Business at the Periphery: Opportunities Around the Transaction

MAYNARD, Mass. - April 11, 2013 - PRLog -- Boston, MA – April 11, 2013. Many new entrants are seizing on business opportunities around the core transaction process, deriving revenue from value-added services they provide merchants and shoppers.
As they review their own operations, much of which revolves around a commoditized merchant-acquiring market, the transaction incumbents—merchant processors, card networks and issuers –should take note of such companies as they consider ways to diversify to generate revenue (either through building their own competing products or by partnering with or acquiring existing firms to gain a piece of the action).

Mercator Advisory Group’s new report, Business at the Periphery: Opportunities Around the Transaction, identifies various markets where before, during and after the transaction companies finding ways to make money from payments without actually are becoming involved in transaction settlement.

“The ‘payments business’ has evolved well beyond just simple commerce,” says Jeffrey Green, director of Mercator Advisory Group’s Emerging Technologies Advisory Service and author of the report. “Entrepreneurs have identified a plethora of niche areas around the transaction to earn a living, primarily through products and serves that enhance the experience merchants and shoppers have when they interact.”

Highlights of the report include:

An overview of business categories not directly involved in the payment settlement but whose livelihood is dependent on the payment experience

A sampling of specific companies operating in those business categories

An analysis on whether these companies or business areas pose a threat, or an opportunity, for core players in the transaction-settlement process