How payment innovators are using tokenization beyond security

For years the payments industry has been hard at work developing and enhancing technologies and methodologies to protect sensitive cardholder data. As a technologist, fintech innovator or ISO, you most likely already know about one of those methods—tokenization. What you might not know is that forward-thinking providers of unified commerce platforms are finding new ways of using tokenization to create powerful new offerings for retailers.

Tokenization is a process by which the primary account number (PAN) of a customer is replaced with a surrogate value called a token. This technology is particularly appealing when merchants need to reuse cardholder information for things such as recurring billing, future payments, and refunds.

Benefits of tokenization

However, the benefits of tokenization don’t end there. The right unified commerce platform can leverage tokenization to deliver value-added functionality to your merchants. For example, unified tokens allow customers to use the same form of payment across all channels, creating a consistent payment experience at all points of engagement.

Additionally, an encrypted token, shared in-store, online, and on mobile channels, facilitates processes such as buy online, pick up in store (i.e., click and collect), reserving items online for in-store purchase, and returning items to any location or channel—all without the merchant ever touching the actual cardholder data.

Having a unified token repository also gives retailers the ability to tap into previously unavailable data to create more effective marketing promotions and business decisions.

Finally, tokenization as part of a unified commerce strategy can turn data into new revenue streams for a retailer that weren’t possible before, such as online ordering/payments and mobile commerce.

With the right partner, turning the above concepts into reality has never been easier. NMI is leveraging tokenization along with other cutting-edge technologies to enable the unified commerce solutions mentioned above.

If you’re a technologist, fintech innovator or ISO wishing to drive transformation in the payment industry through the power of Unified Commerce Enablement, contact us today.