A street sign with two arrows pointing in opposite directions, symbolizing refund processes in e-commerce.

How to Build Powerful Refund Processing for E-Commerce 

Returns and refunds are a major concern for retailers. One important factor is cost. In 2021 alone, the combined value of all returns in the U.S. was $761 billion. What’s more, The fees that merchants have to pay to payment providers for refunds to the original source of payment add to this amount. Building their own e-wallet-based payment system can reduce these costs while improving the customer experience. But how to build an efficient refund processing for e-commerce platforms – that’s what we want to answer in this article. 

In the following paragraphs, we will take a look at: 

  • The difference between returns and refunds
  • The typical flow of a refund in online retail
  • The challenges of refunding payments
  • The advantages of an e-wallet system for refunding
  • The process of building one yourself

And: action! 

Read More
A picture displaying a clock and money, symbolizing buy now pay later payments

How to Build Your Own BNPL Solution

Buy Now, Pay Later (also: BNPL) is shaking up the payment market. In 2020, it already made up 5% of annual e-commerce transactions, according to Bain & Company. And the trend is upward, as many online retailers plan to introduce BNPL payment options, as well. The key question for those companies is: 

What is the best way to set up a payment system that includes BNPL options? 

This boils down to the simple choice between turnkey payment systems by 3rd parties or a custom system built and run in-house.    

The first option is quicker and doesn’t require as much domain knowledge and development resources as the second one. However, it comes with disadvantages in the long run such as: 

  • Continuous fees that cut into revenue
  • Dependency on a third party regarding updates and features
  • Risk of so-called vendor lock-in, when the BNPL provider cannot deliver the service or changes the price structure, while no alternative provider is available
  • Possibility that the BNPL solution in question no longer fits the retailers’ business strategy as it evolves 

When building a custom payment system with Buy Now, Pay Later options, these problems can be avoided or mitigated. Companies are even better positioned with an e-wallet system, as BNPL processes can also be built on top of it. 

In this article, we provide an overview of how companies can build their own BNPL solution – and why this is even easier with a powerful e-wallet framework.

Read More
A software developer working on coding a payment gateway

How to Develop a Payment Gateway – in 4 Stages

Online marketplaces are complex systems. This complexity is reflected in the Payment Gateway needed for such platforms.

As a marketplace owner, you always have the option to integrate payment systems, offered by external Payment Service Providers. Depending on your business strategy, that might suffice. But using an off-the-shelf PSP will also limit your opportunities. You can’t evolve your marketplace to your preferences if the PSP doesn’t move along with you:

  • You want to offer payment methods, according to customer demand? The PSP must support them.
  • You want to scale up your business and move to new markets? The PSP must be set up to handle higher transaction numbers and adapt quickly to local financial regulations.
  • You want to enable customers to pay via a prepaid e-money balance and securely store their payment instruments? The PSP must offer an electronic wallet.
  • And so on…

Thus, ambitious marketplace owners might decide to build a custom Payment Gateway and remain in control over payments. As the company behind CoreWallet, the flexible software foundation for payment and e-wallet applications, we are familiar with creating Payment Gateways. It’s important to approach the development process with a clear plan. To help you master the technical challenges, we have compiled the common stages of such a Payment Gateway project for you.

Read More
A hand holding lollipos, which stand for loyalty programs

How You Build a Wallet-Based Loyalty Program And Profit 

One of the key drivers of growth and profitability is customer retention. You may be converting a nice piece of your traffic into sales. But you need a healthy customer retention rate, i.e. your ability to keep a paying customer over a period of time. Else, you will be spending more money over time on acquiring new customers.

The cost of acquiring a new customer is high. According to Harvard Business Review that cost can amount to 5 to 25 times more than it takes to retain a customer. That is why you will see a lot of businesses have implemented a loyalty program to entice people to return and increase retention.

But what would a higher retention rate mean for merchants? According to Bain & Company, a 5% increase in retention rates can raise profits by more than 25%. By having a loyalty program in place, you end up spending less while simultaneously increasing your profits by targeting your existing customers.

With this article, we want to help you build a thriving business as a merchant or marketplace platform owner by granting customers the incentive of loyalty points. We outline how you can integrate a loyalty program into a payment system built with CoreWallet. The article will answer the questions: 

  • What is a loyalty program?
  • What types of loyalty programs exist?
  • How to set up a point-based loyalty program for your business – on the technical side?
  • Why will you benefit from implementing your loyalty program with CoreWallet?   
Read More
A stylized smartphone showing an different emoney business options, from governmental to payment applications

Building Your Own Emoney Online Business

Prospects and Challenges

In the modern economy, digital payment processes have become a key business factor. Electronic money is transferred across virtual wallets all over the globe at second intervals — or even quicker. Who can build and innovative emoney business quickly, can carve out a niche for themselves.

“Fast-pacedness, however, is not the only reason behind the rise of ewallets and payment software. Profitability also plays a huge role. According to statistics by McKinsey, shifting their customers from traditional offline to digital accounts can save an enterprise up to 90 percent in service costs. Consequently, mobile and online payment solutions are in high demand. In 2016 the Statista Digital Market Outlook predicted an increasing growth rate for the mobile payment sector. 63% within 5 years, to be exact.

Read More
An ewallet, placed in between several stored-value powered apps, running on the foundation of CoreWallet

Use Case: Using CoreWallet for Stored Value Transaction Systems

Modern life can in many ways be broken down into a series of transactions. We give something, like information, money or services, and we get a corresponding value in return. In that regard, time really is money. And so are stored values like virtual assets, loyalty points, kilometers driven and hours of usage.

Effective stored value management has become an important factor for online and offline businesses – all the more as customers interact with stored value systems on a daily basis too. 

Read More