What is Merchant Onboarding and White Label merchant onboarding?
Merchant onboarding which is also known as seller onboarding can be explained in technical words as a description that explains the process that merchants need to follow when applying for a merchant account to avail facilities of receiving online payment through debit/credit card. It ensures merchants to meet requirements like KYC (know your customer) before getting started. Basically it is an underwriting review process. It is also known as seller boarding. Onboarding merchants have become an onerous process in this rapidly growing global payments solution era. Before the introduction of automated onboarding manual testing and validation process were very tiring, lengthy and time-consuming. This labor-intensive process caused a delay in the timely completion of transactions which resulted in revenue loss and higher-attribution for the merchant. It has also been found that the majority of the cases don’t really require so much special attention to get approved.
To make the validation process simpler and faster, automation is playing a vital role and the White label payment facilitator model allows a company to perform automated merchant onboarding. Every automated merchant onboarding is different on the basis of the type of merchants you are dealing with, a region in which they operate, and, nature, size, and type of business. White label payment merchant onboarding is a settlement entrance option that permits your firm to use its very own brand name for settlement handling solutions while handling is done by some exterior third party supplier or service provider. Thus, in the eyes of the customer, the company’s payment platform has provided the service. A white label solution is an easy and efficient way to become a payment service provider. It relieves you of the financial, practical and another burden that comes while setting up from the zero. An authentic service provider will show your brand on checkout interface, payment engine, business dashboard and also on mobile app. other than this it will give you direct access to wholesale costs with full control of transaction commissions. With white label merchant onboarding, you can speed up your onboarding process.
· Components of Merchant Onboarding
Complete understanding of merchant onboarding is very important for you as a customer as well because most of the providers in the market exaggerate everything and create an illusion of benefits desired by the customer. Whereas the ground reality is completely different, there is hardly any details available about those attractive offers because they are all vague. Before finalizing the service provider it would be good for you to understand the components of optimal merchant onboarding.
It has three components:
· Procedure of merchant onboarding
· Operable underwriting management solution
· Level of control and flexibility
Let’s discuss each component in detail.
Process of merchant onboarding:
The merchant onboarding process usually has the following steps.
o The process mostly initiates by you, merchant. The merchant account provider receives a request for information on the merchant ID.
o In reply, the requestor then receives an email with all the details, requirements, and associated fees.
o To start accepting payment via credit/debit card, the merchant needs to fill some documents and justification is completed after it.
o Now the next step merchant needs to choose the type of merchant account most suitable for his business. Providers like iPayTotal help merchants in selecting the services and the next steps will be determined on the basis of the account and facilities chosen by merchants.
o If a merchant needs more information or has any query, a contact email or number will be provided by the provider.
During this complete procedure, the merchant has to be very careful with the information merchant account provider provides you. They will use buzzwords to gain your trust and lastly persuade you to agree with the terms and conditions which might affect you later. Question the merchant account provider as much as possible. Every offer, facilities or any phrase mentioned by them to advertise their speed should be clear. Merchants want quick approval and this fact is known by all providers. So, they will claim “instant approval” and “speedy execution” but this your responsibility to ask them what exactly how many hours or days it takes to get a working merchant account after completing formalities? Ask the provider about MIDs for a preapproved set of MCC codes. Also, it’s your duty to be honest with your provider because in many cases merchants themselves are a hindrance in the approval. Go ahead with the provider only if you get satisfying answers to your questions. The acquirer should also ensure that the merchant is KYC compliant and determine the credit-worthiness then only complete the activation process.
Operable underwriting management solution
Merchant and merchant account providers both should be satisfied with the underwriting management solution so that the best compatibility can be achieved. The solution tool adopted by your merchant account provider should also be used by other third-party payment providers so that it verifies its authenticity. Things which you should check in an underwriting management solution:
- Underwriting management solution should provide progressive onboarding which collects merchant data initially and later other additional required data is collected.
- It should monitor the activities of merchant boarding and give proper notifications
- It should have a dynamic user interface to define data elements according to the requirements
- Powerful and user-friendly functions.
- A good underwriting management solution should provide mobility support.
In order to get approved underwriting procedure is important. Merchant account provider should also take care of important key things while reviewing any business-like nature of the business, the location of the merchant, number of years in business, chargeback analysis, credit-card processing history, etc.
Level of control and flexibility
For a merchant, business is his priority and you as a merchant doesn’t want to lose control over your business. Your provider’s limitations should not take over your business. An optimal merchant onboarding has the following provisions for flexibility and control:
- It should give liberty to the merchant to brand and improve customer experience.
- It gives you complete control over your acquiring relationships.
- Merchants should own their merchant relationships and control their risks.
Automated Merchant Onboarding, as well as white label merchant onboarding, enhances the experience of both payment provider and merchant. Some experienced merchant account providers offer all the features without using buzzwords like iPayTotal which makes sure that you get the best services and your every query gets a satisfying solution in time without being more rigid.
