About the Author: Amit Bhaiya
Towards the end of last year, Adobe announced the launch of its own Payment Services, readily integrable for merchants leveraging Adobe Commerce and Magento Open Source for their eCommerce storefronts. Prior to Payment Services for eCommerce, most Magento payment processors required additional integration and management efforts to set up and support. Adobe Payment Services will simplify eCommerce operators’ transaction management and provide additional insight. However, there are other factors that operators must consider—most notably, custom work, configurations, and mobile optimization for Magento payment methods.
Adobe Payment Services
As an “out-of-the-box” integration, Payment Services is managed from an eCommerce business’ Adobe Admin. You can manage all aspects of each transaction from your central dashboard and generate reports as needed. Payment Services became available for US merchants in the final quarter of last year, and the offering will expand internationally throughout 2022.
The provided service relies on the PayPal Commerce Platform, which promises competitive processing fees and will allow customers to pay for their orders via methods such as:
- Credit
- Debit
- PayPal account
- Venmo
- “Buy now, pay later”
Aside from the payment option and management benefits, Adobe Payment Services will provide eCommerce operators greater confidence in their cybersecurity (e.g., encryption) and Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) compliance.
PayPal
PayPal has long been integrable with Adobe Commerce / Magento; PayPal Express Checkout remains one of the recommended Magento 2 payment gateways in the Adobe Commerce User Guide. Facilitating transactions across 25 different currencies from 202 countries, leveraging PayPal for Magento 2 significantly expands any eCommerce business’ potential audience.
Additionally, Paypal’s “Seller Protection” service—offered free of charge—provides a buffer for merchants if a customer submits a dispute (e.g., unauthorized transactions, unreceived items).
However, operators should note that Seller Protection does not offer blanket dispute coverage. Since items significantly different than their description are not covered, you should ensure that your Adobe Commerce site accurately conveys details and specifications in a highly visible location, regardless of desktop or mobile navigation.
Regarding PayPal for Magento 2 and all other Adobe Commerce / Magento payment processors and related site development, DotcomWeavers is ready to provide our expertise as a Silver Member of the Adobe Solution Partner Program (SPP).
New Functionalities with Adobe Payment Services
Adobe Payment Services’ central integration with Commerce Admin enables new management functionalities that previously required significant custom work or additional third-party integrations:
- Create orders
- Reporting
- Increased Management capabilities
- “Buy now, pay later”
Create Orders
If you already know that a customer has a purchase planned or has a unique scenario, directing them to your eCommerce site only adds sales process hurdles before the transaction is complete.
Instead, you can immediately create and send out a purchase order. Adobe Commerce’s capabilities allow merchants to add products from the full catalog or browse and select from their customers’ various created lists (e.g., wishlists, last ordered, recently viewed). Once the products have been added, merchants can quickly configure shipping, price, and currency details.
Created orders will be sent to the customer’s account for their review.
Reporting
Adobe Payment Services adds two reports for merchants seeking further insight into their cashflow management and transaction processing: payouts and order payment status. This increase of in-platform reporting streamlines management efforts—removing the need to log into multiple accounts, perform numerous imports and exports, or manually sift through and reconcile data.
Both reports are downloadable in .csv formats if you intend to export them to accounting solutions or other third-party software. Furthermore, reports can be generated from live or sandbox environments (i.e., for testing and validation).
Payouts
The payouts report compiles information including:
- Magento order and transaction IDs
- Transaction details:
- Amounts
- Payment method
- Date
- Type
- Status
- Fees
- Currency
Order Payment Status
To locate any order’s placement in your process flow, the order payment status report provides information including:
- Payment status
- Invoice and shipment status
- Refund status
- Dispute status
Increased Management Capabilities
Payment Services provides direct control over refund and void activities from the Adobe Commerce Admin.
Full or partial refunds must be performed as part of the credit memo process and may be delivered to the customer or applied towards future purchases. Note that a transaction must be invoiced to create a credit memo.
Void capabilities are provided for any transactions where payment remains uncaptured. Resultantly, merchants who configure their eCommerce storefronts to only authorize transactions at their Magento 2 payment gateways or point of sale will be able to void transactions more easily. Merchants should note that non-invoiced orders may also be canceled, which produces a void automatically.
“Buy Now, Pay Later” (BNPL)
“Buy now, pay later” (BPNL) is one of the fastest-growing eCommerce trends that merchants should consider leveraging to increase conversions—especially for merchants selling goods and services typically associated with discretionary income spending. Spreading the payments out makes it easier for customers to visualize their budget and near-term purchasing power.
Although the data should be regarded with consideration of consumers’ pandemic-related financial stress, Adobe’s 2021 Digital Economy Index reported that BPNL usage last March had risen 166% year-over-year and 88% since 2019.
With BNPL, your eCommerce storefront should contend with far fewer abandoned carts. This functionality is provided natively by Payment Services for any merchant to enable on Adobe Commerce or Magento Open Source. The option will be provided to consumers as a payment method at checkout.
PayPal’s BNPL option—also known as “Pay in 4”—splits customer payments into four instances charged interest-free every two weeks. Despite the customer’s payment being spread out, merchants receive the full amount at the time of purchase.
Adobe Commerce Increasingly a “One-Stop-Shop”
The addition of Payment Services increasingly makes Adobe Commerce the go-to platform for managing eCommerce operations. Over the last year and continuing into 2022, Adobe has strategically sought to develop “out-of-the-box” integrations and formalize partnerships that comprehensively address all of the capabilities an eCommerce business needs within a seamless platform.
From a strategic perspective, Adobe is pursuing competitive placement alongside Shopify and Amazon with their eCommerce platform while inherently facilitating significantly greater site customization. The launch of Adobe Payment Services and providing a native Magento 2 payment gateway is merely the latest instance of this continual effort.
Recent and notable Adobe Commerce integrations and partnerships include:
Adobe Sensei (i.e., AI-powered capabilities), which facilitates functionality including:
- Product recommendations
- Live search
Adobe Sign, which enables:
- Contracts
- Waivers
- Signature-required checkouts (e.g., especially helpful for B2B transactions and large orders)
FedEx and ShopRunner partnership, which provides:
- Post-purchase logistical insight for merchants
- Free two-day shipping
- Simplified checkout and return
Bolt partnership (planned for 2022 launch), supporting “one-click” checkouts.
Setting Up Adobe Payment Services
As with other Adobe Commerce / Magento 2 capabilities, Payment Services requires configuration and supports customization. General configuration and onboarding will integrate Payment Services via Adobe’s dedicated API to provide back-end capabilities and purchaser-facing displays (e.g., PayPal Smart Buttons for options such as “Pay in 4”).
Merchants seeking additional customization for Payment Services functionality and reporting beyond general configuration will require development work, whether in-house or via third-party partnership.
Additionally, merchants should note that these integrations are developed for version 2.4 of Magento. If your eCommerce operation is running on an older version, contact us to discuss migration options.
Expert Assistance—Testing and Validation
General configuration may be manageable by someone with a reasonable degree of technical knowledge. However, guaranteed and smooth operation is best ensured by a highly experienced team recognized by the Adobe Solution Partner Program, such as DotcomWeavers.
Regardless of who completes general configuration and onboarding, your Payment Services integration must be tested and validated (in both sandbox and live environments). As with all other testing and validation, partnering with an expert and independent third party will provide the most thorough evaluation, advisory, and remediation.
Mobile Optimization for Adobe Commerce and Payment Services
As an “out-of-the-box” integration, the general configuration of Adobe Payment Services doesn’t require additional mobile optimization efforts. However, your overall site still might.
Mobile optimization and condensing your site’s layout are tricky, especially for navigation and displaying an item’s details. Integrating Adobe Payment Services likely provides inherently more mobile-friendly payment options if your site, checkout, and transaction processing haven’t already been optimized. Still, without site-wide mobile optimization, you’ll likely miss out on leveraging Payment Services for the integration’s full benefits.
For example, if item details are difficult to find, your customers may submit more disputes regarding significant differences between online listings and their received items. As mentioned above, PayPal’s “Seller Protection” does not cover these types of disputes.
Additional Mobile Benefits—“One-Click” Checkout
Convenience is one of the biggest driving factors for shopping online, and critically so for most consumers utilizing mobile channels. This year’s launch of “one-click” checkout functionality (provided via Adobe’s partnership with Bolt) will help operators seize on even faster checkout capabilities that should prove especially beneficial for mobile channel conversions.
Other Payment Services for eCommerce
While an “out-of-the-box” Payment Services integration with your Adobe Commerce site may provide one of the fastest and most easily managed platforms, that doesn’t mean it’s the method most applicable to your eCommerce purposes.
As a highly customizable and integrable solution, Adobe Commerce can integrate with numerous Magento payment processors.
Sifting through all available payment services for eCommerce necessitates significant expertise to identify the right choice for you amongst Magento payment methods.
Adobe-Recommended Magento 2 Payment Gateways
According to the Adobe Commerce User Guide, the following Magento payment processors are recommended:
Removed Adobe Commerce Payment Methods as of Magento 2.4
Unfortunately, directives and API developments have led to some payment processors and gateways no longer being supported by Adobe Commerce and removed as of Magento 2.4. These include:
- Authorize.net
- Authorize.net (Direct Post)
- CyberSource
- eWay
- WorldPay
If your eCommerce operation still relies on any of these methods, contact us, and we’ll set up a consultation to discuss Magento 2.4 migration and a different payment method.
Ensure Optimal Payment Services with DotcomWeavers
The launch of Adobe Payment Services is a major announcement for Adobe Commerce storefronts. eCommerce operators can now streamline and simplify management while providing customers with more payment method options.
However, operators should keep in mind that Payment Services is far from their only option, and customization opens all doors with Adobe Commerce and Magento 2. Contact us today to find out more about the payment services for eCommerce that best fit your operations.
Drawing on 14 years of experience and our achievement as a Silver Partner within the Adobe SPP, DotcomWeavers provides extensive development and eCommerce expertise. We bring the digital storefront you envision to life—with the sophisticated back- and front-end capabilities it needs to surge beyond your competitors.
