Payments

Northern Europe is highly digitized when it comes to consumer payments – in some cases cashless, even – so it is crucial to offer a smooth payment experience. We’re familiar with all available payment methods in Finland, Sweden and the UK, for example, and will advise you on what’s best for your service.

Some examples of payment methods we’ve been working on lately include online and in-store card payments, mobile wallets such as Google Pay, Samsung Pay, and Apple Pay (did you know we brought Apple Pay to the Nordics with Nordea and St1?), QR code payments, MobilePay, invoicing, bank transfers, instant bank payments, payment on delivery, and Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) options such as Klarna.

We also have comprehensive knowledge on the services and technical capabilities of different payment service providers, such as Adyen and Walley. We have extensive experience implementing different kinds of gift card and voucher solutions for combined online and in-store use.

"I’m happy when I can help customers improve their business through payment optimization."

Sami Nurmi, Senior Consultant, Payments

PSPs often offer payment processing – through a gateway or another type of platform – between your business, your customers, and their banks. Other types of PSPs offer e.g. alternative payment methods, business accounts, and currency exchange.

Carefully selecting your PSPs is critical, as they provide the infrastructure for handling your payments in all channels, such as mobile, web, and in-store. Your PSPs affect your payment security, customer experience, reporting and compliance.

The offerings and fee structures of payment service providers differ significantly, so setting business requirements that fit your goals – and following a standard proposal process – ensures that you choose the right partner(s).

Point-of-sale systems refer to the tools – including hardware and software – used to accept payments from your customers. Traditional in-store setups include e.g. cash registers, but modern POS systems work on the cloud, take care of compliance for you, and even allow you to use your phone for receiving payments.

Smart POS systems also have features such as real-time inventory, employee management, omnichannel support, customer loyalty programs, cross and upselling suggestions, seasonal and trend analytics, product performance data, and much more.

Payment processes always include sensitive information, such as credit card numbers, bank account details and personal identification data. Different payment methods require their own security protocols for preventing fraud.

Common measures we recommend for safeguarding your customers’ sensitive data are strong encryption, multi-factor authentication, tokenization, limiting data retention, staying updated on vulnerabilities, real-time fraud detection and compliance with regulatory standards. The measures aim at ensuring that the user is who they say they are, that the data you store is limited and well-protected, and that you can address possible fraud as fast as possible.

Digital payments are well-regulated because of the amount of sensitive information that gets processed. One key aspect of compliance within the EU includes PSD2 (Payment Services Directive 2) regulation that promotes competition, ensures secure and efficient payments, and mandates strong customer authentication (SCA). Anti-money laundering regulations, such as know your customer (KYC), aim at preventing fraud by correctly identifying the customer – whereas e.g. GDPR laws protect user data in payments.

Payment regulation depends on geographic location, so if you have international customers, it’s important to abide by local laws. We’ll help you navigate compliance and ensure your service benefits from new opportunities provided by the evolving regulation.

Checkout is where your customers’ shopping experience culminates. If your checkout doesn’t work smoothly, you could undo all the hard work that went into making your customer aware of your brand, getting them into your shop, and collecting a cart full of goodies.

Your payment experience is highly dependent on your payment service provider, payment methods, and how you’ve orchestrated your payment system as a whole. We’ll help you create a checkout experience that aligns with your brand, supports your business, gets payments accepted, and requires as little effort as possible from your customers.

"I’m motivated by making transactions seamless. Payments are the heartbeat of commerce, and there’s nothing more exciting than creating solutions that simplify life."

Mikko Vahter, Senior Consultant, Payments

Building a custom payment gateway makes the most sense if you have multiple sales channels. It means simplifying your payment system by complementing your PSPs’ payment gateways with your own custom gateway.

Building your own gateway has multiple benefits, including e.g. cost savings, customized checkout, easily adding new payment methods, possibilities to try out new business models, and operational efficiency. We’ve designed and built custom payment gateways for multiple big consumer brands, and will also help you build yours!

Open banking refers to allowing consumers to grant third-party service providers access to their private banking information. Open banking has said to shift data control from institutions to customers themselves.

Open banking enables innovative financial services and products, such as personal finance apps, payment initiation services (bypassing traditional card payment networks), lending platforms and challenger banks.

Key regulations on open banking include PSD2 in the EU and OBIE (Open Banking Implementation Entity) in the UK. In Europe, open banking must also comply with GDPR regulations.

Payment optimization combines all of our payment expertise into a quick-to-implement, high-impact service. With minimal investment, the service addresses all aspects of payments that influence your business. We give you continuous, tailored recommendations to increase your overall ROI – ensuring your payment methods, checkout experience, partners, and system stay optimal in the evolving landscape.