LogPay Financial Services is a German secure payment service provider which offers innovation and full service solutions for digital sales channels.
Development, innovation and usage of mobile point of sale (POS) secure payment options will increase exponentially as the demand for and usage of mobile devices grows. A few facts about mobile device usage:
- Mobile commerce accounted for 48% of digital commerce sales globally in 2017 and is forecasted to reach 70% by 2022, tripling to $4.6tn (€4.17tn);
- Nearly 90% of millennials are in close contact with their smartphones throughout the day;
- The share of mobile shopping revenues generated by smartphones is 40.4%, while desktop revenues lag behind at 39.7% and tablets at 19.9%;
- Revenues in the e-commerce market in 2019 amounted to about €1.59bn; and
- According to the forecast, a market volume of €2.36bn will be achieved in 2023, representing annual revenue growth of 10.4%.
Currently, options such as SMS and NFC (near field communication, using a device in the proximity of a POS terminal to make a contactless payment) methods of payment are possible; but they are not prevalent or convenient enough to satisfy the growing demand for an easier, faster, secure way to pay via mobile. Opening up smartphones as a POS method of payment will create innumerable opportunities for the entire payments industry; turning a mobile device into a smartphone credit card reader effectively enables anyone with a smartphone to complete transactions whenever and wherever they wanted.
Storing one’s credit card on each phone is now on the rise with Google and Apple paving the way. Many consumers are turning towards these methods as a safer option, quicker than waiting in line; and easier to access, as each transaction has its own unique code. They allow users to simply pay for items either found online or found in the physical store via apps on their mobile phones.
E-wallets and mobile payment applications
E-wallets allow users to transfer money, purchase products, pay bills and complete virtually any other type of financial transaction, all with the tap of a finger. By creating an account and storing your payment details in it, purchasing goods and services with the mobile device is quick and easy. Mobile commerce, including in-app payments and mobile browser payments, is the dominant innovation driving strong digital commerce growth. So, in fact Apple and Google wallets are not a payment method as such: The user stores their individual credit card in the wallet; and then each transaction they conduct simply draws payment from the existing credit card.
Providing a seamless customer experience is crucial for LogPay as a financial service provider as it is for our partner companies; as they want to keep and further consolidate a base of loyal customers, and a good experience starts with an optimised onboarding strategy. Successful customer onboarding and retention depend on factors such as having the right IT setup for each company/region/country, enabling a variety of secure payment methods, following all compliant rules and considering all aspects when dealing with consumers’ data. Moreover, quality of service and loyalty of their consumers is key to our contract partners and that is what we respect as their service provider.
LogPay Mobility – our services
The LogPay Mobility Services philosophy is to provide secure and tailormade payment innovation solutions with effective processes and high quality customer care. Our customers include public transport companies and associations, as well as providers of mobility platforms and their mobility service providers, such as bicycle- and ridesharing, car sharing, scooter rental and on-demand services.
As a financial services company, we provide payment processing for travel and mobility products via digital sales channels (online shop or mobile app) and ensure secure data and transaction processing. There are various mobility services that consumers can select and purchase using their preferred payment method.
Secure payment innovation
LogPay offers its contract partners a wide range of payment methods and wallets tailored to the needs of today’s consumers. In addition to the classic payment methods such as SEPA direct debit, credit card and prepaid cards, LogPay offers online payment through Amazon Pay, Apple Pay, Google Pay and PayPal. In order to respond to legal, data protection and compliance regulations in the payment sector as well as to consumers’ payment behaviour, we continuously develop new functionalities such as the ‘express’ and ‘favourite’ functions for payment.
The objective is to provide consumers with secure, convenient and easy payment, as well as the choice between anonymity (without registration) and data provision (registration). Our wallet solution permits consumers to store their favourite payment method easily, by entering their personal details only once. Consumers making repeated purchases can then use the stored payment method, without having to enter their payment details every time. Consumers can also change their stored payment method. This helps to improve customers’ satisfaction, since the wallet solution makes payments fast and comfortable.
Secure data storage and performance monitoring
To meet the security needs of consumers in processing payments, we secure our IT environments and system processes continuously, utilising state of the art technology innovation and international standards. For us, the fact that we handle sensitive payment data entails investing in our IT systems to enable secure data management. We monitor the processing of individual customer payments as well as revenue allocation to our contract partners and we keep track of incoming payments.
Technical services
We provide the up to date technical application programming interfaces (APIs) and other digital solutions for each of our contract partners, depending on selected sales channels. We advise the right technical setup from our modular API; and thus implement the payment solution tailored to the need of our contract partners. Our contract partners can choose from a menu of payment methods through a single gateway and change it at any time. In the whole process our contract partners are accompanied by qualified IT support and our experienced project team.
Receivable management and fraud prevention
Our payment processing services include receivable management, identity checks on customer registration when using digital sales channels; and, depending on the payment method, checks on customer credit ratings. In this way we prevent misuse and permit the display of specific secure payment methods for the transaction based on the consumer’s payment practices. Other fraud prevention mechanisms are continuously being developed and optimised to ensure safe payment collection.
We enable sustainable growth in our contract partners’ digital sales channels. To support this growth, we will help our contract partners avoid losses and misuse by fraud, which requires on our side continuous secure payment innovation and optimisation of claims management. This includes a progressive dunning process as well as debt collection services for our contract partners to reduce their administrative and IT efforts – in addition, they will benefit from risk management systems for consumers’ payment transactions. We secure the cashflow and clear total gross sales on fixed dates.
Customer care and services
A satisfactory service for our contract partners does not stop at just handling a payment transaction. For us, it means personally helping consumers who have concerns about any payment; therefore they will be accorded full access to our Customer Care and Services team, which is staffed with qualified representatives. We developed an optional login functionality, which enables customers to keep track of their payment transactions. There, customers will be able to view their purchase history, purchased items and cancellations, just like a bank account.
Customised reporting
To provide our contract partners with maximum transparency in transactions across the respective sales channels, all specific data is processed and made available to them in the form of secure customised reporting functions. They can decide the data format to be downloaded and choose the analyses that are relevant for them. We evaluate transactions using suitable parameters, which can also be specified according to individual needs to provide our contract partners with meaningful reports.
Working together towards the future
LogPay is a member of several different national and European associations and registered societies which are committed to environmentally friendly and affordable innovation in mobility. These memberships give us access to up to date policies concerning the mobility market and the payment industry, so our contract partners always benefit from the latest knowledge and trends.
In addition, LogPay also takes responsibility for the environment by supporting the Treedom project, a worldwide platform which supports smallholders and their families by planting trees in various countries around the world.
LogPay in short
LogPay Financial Services GmbH is a subsidiary of the Volkswagen Financial Services. As a secure payment service provider, it buys receivables of the freight transport for land and inland waterways and of the mobility markets. With an annual turnover of over €3bn, it is one of the top market leaders in claims management. LogPay Mobility Services offers public transport companies and other mobility service providers a full set of financial and technical services, mainly in Germany and Austria.
Through LogPay Transport Services we offer our business partners and our transport companies a wide range of services: the LogPay Fuel and Service Card allows customers to pay for fuel and other roadside services in Europe; for tolling there is no need for any cards in most of the European Toll Domains, as On-Board Units are available either for each single toll domain or for interoperable use in several toll domains.
If you would like to get to know us, visit us in Germany next year. We will be at the IT-Trans in Karlsruhe in March 2020 and at the InnoTrans in Berlin in September 2020.
Anne Grünkorn
LogPay Financial Services GmbH
+49 61968012211
https://www.logpay.de/
