Digital River Opens Up Complete Range of Commerce, Mobile Payments-Style Options

Making the world safer for mobile payments, and those who would use them, for the last 25 years, Digital River can offer help on every front from payment processing to fraud protection and beyond. It also just tipped us off about a new shift in its strategy, giving current and potential customers alike access to the full range of available tools in the fashion they most want said options available.

With this move, Digital River takes on what it calls a “headless approach,” augmenting its suite of application programming interfaces (APIs) and various microservices to better meet the needs of its user base, both potential and current. The result is an offering that’s surprisingly flexible, and better able to meet needs on the ground exactly as conditions require. It’s also a means to make the lineup more attractive to newcomer brands who are looking to stage rapid worldwide expansion.

For companies planning to go global and sell online, there is no shortage of potential roadblocks. Digital River helps companies navigate this minefield and still present a quality customer experience on the front end.

Digital River CEO Adam Coyle noted “The way brands buy e-commerce solutions has changed. Sophisticated brands are looking to integrate multiple best-of-breed products to create a customized solution that creates a seamless buying experience. To accomplish this, we made the strategic decision to further unbundle our solutions through APIs and microservices, and build a partner ecosystem for seamless integrations.”

Part of this is just sheer survival; businesses are changing the way they buy services, as Coyle noted previously, which means that businesses have to change the way they sell services to accommodate. Part of this is also a desire to offer the best in the field, and without changing the wrapper in which these services are sold—again, to match the changing way they’re purchased—the end result is that fewer companies will even try the tools to begin with.

Digital River’s change here should allow its tools to get into more users’ hands, producing better word-of-mouth coverage and encouraging others in the field to try it out. With mobile payments use steadily climbing around the globe, having the necessary tools to take such payments safely will be increasingly vital, a point likely not lost on Digital River.