First challenge

To go global: simplify currency management

“When we decided to accept payments in British pounds, we spent six months making the required agreements with banking partners”, remembers Gaël Donat, Internet Technical Director at Orientis Gourmet Group.
Looking for expert advice to develop its e-commerce activities internationally, Kusmi Tea chose the HiPay solution.

To break into the Norwegian market, Kusmi Tea needed to be able to accept payments in the Norwegian Krone. As a true expert in digital payments, HiPay solved this issue in just a few weeks! HiPay has the ability to move very quickly in opening new countries, especially when merchants are well-known. It only took two to three weeks to get it done. Bringing its technical know-how to manage international currencies for merchants, HiPay also provides them with guidance and assistance for the most used payment methods in each market.

Second challenge

Knowing what makes local shoppers click

On top of supporting multiple currencies, offering the most appropriate payment methods makes a real difference to every country. Even if bank card payments are most used in online shopping in France and in the United Kingdom, it is not necessarily the case for other European countries.

Since Italians and Portuguese prefer paper money, they have developed online cash payment methods like Multibanco and SisalPay, in order to use ATMs or go to authorized merchants to finalize their transactions.

And in Germany bank transfer is the norm with SOFORT.

“We initially offered our clients a bank transfer solution which displayed our bank account information at the end of the payment flow but the abandonment rate was between 50 and 60%. It went down to only 15% after implementing HiPay’s SOFORT payment method – a must have in Germany!” states Gaël Donat.

Third challenge

Finding the right settings to fight against fraud

The 3-D Secure protocol is widespread among French e-tailers for online payment security. But it can be a negative factor in cart abandonment during the payment process. To overcome this issue, “Kusmi Tea has integrated HiPay’s Fraud Protection Service, which can adjust 3-D Secure according to use”, points out Gaël Donat. With a minor fraud rate on its website, Kusmi Tea needed a system that could be disabled “on demand”, i.e. triggered only above a certain amount.

There are also geographic specific issues to take into account. While 3-D Secure generates cart abandonments
in France, it reassures Internet users in the United Kingdom or in Belgium.