NewsIt is clearly evident that both eCommerce and cross-border payments have been growing steadily in just the past decade. With the outbreak of the current pandemic, many businesses have had to take their brick and mortar (B&M) businesses entirely online. As operating businesses online continues to expand, the search for the best online payment solutions begin to take front and center stage.
Payment As A Service (PaaS) Gaining Ground
With the growing buzz about PaaS, what exactly, is it? Payment-as-a-Service is a word that relates to a cloud-based solution where a third-party service provider offers the software, hardware, servers, storage, and networking (in other words, all the infrastructure). Developers simply need to add their own customizable applications.
PaaS facilitates the adoption of online payment integration, without much integration. According to Statista.com, the annual revenues of the PaaS market is projected to reach close to $48 million U.S. dollars by the year 2026. With the advent of digital money transfer methodology, consumers are now looking for more secure ways to transfer their money to individuals and merchants. The fact that it is cloud-based also enables those in the industry to control greater volumes of transactions, at an increased speed, yet a lower cost.
With the trend of more consumers shopping online like never before, it’s no surprise that both the retail and eCommerce segments are enjoying the biggest slice of the market share since 2019. In the current pandemic, the main driver is safety as more consumers want both a safe and secure platform to make their purchases. Additionally, what is driving growth is that the use of credit cards, debit cards, e-wallets, and online banking has significantly cut down on operating costs and increased growth.
Changes in regulation have also contributed to growth. The current policies have promoted the entrance of fintech providers, Managed Service Providers (MSPs), and “alternative money transfer platform providers”, into the market. All these regulatory initiatives aim to not only promote payment solutions but also optimize secure transactions that occur in real-time.
Benefits Of Adopting PaaS
While there may be many variations of what exactly makes a good PaaS solution, here are the essential components and benefits for the right PaaS solution:
- Cloud-Based: This critical feature is what makes PaaS solutions unique. The cloud-based feature allows businesses to fully access the payment solution from anywhere in the world. If a business operates on a global scale, this is no-brainer.
- Its Open-Source Code: The fact that PaaS has an open-source code is a massive advantage in that it is incredibly easy to build upon its current infrastructure. Developers have complete freedom to fully customize the solution according to its company’s specifications. No need to build a solution from ground zero.
- Flexible And Scalable: This type of solution fully supports times of both high and low volume.
- PCI Compliant: This is a big one. One of the greatest challenges for businesses is to ensure they become PCI Compliant. Otherwise, they will be forbidden from handling any type of payments. It is the highest level of PCI certification and will impose heavy fees if not compliant. The great advantage about PaaS is that it already comes equipped with PCI compliance. No need to earn that certification.
PaaS For Your Business
Whether or not you should adopt PaaS as a solution for your business is entirely based on your strategic plans and where you plan to take your enterprise. If you plan to grow your business to include a global customer base, know that these will produce complex problems which require the right solution. PaaS can handle all that with its customizable solution.