Embedded Payments: From Add-On to Essential Infrastructure

A digital platform without embedded payments is like peanut butter without jelly.

It's like rock without roll. Dr. Jekyll without Hyde. United without States. Coronas without limes. 

You get what we are saying.

‍Embedded payments have become an indispensable component of any platform design that includes payment processing.

This of course wasn't the case not too long ago. Payments used to be outside the main digital experience. Customers would interact with one system and if they wanted to make a purchase they would be directed to a separate interface or call and a representative would use a virtual terminal to complete the actual payment transaction. But this kind of two-step, redirect process doesn't cut it today.

Today Embedded payments are transforming from optional add-ons to essential infrastructure, with the market projected to exceed $7 trillion in transaction value by 2026—over 10% of total US financial transactions—and growing at a 23% CAGR through that period, according to a report by Bain. Consumer embedded payments alone are expected to hit $3.5 trillion, generating $21 billion in revenue for platforms. Embedded payments are no longer a “nice-to-have” feature tacked onto the end of a software workflow. Instead, they’re fast becoming part of the infrastructure that defines how modern selling platforms operate and grow.

Today customers expect a smooth, uncomplicated, all-in-one buying experience. All the recent advances in the seamless online payment process have raised their expectations. They don't want to have to bounce between online systems. Now when they visit a merchant site, they want to search, subscribe, book, pay and manage their transaction without ever feeling they've left to engage in a different platform.

You can't have Bonnie without Clyde, dim without sum. Same goes with digital platforms and embedded payments.

The benefits of embedded payments in software designs make it practically a no-brainer that they be paired together. Like spaghetti and meatballs.

For example, checkouts utilizing embedded payments feel faster and more professional, which results in a better user experience. They also reduce the number of vendors necessary to complete a payment transaction. Fewer vendors means fewer complications from having to manage extra integrations. Also when a payment system is tightly integrated, it is far harder for a customer to switch providers without encountering all kinds of disruptions. 

The positive user experience made possible by a tightly integrated platform that includes embedded payments can in turn foster new revenue streams as customers feel encouraged to return to a site. To put it another way, a vertically integrated user interface with embedded payments can add up to deeper customer stickiness, and more revenue per account in the long run.

Embedded payments allow Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) and platforms to add payment processing functionality natively without redirecting the experience to another website. In other words, embedded payments let customers make purchases without leaving your application or website. Merchants expect to search, subscribe, book, pay, and manage their accounts without ever feeling like they’ve left your application.

​This shift is why embedded payments are now a foundational capability for vertical SaaS, marketplaces, and platforms. Beyond just about processing a card, embedded payments now mean owning the entire revenue flow, data, and customer experience in one place.

But it takes more than just slapping on a “Pay” button.

Yes, embedded payments have today become an almost indispensable component of software designs. But creating such a capability involves more than just adding on some rudimentary function. It requires a robust infrastructure capable of supporting the payments process. Because the payments process comes with its own requirements and operating standards that are what make taking online payments possible in the first place.

For example, your embedded payments function needs to be in compliance with Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS) mandates. After all, you are dealing with customers' sensitive credit card data. Hence everything must be done to safely store that data and reduce your PCI scope as much as possible.

The embedded payments function you add to your designs should also have tokenization capabilities. This allows for processing recurring billings.

Finally no payment process should be without accurate and comprehensive payment reconciliation and reporting. Ideally this should also include analytic tools that allow for your customers to track payment trends, consumer behavior and financial performance. This information will in turn enable your clients to optimize pricing, cash flow and product strategy.

Just like you can't have Tippecanoe without Tyler too, you can't promise your clients an efficient and cost-effective payments system without utilizing the very best there is in embedded payments functionality and quality. To put it another way, you don't want to skimp on giving your clients first-class payments solutions. Proving less than optimum solutions would be like mixing oil and water, screen doors and submarines, cats and objects on a shelf.

A great embedded payment system and Qualpay go together like macaroni and cheese. Batman and Robin. Night following day.

At Qualpay, we offer flexible embedded payments along with integrated solutions that let you create a unique experience that is all yours. And we make this happen with a strong sense of responsibility to you and your business. We recognize that you want to deliver the best for your clients. And we want you to. Companies like ours that put their customers first are the ones that succeed. Which is why we stand by our work as much as you stand by yours.

To that end, we offer seamless payments within your software while handling for you all the underlying processing and compliance. At the same time we make possible white-label payments, meaning you get to brand the payments checkout experience as your own while we actually do all the underlying work like maintaining the infrastructure and managing compliance.

And with Qualpay you immediately step into a payment-facilitator-style Model (PayFac) without building everything from scratch. You are ready to go from the get-go.

You and Qualpay. Like Crick and Watson? Key lime and pie? Oral surgeons and hockey?

When you choose Qualpay for your embedded payments, you are beginning a partnership that can pay off in many other ways. Whatever other software designs you might be building, Qualpay has the payments capabilities you require, whether it be Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), enterprise software bundles, vertical platforms and marketplaces or any kind of e-commerce.

Teaming up with Qualpay means a unified experience that for your clients can drive their revenue growth, improve their conversion rates and give them more control over how their customers make payments. In other words, your clients will love what you've done for them by choosing us.

And you know what they say about love? Love is like glue and paper. Hydrogen and oxygen. The world and what makes it go round.