates currency volatility risks, protecting profit margins and providing financial predictability. Such strategies are particularly crucial in less stable economies.
Empowering global commerce
At Worldpay, we're committed to powering global commerce by providing exceptional payment expertise to businesses worldwide. Our collection of payments performance reports serves as your roadmap to unlocking hidden revenue potential. By optimising your payment strategies across these key areas, you can uncover new opportunities, elevate customer satisfaction, and fuel sustainable growth.
The insights shared here are just a glimpse of how we can help merchants realise their full payment potential. To explore these concepts in depth and discover how to apply them to your business, we invite you to access our comprehensive suite of industry reports here.
PROFILE
Name: Enhance Fitness
Year started: 2018
Based: UAE
Employees: 200
Amount raised: $3m
Investors: Global Ventures and angel investors
Who is Allegra Stratton?
- Previously worked at The Guardian, BBC’s Newsnight programme and ITV News
- Took up a public relations role for Chancellor Rishi Sunak in April 2020
- In October 2020 she was hired to lead No 10’s planned daily televised press briefings
- The idea was later scrapped and she was appointed spokeswoman for Cop26
- Ms Stratton, 41, is married to James Forsyth, the political editor of The Spectator
- She has strong connections to the Conservative establishment
- Mr Sunak served as best man at her 2011 wedding to Mr Forsyth
ICC Women's T20 World Cup Asia Qualifier 2025, Thailand
UAE fixtures
May 9, v Malaysia
May 10, v Qatar
May 13, v Malaysia
May 15, v Qatar
May 18 and 19, semi-finals
May 20, final
The years Ramadan fell in May
ESSENTIALS
The flights
Emirates flies from Dubai to Phnom Penh via Yangon from Dh2,700 return including taxes. Cambodia Bayon Airlines and Cambodia Angkor Air offer return flights from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap from Dh250 return including taxes. The flight takes about 45 minutes.
The hotels
Rooms at the Raffles Le Royal in Phnom Penh cost from $225 (Dh826) per night including taxes. Rooms at the Grand Hotel d'Angkor cost from $261 (Dh960) per night including taxes.
The tours
A cyclo architecture tour of Phnom Penh costs from $20 (Dh75) per person for about three hours, with Khmer Architecture Tours. Tailor-made tours of all of Cambodia, or sites like Angkor alone, can be arranged by About Asia Travel. Emirates Holidays also offers packages.
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Specs
Engine: Duel electric motors
Power: 659hp
Torque: 1075Nm
On sale: Available for pre-order now
Price: On request
Tearful appearance
Chancellor Rachel Reeves set markets on edge as she appeared visibly distraught in parliament on Wednesday.
Legislative setbacks for the government have blown a new hole in the budgetary calculations at a time when the deficit is stubbornly large and the economy is struggling to grow.
She appeared with Keir Starmer on Thursday and the pair embraced, but he had failed to give her his backing as she cried a day earlier.
A spokesman said her upset demeanour was due to a personal matter.
Global Fungi Facts
• Scientists estimate there could be as many as 3 million fungal species globally
• Only about 160,000 have been officially described leaving around 90% undiscovered
• Fungi account for roughly 90% of Earth's unknown biodiversity
• Forest fungi help tackle climate change, absorbing up to 36% of global fossil fuel emissions annually and storing around 5 billion tonnes of carbon in the planet's topsoil
Young women have more “financial grit”, but fall behind on investing
In an October survey of young adults aged 16 to 25, Charles Schwab found young women are more driven to reach financial independence than young men (67 per cent versus. 58 per cent). They are more likely to take on extra work to make ends meet and see more value than men in creating a plan to achieve their financial goals. Yet, despite all these good ‘first’ measures, they are investing and saving less than young men – falling early into the financial gender gap.
While the women surveyed report spending 36 per cent less than men, they have far less savings than men ($1,267 versus $2,000) – a nearly 60 per cent difference.
In addition, twice as many young men as women say they would invest spare cash, and almost twice as many young men as women report having investment accounts (though most young adults do not invest at all).
“Despite their good intentions, young women start to fall behind their male counterparts in savings and investing early on in life,” said Carrie Schwab-Pomerantz, senior vice president, Charles Schwab. “They start off showing a strong financial planning mindset, but there is still room for further education when it comes to managing their day-to-day finances.”
Ms Schwab-Pomerantz says parents should be conveying the same messages to boys and girls about money, but should tailor those conversations based on the individual and gender.
"Our study shows that while boys are spending more than girls, they also are saving more. Have open and honest conversations with your daughters about the wage and savings gap," she said. "Teach kids about the importance of investing – especially girls, who as we see in this study, aren’t investing as much. Part of being financially prepared is learning to make the most of your money, and that means investing early and consistently."