Why changemakers choose Online Payment Platform

The Power of Extreme Focus

How can a company like Volkswagen that has been making millions of cars a year for decades be overtaken in the field of electric cars by a newcomer to the automotive industry?

Extreme Focus

A company that looks at the industry and the playing field with an open mind. With big ambitions, innovative people and ideas, strong and groundbreaking technology and no legacy, experiences no noise. Such a company can go straight to its goal.

That is exactly what we do at Online Payment Platform and why we notice that more and more startups and scale-ups like Brenger and Nature.house and established names like Marktplaats, Gumtree and eBay Kleinanzeigen choose our services. Extreme focus, specialization and therefore a lot of expertise and continuous innovation in payments for platforms and marketplaces.

Where does this specialization come from?

The market for payment service providers is still relatively young. After all, the license has only been in existence for ten years. At the time, online payment methods were on the rise and more and more web shops wanted to offer their customers different options for paying. For these webshops, concluding a separate agreement for each payment method was not an option. This is where the payment service providers stepped in. And with success.

Payment flow webshops

The focus of the first payment service providers was thus entirely on webshops. They made worldwide online shopping and payments child's play. The payment dynamics of web shops are fairly simple. There is one payment flow that runs from the buyer to the seller and it has to be handled properly.

Payment flows platforms and marketplaces

It becomes quite different when you look at the payment flows on platforms and marketplaces. Here, at least in addition to the buyer and seller, a third party is involved: the platform itself. This party also wants to influence the transaction. For example, by directly setting off commission or by offering to hold the money until the product is delivered (Escrow). In addition, most platforms and marketplaces offer the possibility to easily purchase products and services from different suppliers in one transaction, making it desirable to automatically distribute one payment among the parties involved.

Trustworthy community

While as a webshop you only have to deal with buyers, marketplaces and platforms must also continuously work on a trustworthy community to prevent fraud and dissatisfied users. This requires, among other things, that users are identified and verified through a KYC (Know Your Customer) procedure. In addition, the user experience must be such that the community grows and there is an optimal balance of supply and demand.

Special solutions for very specific issues

These are all dynamics that do not occur in webshops. Our vision is that only by having a laser focus on these processes can you ensure that the user experience on a marketplace or platform runs seamlessly and is continuously improved by new functionality. Focus also means high-quality service, which leads to better solutions for all parties. With focus you can anticipate the smallest nuances and optimize them. Or develop special solutions for very specific issues facing marketplaces and platforms.

Tim van Oerle, co-founder Nature.house: "We had been looking for a long time for a solution to get payments into our platform, only we ran into all kinds of legal issues. Think of rental agreements, holding money and third party funds. The conclusion of this search was that many web shop Payment Service Providers have too little knowledge and resources to provide platforms and marketplaces with good information and technology. These specific questions called for a specific payment service provider, namely a PSP specialized in platforms and marketplaces. That's why we chose Online Payment Platform."

New regulations and changing dynamics and risks create a need for new services. For example, Online Payment Platform introduced a special solution for crowdfunding service providers. European legislation is forcing these service providers to rethink the way they have set up payment services.

A strong proposition has also been developed for auction platforms to make B2B payments easier and more secure. One of the largest auctions in the Netherlands is already using this new payment technology. Furthermore, an innovative C2C payment flow has been created especially for automotive platforms and marketplaces. This enables consumers to pay and receive money safely and quickly when trading goods online that involve high risks and amounts.

Paul Heimann, General Manager at eBay Kleinanzeigen: "Online Payment Platform has very extensive experience with consumer-to-consumer payments. They also offer the right services to match a platform like ours."

Track record of innovation

For payment providers with largely webshops in their portfolio, it takes too many resources and very specific knowledge to develop solutions for these kinds of challenges. This would be at the expense of their core business. At Online Payment Platform, developing solutions for specific issues for marketplaces and platforms actually means a deepening and improvement of our services. Because of our focus, we are able to stay ahead of the game and can proactively help clients, instead of lagging behind.

Thanks to our focus, we have a 'history of firsts'. Online Payment Platform is the first platform PSP in the Netherlands with:

• a PSD2 license
• an iDEAL C2C license
• a Bancontact C2C license
• a live application of Open Banking on a platform in the United Kingdom

We also developed Equal Crossing for our client Marktplaats. At Marktplaats, they noticed that sellers do not like to send something before the buyer has paid, and vice versa. With Equal Crossing this problem is now solved. The seller sends a payment request, which is fulfilled by the buyer. Online Payment Platform then holds the payment until the product is delivered. This gives both the buyer and seller security.

Quintin Veldt, Manager Partnerships at Marktplaats: "Online Payment Platform is specialized in supporting marketplaces and platforms. This is a great added value for us. We have been able to streamline the customer journey of both buyer and seller even better and constantly keep each other focused on what can be improved. Nothing stands in the way of our users completing the deal in the safest and most user-friendly way. And we also reap the international benefits of our successful collaboration in the Netherlands: for payments on the 2nd hand platform we now also work with Online Payment Platform. So we also benefit there from the best practices we have established together."

Want to learn more about how we can help your marketplace or platform move forward with high quality payment solutions?