It's not enough to just take payments from customers once. To stay ahead of the competition, you need to look for ways to make the customer experience better while also keeping fraud under control.

Your current payment service provider may not always be able to meet all of your needs. Maybe they can't take payments in some of the countries where your business is growing. Still, getting rid of the old payments company and bringing on a new one may already be a pain in the neck. The good news is that you don't have to pick. You can have both. Three or more PSP partnerships could even help your business make more money again.

You could set up a payment gateway that works with any acquirer and sends payments to the right acquiring institution. This could help cut down on false declines at checkout, which happen when payments fail because of a mistake that could have been avoided.

There are many possible benefits to your business from using more than one PSP. We'll look at the pros and cons of doing this from a few different points of view in this article.

Why should you think about adding another payment service provider?

Adding another PSP to your business is like adding another horse to the race: you can now see which one works better for your digital commerce. You could see if payments go through faster with processor A or B.

What makes this so?

Don't all payment processors work in pretty much the same way? You might be surprised to learn that the quality of tools and services varies greatly between providers.

Different payment service providers may have the following differences:

• More ways to pay, like making cards for employee expensesBetter ties with credit card companies like Visa, Mastercard, and Diners Club. 
• A better understanding of the rules for paying in your area and the requirements for card schemes. 
• Better payment routing technology that uses huge data sets and machine learning to keep getting better.
• Better ways to protect payments, like 3DS and tokenized paymentsExtra reporting tools and analytics that are tailored to your needs. 
• Better ways to stop fraud and engines for figuring out how risky something is. 

Other big benefits than one PSP:

• Saving money. You can either use the better processing rates from each PSP or send your transactions through more expensive processors.
• A better experience for customers. To make your customers happier and get them to come back, give them more ways to pay, like APMs and buy now, pay later (BNPL). To take payments from customers in different countries, PSPs need a separate license. This is why working with more than one provider makes it possible to sell internationally.
• Capture more money. Less cart abandonment because customers have more ways to pay.
• Strength. Protect yourself from losing money if your processor goes down or if someone decides to block your transactions because they are worried about your business.
• Cut down on payments that aren't made. Let's compare the acceptance rates (AR) of different PSPs and invest more in the one that works best for your business.
• A wider point of view. Get help with strategy from account managers at a number of PSPs. That gives you access to a bigger group of payment experts and a second or third opinion on how your paytech is set up.
• Make the most of partnerships. You can "test drive" different PSPs to see which ones are faster or more reliable in the markets you work in. This helps you decide if you want to keep using the PSP you already have or if there are better options out there.

Also read: Most Common Way to Pay Overseas Suppliers

Problems with using more than one PSP

A lot of businesses follow the "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" rule, which has some good points. If you want to make your revenue operations more complicated, you'll need a good reason to do so. It's important to think carefully about whether the time and effort it will take to onboard several payment partners will be worth it.

Here are some possible downsides to having more than one payment service provider:

• Data that doesn't match. It's hard to put together data from different PSPs because they report it in different ways.
• Complicatedness. You need to build new relationships with several PSPs, each of which takes time, work, and negotiation.
• Delay in time. It takes time to test new PSPs and add them to your sales system. You should set aside time to test new payment systems, fix bugs, and let your customers know about changes.
• Following the rules. If you add a new payment integration, your business may need to meet a higher level of PCI compliance.

Who ought to use more than one PSP?

A multi-PSP approach would work best for businesses that have their own payment managers and want to improve their payment strategy. You will get more transaction data that you can use to look for patterns and compare. If you really want to boost profits by optimising payments (for example, by cutting down on fraud, chargebacks, or cart abandonment), you should at least look into more than one PSP.

Another use case is if you work with both B2B and B2C clients who want to pay in different ways. Or maybe you're doing business in places like the Middle East, North Africa, and Pakistan, and you need to change how you handle payments to fit those markets. You should know what you can do with a different PSP, like how detailed the reporting is, how fast the processing is, how much support the merchant gets, or how well the fraud monitoring works.

Also read: Top 10 ecommerce KPIs for online merchants

How to handle more than one payment gateway

Different payment gateway providers have different experiences when it comes to plugging in a new one. The amount of work required depends on your specific goals and the technical setup you already have. Most of the time, you have to add each new payment gateway to your tech stack one at a time. The amount of resources needed can change based on how you like to check out.
If your business is growing across borders or working with customers from other countries, it's important to have a payment partner who knows how to deal with global issues. TransFi comes in at that point.
TransFi has a payment gateway and cross-border payment solution that is ready for the future. It makes it easy to collect payments from more than 50 countries quickly, safely, and in their currencies. TransFi has everything you need in one place, from smart routing and clear pricing to local payout options.

Conclusion

It might seem like a lot of work to use more than one payment service provider, but for many growing businesses, it's worth it. It gives you more options, lowers the number of failed transactions, makes the customer experience better, and makes your payment system more future-proof. It can be complicated, but if you do it right, it can open up new markets, bring in more money, and give you more control over your business. Payments are no longer just a backend process; they give you a strategic edge.

FAQs

1. Do you need more than one PSP?

Not all the time. Yes, it can help a lot if you're going global, want higher approval rates, or need more ways to pay.

2. Will my customers be confused if I have more than one PSP?

No. Your customers will still see a clean checkout page. You take care of the tech side of PSPs; they won't see it.

3. Isn't it costly to keep more than one PSP?

You might have to put in some work at first, but you can save money by picking the cheapest PSP for each region or use case.

4.How do I choose which PSP to add?

Look for problems with your current setup, like missing payment options, slow processing, or low approval rates. Pick a PSP that fixes those problems.

5. What if one of the PSPs stops working?

That's what I'm saying! Your business keeps running smoothly with another PSP. It's like having a backup plan for your bills.