Steve Percy
President, Diolkos Commerce Solutions
June 2022
Survive and succeed.
How do I compete ? I need tools that help me compete against massive corporations that command both the supply chain and the consuming public.
The COVID years have seen small and medium sized businesses seriously challenged while large corporations swallow up market share. The tension between globalization and nationalization is increasing. The tension between the economy and social issues is front-and-center. Production and distribution of goods and services are at odds with the global climate. Attention spans and media have reached levels of shallowness beyond acceptable. These challenges are complex and the various levels of government do not have the wherewithal let alone the will to solve the issues. Will we get Leadership that actually leads ?
No matter. Beaten down people must survive and will survive. That includes all walks of life.
Competitive advantage vs. sustainable competitive advantage. Taught in every business school program there is a day-to-day effort moving businesses from one to the other. At present, there are few that own the subset of sustainable advantages. When found, acquisition strategies swallow them up both vertically and horizontally (a.k.a. diversification). Core Infrastructure inventions have the ability to remove some and re-start the pursuit.
Payments are a critical success factor in all commerce. It is the balancing component of every commercial transaction. Product provision then payment. Service provision then payment. The tools used to incent or ease the payment process have evolved and are many. Solutions such as Pre-paid, Pre-Authorization, Recurring, Loyalty Programs, Future Dating, etc. make a difference in closing sales with customers. However, current solutions have cost differences that make them available to those that can afford them and do make a difference in business competitiveness.
Can Payment solutions be built and easily implemented to remove payment related competitive advantages held by the largest players ? Is it possible to provide everyone with Split/Partial Payment, Approval oversight, Pre-Authorization, Future-Dated, Prepaid, Escrow, Time-Sensitive, Loyalty/Token programs, Coupons, Auto FX, Multi-Party pay/deposit, and simplified Charity collection, etc. and not offset all of this with extremely high costs ?
The answer is YES !
Businesses that focus on Products and Services with value will move society forward. Improvements in Products and Services make the world better. The execution of the payment, while part of the exchange process, should not be a differentiator in competitiveness. Inferior product choice should not be impacted by payment convenience.
UBER’s success leveraged the newest features in mobile technology in combination with eliminating payment friction. While it was a very expensive execution it gave them an incredible competitive advantage. STRIPE however brought in e-commerce payment technology that the masses could implement to limit any payment convenience advantage and was simple enough to provide value to many.
Payments should match the service and be seamless, support good will and recognize loyalty in a business relationship. We need to support our small and medium sized businesses with equivalent access to payment solutions. It is time for payment processing advantages to be made available to all.
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