The Payment Industry

Evan Sohn | June 21, 2019

The payment industry is rapidly evolving and transitioning from a cash-based world to a cashless one. Gone are the days of merchants only accepting cash, checks, or swiping credit cards and then having to wait days, sometimes weeks, for the funds to become available in your account. Additionally, we have seen emerge a POS for every vertical industry (from cafes to dentists), loyalty and promotions and of course merchant cash advances. Let’s not forget that the terminal itself have evolved from traditional dialup to smart terminals (shout out to my friends over at Poynt.com).

Similar to the Yellowpage Industry in the 1990s the Payment industry is made up of thousands of sales executives selling to the small and medium sized businesses. While there are 10 major processors, there are 100s of many sales organizations (acquirers) and 1000s of independent sales organizations all trying to sell payment and payment related services to the market. With so much competition and very little differentiation, it should not be a surprise that this industry as a 25%+ attrition rate. It’s predicted that by 2025, 75% of all transactions will be made without cash.

Introducing new technology and services to the payment industry is quite complex due to the nature of the industry which includes banking regulations, PCI standards and other hurdles.

Supply Chain Challenges facing this industry:
merchants are seeking specific solutions rather than one-size-fits all
a number of acquisitions and rollups have caused confusion for sales channels
valuation for books of business have come down in the past few years
smart terminals have started to penetrate the market though traditional payment terminals still reign
processing rates are decreasing forcing the need to add other services to maintain profits
all-in-one solution providers like Square continue to grow and capture marketshare.
We will be introducing you to innovative and unique payment services that you could offer to your merchants – ‘crowd selling to the payment industry professionals’. If you have a service you want us to explore just let me know.