Multi-PSP: the orchestration strategy that optimizes performance and reliability

“Don't put all your eggs in one basket.”

We all received this common-sense advice... good news: it also applies to your e-commerce site.

This advice applies perfectly to your payment strategy. In today's e-commerce world, where every transaction counts, relying all your payments on a single provider is equivalent to playing Russian roulette with your turnover.

Multi-PSP (for Multi-Payment Service Providers) consists in connecting several payment partners to the same site or application, in order to benefit from their complementarities and to secure the collection. This approach, long reserved for the giants of the sector, is becoming more and more widespread.

The facts speak for themselves: according to the Payplug/Groupe BPCE study, 70% of the top 10 French e-commerce and 50% of the top 50 have already taken the plunge. These companies have understood that beyond a simple technical choice, multi-PSP represents a real strategic lever.

The equation is simple, Relying on a single PSP is taking a risk :

A payment that fails = a customer who leaves.

A tunnel that crashes = an acquisition campaign that collapses.

In the event of an incident or sudden change, your ability to cash in is weakened. In a context where sovereignty and resilience have become essential, this dependence is simply no longer possible. In an increasingly competitive market, payment performance is a decisive competitive advantage.

Let's discover together why to rely on several payment partners and an effective and efficient strategy to:

• Adapt to the local specificities of your target markets
• Optimizing acceptance rates
• Reducing critical dependencies and operational risks
• Generate measurable economic gain

Meeting local expectations: when each market has its own codes.

You're already customizing your customers' experience right up to the checkout page. Why stop there? Your users expect the same attention until the end of the tunnel, with payment methods that match their habits.  
Just relying on Visa/Mastercard standards is no longer enough. Each European country has developed its own payment reflexes, and ignoring these specificities amounts to creating friction at the most critical moment: the finalization of the purchase. What works in France does not necessarily work in Germany, in switzerland (article link) or in Spain.

Let's take a few examples: iDEAL is a must in the Netherlands, Klarna dominates in Sweden, Sofort is widely used in Germany, while bank cards remain queen in France... provided that the local Cartes Bancaires (CB) network is integrated into it. In Spain, split payments are booming, while in Italy, immediate transfers are gaining momentum. Each market has its codes, its uses, its preferences.

A single PSP cannot respond effectively to this diversity and excel everywhere. Each service provider makes its choices: some prefer broad international coverage, others rely on local excellence. Even the most successful must deal with realities on the ground: regulatory complexity, diversity of payment methods, specific technical integration, or the need for close relationships with local partners.

The Vertbaudet example: a tailor-made strategy that is bearing fruit

Vertbaudet understood this problem perfectly. Faced with the constraints of a single PSP, the children's fashion brand has chosen to diversify. “We wanted to remove the constraints of a single PSP. Purse's multi-purchaser approach and centralized transaction management convinced us.”, explains Gauthier Délin, Director of Information Systems at Vertbaudet.

Supporting internationalization: this strategy facilitated the deployment of Vertbaudet in Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Spain and Portugal, with the integration of 7 new local payment methods. The results demonstrate the impact:

• Belgium: 60% of purchases now made via Bancontact
• Switzerland: 50% of transactions on Twint
• Portugal: nearly 60% of transactions made with MBway

Adopting a multi-PSP strategy : It means combining everyone's strengths to build a payment path adapted to each zone.
By combining several providers, you can create the perfect mix for each geographic area: local PSPs for alternative methods, global players for international maps, specialized solutions for emerging wallets.

Purse allows its customers to easily activate local PSPs such as iDEAL, Bizum or Bancontact, depending on the target markets, while maintaining centralized integration.

The challenges are multiple. The main thing is to offer the right payment method at the right time, but it is also about reducing the abandonment rate, making payment as smooth as possible and increasing customer satisfaction. A user who cannot find their favorite payment method is a user who is at risk of abandoning their basket and never coming back.

Optimizing acceptance rates: every point counts.

Offering the right payment methods is only the first step. They still need to work perfectly, at the right time, with the right provider. With Purse, you can monitor the performance of each PSP in real time and dynamically adapt your routing strategy based on the results (A/B testing included).
Generally, local PSPs have a direct connection to local acquisition servers and are therefore more technically efficient.

Not all PSPs are created equal. Their performance varies according to numerous criteria: countries, card types, card types, time slots, terminals (mobile vs desktop), issuing banks. Provider A can excel on French personal cards but struggle with German corporate cards. Another will be formidable on desktop but less optimized for mobile.

In a payment tunnel, each refusal is expensive. For a high-volume e-merchant, gaining 1 to 2 points in acceptance rate often represents several hundreds of thousands of euros in turnover maintained annually, without additional investment in acquisition.

Multi-PSP reveals its full potential here. Flow orchestration makes it possible to dynamically route each transaction according to specific performance criteria: geography, payment method, device, basket amount... By A/B testing your service providers according to defined criteria, you can assess which ones perform best and define an adapted routing table. In this way, you get an optimized and most efficient payment path possible in each configuration.

As a bonus, this granularity of management saves time (and money) for your technical teams. Where, previously, a change in PSP or routing logic required several days or weeks, orchestration makes it possible to act quickly, with no new integration to be expected.
The result: more flexibility, more conversions and finer control.

Beyond pure conversion, this dynamic approach reduces your dependence on a single provider, thus strengthening your operational resilience.

Optimizing acceptance rates does not end with smart routing your flows across several PSPs.  
Orchestration platforms integrating centralized anti-fraud detection solutions (machine learning, dynamic rules) greatly reduce false positives — those denials of legitimate payments caused by unjustified suspicion.

If a method detects unusual fraud, the orchestrator can baffle transactions to a more reliable PSP or apply strengthened rules automatically. Fewer false rejections = more revenue captured.‍

Insure your operations: when one PSP falls, the other takes over ‍

Focusing all your flows on a single provider creates a major structural risk. Technical incident, unexpected latency, bug on 3D Secure redirection, sudden change in commercial policy... and your cashing capacity is collapsing.

These failures are not science fiction. All e-commerce players know it: no one is safe, including the biggest PSPs on the market. And when these interruptions occur during peak transactions - a Saturday, Black Friday, sales, product launches - the impact is catastrophic. Thousands of euros in turnover can evaporate in a few hours, without being able to recover lost sales most of the time.

The multi-PSP strategy responds directly to this challenge. By multiplying connections, it makes it possible to set up intelligent failover mechanisms. Concretely: if a PSP does not respond or returns an error, the transaction is automatically re-routed to an active provider, in a way that is completely transparent for the user.

This business continuity, which is often underestimated, turns the payment of a point of weakness into a robust link in your customer journey.

The multi-PSP approach also strengthens your commercial independence. In the event of a unilateral price increase, a deterioration in service or an imposed change of interface, you keep control. You can redistribute your flows, switch volume to another provider, or integrate a new partner without redesigning your architecture.

The Multi-PSP offers a safety net as well as a lever for agility. This agility has another beneficial effect: it gives you weight in negotiations and opens up new levers of profitability.

Optimize your costs: regain control of your margins

In a sector where margins are under constant pressure, payment remains one of the most opaque and least challenging cost items. However, it represents a significant optimization lever that, in addition to improving the customer experience, makes it possible to reduce costs without increasing marketing budgets.
PSPs apply very variable price schedules: transaction fees, interchange commissions, exchange fees, additional options... When you focus all your flows on a single provider, you trade in a position of dependency. On the other hand, by distributing your volumes between several PSPs, you take back the initiative.

The multi-PSP strategy allows you to challenge your service provider continuously, based on factual data from your orchestrator: acceptance rate, fraud rate, availability, latency, error rate. You no longer trade blindly: you show your figures, you adapt your flows, you manage your profitability.

Some companies go even further, by implementing “cost-based” routing strategies: that is, by directing each transaction to the PSP, which will apply the lowest effective fee depending on the country, the type of card, the amount or the currency. This level of granularity is only possible with an orchestrated infrastructure, connected to several PSPs.

The results are measurable: reduction in unit costs, reduction in treatment costs, reduction in the failure rate, better control of cash flows.

Payment thus goes from an item received to a function controlled in real time, which contributes directly to the improvement of the margin. For merchants, this becomes a competitive advantage in its own right: better performance, more flexibility, more control.

Orchestration, the keystone of your strategy

Faced with intensified competition and the increasing complexity of customer expectations, the multi-PSP model is obvious for e-commerce players who want to stay ahead of the curve.

Payment should no longer be made; it should be orchestrated.

The orchestrator becomes the central element that allows you to take advantage of this diversification: intelligent routing, automatic failover, real-time performance management, continuous cost optimization. Without it, managing multiple PSPs quickly becomes a technical and operational nightmare.

Purse was designed with this vision in mind: to help you regain control of your payment flows to make them a true competitive advantage. Our platform allows you to orchestrate your PSPs according to your performance criteria, to secure your transactions thanks to intelligent failover, and to optimize your costs in real time.

Ready to take back control of your payments? Our experts are at your disposal to assist you in setting up your multi-PSP strategy. Contact us -link- for a personalized analysis of your needs.

Conclusion

At Purse, we see the tangible benefits of multi-PSP for our customers every day, such as Vertbaudet or iQera. From optimizing acceptance rates to reducing technical incidents, the impact is real.

In an omnichannel and internationalized world, payment should no longer be a simple convenience, but a lever for expansion. A well-orchestrated multi-PSP strategy is more than a guarantee of resilience: it is an opportunity to optimize each transaction to boost your profitability, your growth and the satisfaction of your customers.

FAQ: the key questions about the multi-PSP strategy

Do you still have questions before you start? Here are answers to the most frequently asked questions.

Q: How do I choose the right PSPs?

A: Analyzing local specificities, regulatory compliance, compatibility with your e-commerce ecosystem, acceptance rates and comparing costs are essential. A payment orchestrator like Purse can assist you in giving you a framework and helping you make your choice.

Q: What is the technical complexity of a multi-PSP integration?

A: Thanks to orchestration platforms like PURSE, technical integration is simplified. A single interface makes it possible to manage all flows. A single integration, a single maintenance, a single interlocutor.

Q: What are the key indicators to track?

R: The main KPIs to monitor and compare between the actors are the acceptance rate (and its during the refusal of payment rate), the cost per transaction and ancillary fees (beware of hidden costs), the availability of the service and the performance according to the geographical area and the medium used (webmobile, app, desktop)

Q: What is the difference between a PSP and a payment orchestrator?

A: The PSP is a service provider that allows payments to be collected. The orchestrator, like Purse, allows you to connect several PSPs to a single interface and to manage your flows intelligently, according to your performance or cost rules.

sourcing

Rami and Benjamin Webinar March 2023 - Multi PSP.

https://www.payplug.com/fr/blog/strategie-paiement-performante/ 

https://www.lesechos.fr/finance-marches/banque-assurances/en-pleine-guerre-commerciale-les-acteurs-du-paiement-appellent-a-renforcer-la-souverainete-europeenne-2159203