Ginger empowers EMS to offer an omnichannel merchant solution

Ginger’s PaaS platform empowers EMS to improve its existing payment solution and support its omnichannel strategy for a better merchant experience.

EMS, a European payment specialist, used Ginger’s Payments-as-a-Service (PaaS) platform to set up a complete omnichannel payment solution for its merchants. The strong growth and rapidly changing consumer preferences in eCommerce has left banks and merchant acquirers struggling to offer the seamless online payment experience merchants expect, making it very hard to compete with fast-moving payment providers like Stripe and Adyen. With Ginger’s support, EMS now serves +40,000 merchants with a future-proof solution that supports online, mobile, and point-of-sale payments.

From offline to omnichannel

The tremendous shift online, accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic, resulted in 16.5% global eCommerce sales growth in 2020. To stay relevant to their merchants, banks and acquirers must be able to accept and process online payments. However, in the fast-moving online payment industry it’s difficult for large FIs to keep up with the latest innovations, changing shopping preferences and new technologies. As merchants pick their payment providers based on price and product offering, it’s imperative to have a solution on par with the best providers in the market in order to retain and win customers in the long term.

An extra challenge are the legacy systems typically found within banks. For product teams it can feel daunting to replace their existing solution completely or to build on top of their legacy systems. However, partnering with a PaaS provider that’s experienced in delivering modern payment technology through integration or replacement makes the process a breeze.

Therefore, EMS, a joint-venture between Fiserv (51%) and ABN AMRO Bank (49%), decided to transition from being a point-of-sale (POS) acquirer to a provider of omnichannel payment solutions with the help of Ginger.

The solution

With Fiserv as a major stakeholder, it was clear that their technology needed to be involved in the solution. Fiserv is known for its robust card gateways, Omnipay and IPG, and high-quality POS solution Clover. Yet, as a global payments juggernaut, it was missing the required flexibility, speed, and local payment solutions. EMS already had the Clover terminals for accepting payments in-store and Fiserv IPG for processing credit card transactions in place. For a seamless payment experience, Ginger’s eCommerce payment gateway was added as a “wrapper”, connecting the existing partners. Ginger integrated all providers into one solution, allowing EMS to tap into the power of Ginger’s features like automated onboarding, alternative payment methods, shopping cart plugins, a customizable hosted payment page and unified reporting from multiple providers.

Alternative Payment Methods implemented for EMS

With this partnership, EMS didn’t have to replace their existing systems or integrate all partners themselves. It reduced their go-to-market time and development costs, resulting in an integrated and EMS-branded omnichannel solution for merchants on one contract.

EMS Online dashboard

“EMS is delighted to partner with Ginger. It is very important for us to serve our +40.000 merchants, largely in The Netherlands and Belgium, with an agile, flexible, and future-proof online solution to support growing needs of consumers to transact in online, mobile, and Point-of-Sales channels. Ginger’s platform helps EMS in delivering this omnichannel experience to every customer, everywhere,”
Pieter Stal, CEO of EMS

The process

Ginger develops and maintains all client solutions in an individual, dedicated AWS Instance. The eCommerce payment gateway is a white-label solution; it uses the EMS logo, fonts, and colors to maintain the original branding and trustworthiness.

Ginger’s experience with setting up payment solutions for large banks, resulted in a swift delivery of the “EMS Online” solution in just a matter of weeks:

First, Ginger set up a customized eCommerce solution for EMS with the payment features already on Ginger’s platform. This allows clients to get on par with the best Payment Service Providers in the industry by continuously adding new features to the platform.

Second, Ginger created an omnichannel solution by combining its eCommerce solution with the Clover POS solution. Displaying data from all payment channels efficiently on one resonant dashboard.

Third, Ginger integrated the new solution with existing gateways, Fiserv IPG and Omnipay, using Ginger’s own Switch. This connects with any POS provider, gateway, payment method, or eWallet, and gives EMS maximum flexibility in their setup and future global roll-out. As a “wrapper”, it avoids unnecessary data migration and onboarding of merchants onto new software.

The result

EMS is now a full omnichannel PSP, leveraging Ginger’s complete white-label eCommerce Payment Gateway and Switch.

“With Ginger’s support, we are able to significantly extend our online payments solution by offering local accepted payment methods and support a wide range of shopping carts, effectively allowing us to service our clients & prospects’ needs in terms of capabilities, speed, and efficiency.”
Pieter Stal, CEO of EMS

Merchant-facing features

In order to create a true omnichannel offering, Ginger implemented all of its merchant-facing features.

Card payments and alternative payment methods to optimize checkout
Ginger’s eCommerce shopping cart plugins & SDKs
Automated onboarding process of merchants in minutes
Unified reporting in one overview from all integrated partners
Customizable Hosted Payment Page for a secured transaction
Billing and settlement for automated processing and administration of transactions
Fraud Prevention to detect and reduce fraudulent payments
Merchant and Admin Portal
Integration of Clover (POS) and Fiserv IPG (card gateway) in one merchant solution and overview. EMS owns the sales, onboarding, settlement and risk services.

Shopping cart plugins and SDKs

Ginger

As a Payment as a Service (PaaS) platform, Ginger continuously ensures the payment solution runs smoothly, allowing EMS to optimally serve their merchants.

These are merely highlights of the technology behind the EMS solution. If you want to learn more about Ginger’s technology, we strongly encourage you to reach out to us.