Barry Stearn joined FreedomPay 3 years ago as Vice President of Partnerships (EMEA) and boasts 15 years of experience across various Payments companies, device manufacturers, and gateways. Barry shares his insights around FreedomPay, industry trends, and the future of the sector.
What sets FreedomPay apart from other FinTechs?
FreedomPay is a Technology company that does Payments. We lead with innovation. This differentiates us from other Payments companies within our space, which seem to drive with Payments and play catch up when it comes to innovation and Technology. Our approach is progressive and forward-thinking. We were first to market with PCI validation, the leading encryption for Payments in the US.
Describe the Next Level Commerce™ platform.
FreedomPay’s data-driven, unified commerce platform authorizes and settles card transactions made online, card present, and from mobile assets. We’re an agnostic solution, so we’ll integrate with any banks, payment providers, and Points of Sale for ultimate merchant convenience.
Our integrations with localized service providers such as Network International in the Middle East and Redsys in Spain enable us to replicate our solution globally. As a result, we’ve seen exponential growth in regions such as the UK and Ireland during the first three years of our European existence.
We partner with the best-in-class brands across all verticals, including hospitality, retail, F&B, lodging, stadiums, gaming, education, and healthcare. Some of our key partnerships include Marriott International, Inditex, Footlocker, Dine Brands, Sephora, and MGM Resorts International.
Could I benefit from working with FreedomPay as a partner or merchant customer?
Absolutely! It doesn’t matter which sector you’re in, or whether you’re an enterprise company, an SME, or a mid-corp. FreedomPay supports businesses like yours, optimizing commerce processes for companies of all sizes.
Customer satisfaction is one of our core values, and we’re proud to say that not one enterprise customer has left FreedomPay in a decade.
How can you help my business build customer loyalty?
Our Next Level Commerce™ platform provides merchants with comprehensive Business Insights around consumer purchase habits. These can be used to personalize loyalty incentives targeted at meeting individual customers’ wants and needs. This contributes to strong brand relationships and an increased likelihood of repeat purchases.
Which functionalities do you support?
We support additional functionalities such as Apple Pay, Google Pay, and the innovative, alternative payment methods that direct customers demand. This ranges from touchless commerce checkout experiences and contactless payments to Direct Currency Conversion, or DCC (payment in your home currency while abroad).
What is the future of Payments?
As we see it, there are two key elements: touchless commerce and open banking.
Firstly, touchless commerce enables a consumer to register their custom through a business’ mobile app, entering a store or venue, and walk out with a basket of goods. They do not need to scan items, pay at checkout, or select an in-store payment option from their wallet or digital wallet. Going forward, Payments is focused on delivering innovation and a frictionless consumer experience.
Secondly, open banking is catalyzing the evolution of Payments architecture. Millions of customers across Europe and the US use open banking on a weekly basis to make account to account payments or to pay for goods and services. This is democratizing technology, but there is some way for open banking to go to become ubiquitous in Payments globally.
Thank you, Barry!
Check out our platform, partnerships, or hear more from Barry