Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
With consumers flocking to online stores and marketplaces, processors and technology providers are carving out new paths to make it easier to sign up sellers and process their transactions. The latest development comes from commerce platform Digital River, which on Wednesday launched a program that allows independent software vendors and other partners to launch services in new markets globally with a single integration.
The Minneapolis-based company says the new Partner Integration program cuts the cost to link to its merchant-of-record model, which brings with it Digital River’s payments, fraud, tax, and compliance support.
“The Partner Integration program is another step in our overall growth strategy,” said Adam Coyle, Digital River’s chief executive, in a statement. “This gives us the opportunity to offer an elegant and easy solution for brands worldwide to grow their e-commerce stores on the platform of their choice, knowing the most complex checkout functions of e-commerce are being handled with expertise by Digital River.”
Payments processing and other services enabled by the single integration are offered by Digital River’s global seller services platform, which has recently won business from new clients including Redshift by Maxon, Lenbrook, and LG, the company said.
The new initiative follows a shift Digital River executed in 2019 from offering a so-called full-stack processing service to a back-end platform featuring a variety of application programming interfaces for specific functions. The company has since forged integrations of its own with commerce platforms, the latest being one on the SAP App Center, which it announced early this year.
E-commerce sales, which accelerated after Covid-related restrictions and related safety concerns closed physical stores early last year, continue to grow apace. They totaled an estimated $215 billion in the first quarter, up 39% year-over-year and nearly 8% over the prior quarter, according to the U.S. Bureau of the Census.
The thirst for e-commerce is also giving a boost to cryptocurrency, with the latest development emerging Wednesday as the processor BitPay said it is enabling online acceptance for Jomashop, a luxury-goods seller based in the borough of Brooklyn in New York City. For the merchant, Atlanta-based BitPay is processing Bitcoin and eight other cryptos, including the increasingly popular Dogecoin and four stablecoins, which are tethered to the U.S. dollar or other national currencies.
The merchant said it is seeing growing demand from customers for acceptance of digital currencies. “We are now able to offer our luxury goods to affluent users who prefer to pay using cryptocurrency and serve our international customers where it’s easier and faster to pay using Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies,” said Alex Sternberg, vice president at Jomashop, in a statement.
