Takeaways from Our MRC Panel

The Merchant Risk Council hosted its annual Las Vegas conference last week, and Pagos was there in full force. This event is a great way to learn more about the payments industry and to get to know the payments community better.

But we got to do more than just network! I had the opportunity to moderate a panel about using payments data more effectively with some of the biggest names of the e-commerce industry. Weren’t able to attend the panel? Catch a recap here. 

The Hidden Opportunities (and Costs) in Your Existing Payments Stack

This panel covered a range of payments data topics, from how data can transform your payments team to how to communicate payments objectives to non-payments business professionals in your organization.

Our group of expert panelists were Rob Anicetti (Eventbrite), Brigette Korney (Groupon), and Sam Anson (Playstation Sony). Here are some of the key takeaways we discussed together.

Our World Requires Data-Driven Decision Making

The past few years have brought changes to the way the world does business. Because of changes to the economy and spending, the cost and the opportunities associated with ecommerce payments have become more important than ever. 

What does that mean for payments teams? Your leadership is likely asking for more data. This isn’t always easy to deliver. Merchants are often the last player to have the full picture of their payments stack because they have to aggregate data from their gateways and acquirers, card brands, and any other third party they’re using.

Once you have the data, there is a whole other journey of developing data-driven business cases and choosing the right KPI for your teams - especially those that can balance revenue-growing and cost-saving initiatives.

Telling Your Payments Story Is Equally as Important as Having a Story To Tell

Having the data is only half of the work. Then comes the hard work of communicating payments objectives to non-payments teams inside your business. Payments is tied to not just the balance sheet but also the customer experience and association with your brand. As such, you might find yourself talking payments to everyone in the company - from finance to engineering, marketing, and operations.

Our panel had a few pieces of advice for anyone who finds themselves in this situation:

• Keep it simple: Stick to your main point and don’t get bogged down in the complexity that often comes with payments conversations

• Reframe your language: Stay away from “industry talk”. Make sure to frame your key metrics in common business language so that a shared understanding is easier to establish

• Consider your audience: Always, always consider your audience. What do they care about? What are they trying to get out of this conversation? Start there and build your narrative around your audience’s objective

In payments, it’s easy to get lost in the details. Stick to the core of your message and always be sure to consider the context (or lack of context) of your audience.

The Best Thing You Can Do Is Invest in Your Team

Payments teams are the ultimate connection point between finance, product, and engineering. Depending on your company’s organizational structure, you might not have direct reporting relationships to the other teams that work on the payments stack. Building relationships with those team members and increasing your team’s skills can make or break your team’s success. 

In short: share context, take the time to understand each other, and always be building new skills. These are lessons that we’ve all heard, but really do make a difference.

Having Trouble Accessing or Understanding Your Payments Data?

If you read this summary and thought to yourself, “maybe the quality of my payments data isn’t quite where it needs to be”, or even, “this is great information, but I don’t really know where to get started”, Pagos can help.

Our suite of products aggregates and normalizes all of your payments data for easy visualization and monitoring, with the added bonus of payments specific action products like BIN lists, network tokenization, and account updater. Let Pagos handle the difficult data work of payments, so that you can get back to running your business.

If you’re interested in learning more about how Pagos can help your payments team, connect with our team today!