Overcoming payment challenges in the "new normal"

Learn how to optimize the customer experience in turbulent times.

Get the Cybersource 2020 Global Payments Report

Is your business struggling to stay ahead in this turbulent payments landscape? Are you wondering what other businesses have been doing to create the best customer experience, prevent fraud, and mitigate loss?

Based on a survey with 890 payments, fraud, and payment analytics specialists in 20 countries, our global payments study reveals the top four payment challenges to consider when planning a successful customer experience strategy, to benefit both your company and your customers.

By analyzing the approaches, strategies, and techniques that leading companies use and comparing them to average businesses, we can provide you with a valuable benchmark for assessing and improving your own customer payment experience performance.

Payments report background and why it's so relevant now

Every two years, we conduct a global payments study to capture and highlight trends in the payments landscape. This year, we conducted the survey in January and February of 2020. Obviously in the months since, the world has changed with the COVID-19 global pandemic.

In this context, our 2020 Global Payments Report provides a valuable benchmark—a "baseline of normal" that payment professionals can use to stay focused and grounded as they navigate this time of unprecedented uncertainty.

Cross-channel shopping has grown by 34 percent since the pandemic began.

—2020 PYMNTS Global Payments Report

Profile of an industry leader (and why it matters)

To provide relevant and actionable insights, we focused on identifying and highlighting payment practices that define the highest performing organizations—those who are "top performers." 

There is one central, overarching characteristic that every top performer shares: They all successfully embrace the challenge of thinking beyond and staying ahead of change. The ability to adapt to change has never been more important than it is right now. Each of the top perfomers share these traits:

Top four payment challenges and priorities

The survey's top performers tend to view the payment landscape somewhat differently—and have different priorities—than the other respondents. Here are four top-of-mind issues:

We also surveyed how and where businesses accept payments, including:

A look at the growing number of payment methods.

The advantages of connecting to multiple payment processors and merchant acquiring banks.

Effective payment management practices, approaches and techniques, including:

  • Exploring new and expanded retail approaches
  • Using new technologies to enhance and improve the customer experience
  • Improving payment security and customer confidence with tokenization
  • Making payment authorization more efficient, intelligent, and secure
  • Encouraging customers to use safer, lower-cost payment methods

Cybersource Global Payments Report

Download the report to dive deeper.