eCommerce comes of age

A strategic partnership between three leading tech and finance firms has significantly lowered the barriers to entry for merchants exploring the potential for ecommerce to help drive business growth.

Adobe Commerce, previously known as Magento, lets you personalise end-to-end shopping and purchasing experiences at scale by delivering tailored promotions, seamless omnichannel fulfilment options, and self-service convenience that result in higher conversion rates and average order values.

“eCommerce is maturing in Australia as merchants confront the challenge of evolving consumer preferences and a complex payments ecosystem,” says Luke Jericho, head of ecommerce, Commonwealth Bank.

“Commonwealth Bank’s PowerBoard, Adobe and OSE Digital set a new standard for what businesses can achieve online,” says Jericho.

The PowerBoard extension to Adobe Commerce, facilitated with the help of specialist ecommerce agency OSE Digital, makes it even easier for Australian businesses to accept multiple payment options. This allows merchants to customise their ecommerce experience for customers and offers better terms for payment processing.

PowerBoard is an ecommerce solution that helps merchants deliver payment choice, operational efficiency, and security via a single integration point.

PowerBoard’s functionality has now been directly integrated into Adobe Commerce. This makes it easier for merchants to offer customers multiple payment options, including debit and credit cards, digital wallets and alternative payment methods such as Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal and Afterpay. Through Adobe Commerce it also integrates with tax agencies across more than 30 countries.

“We give merchants the ability to accept all major payment types in a much more simplified, efficient process, compared to having to install numerous individual extensions for each payment type,” says Jericho.

Thanks to the PowerBoard integration with Adobe Commerce, merchants are more easily able to store customers’ credit card details in a compliant way. This makes it as simple as possible for consumers to buy from a business they have bought from previously.

“It reduces the friction that prevents consumers from completing a sale, a really valuable feature for our merchant customers,” says Jericho.

The integration offers merchants and their customers other benefits aside from payment choice.

“When you shop online, you want to know what the return policy is and how quickly you’ll get your money back,” says Mike Lynch, enterprise commerce specialist, Adobe Commerce.

“So, this is not just about processing payments, it’s about features such as returns, fraud mitigation and meeting consumer needs,” says Lynch.

Additionally, merchants can more easily pay refunds directly back into the customer’s credit card or payment system, depending on the payment method, while staying protected with CommBank’s bank-grade security and fraud management services.

There are also operational benefits. For instance, the platforms’ combined power improves website performance because fewer extensions are required. This supports a better experience for consumers, which helps drive repeat business and sales. Plus, the platforms offer merchants the ability to brand their checkout.

“It’s very important for merchants to offer customers a customised checkout experience, which is one of Adobe Commerce’s key strengths,” says Paul Dunstone, CEO of OSE Digital.

Adobe Commerce, when combined with the PowerBoard extension streamlines transactions for B2B merchants, which are becoming an increasingly important part of the ecommerce landscape.

“As a result of this powerful new extension, this market segment is now able to deliver a much more sophisticated customer journey, which will no doubt prove popular,” says Dunstone.

Installing the extension is quick and easy, with merchants able to access its features within a matter of hours.

Ultimately, Adobe Commerce powered by the Commonwealth Bank’s PowerBoard extension helps future proof a merchant’s business because it’s engineered for growth, seamlessly deploying new features to meet evolving customer needs, new payment methods and technologies as they emerge.

The platform is built to be scalable, which gives merchants confidence their payment systems will be able to accommodate their growth.

“PowerBoard is highly scalable. Any merchant can integrate their front end with Adobe Commerce, be it a website or native app. It means merchants can offer any user experience and payment options and customise their online presence,” says Jericho.

Adobe Commerce and PowerBoard will continue to work together to help merchants navigate the ever-changing landscape of online payments and consumer expectations.

“Our approach is to identify what customers want to achieve with their ecommerce presence now and into the future, and work out how technology can help support that,” says Jericho.

“The combined firepower that the three parties offer, helps merchants accept payments sooner, achieve operational efficiency and take control of their payments ecosystem.”

This article was originally published in The Australian Financial Review (Nine Publishing) on 3 May 2024.