FreedomPay
Retail Re-Imagined with Smarter Payments

FreedomPay was established in 2000 as a technology company focused on payments, starting out as a mobile payments solution provider with prominent brands such as McDonald’s, FirstData, and Nokia. However, FreedomPay quickly identified that they may have been ahead of their time and from there, began to reinvent the company. They did this by focusing on Stored Value and Private Label capabilities and helping retailers across multiple verticals globally embrace the latest payment technology to simplify complex payment environments, for almost two decades. Buoyed by exponential growth, in 2008 FreedomPay launched the FreedomPay Advanced Commerce Platform, the first Payments Card Industry (PCI)-validated point-to-point encryption (P2PE) solution to offer a full suite of merchant capabilities including Europay, Mastercard, and Visa (EMV), Contactless, Tokenization, Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC) and real-time data capabilities. The multi-patented FreedomPay platform facilitates secure payment-processing capabilities and insights to customers. Scott Carcillo, the Senior Vice President, Client Solutions at FreedomPay shares insights on the unique value propositions that FreedomPay offers to their customers to make payments faster, simpler, safer, and smarter.

How is the retail industry evolving in terms of payments and accordingly where does FreedomPay enter the picture to serve retailers and consumers?

We are seeing a transformation in the retail industry from a transactional business to an information business. While the retailers seek ways to increase wallet share with consumers through more frequent or substantive visits, they are struggling to execute this strategy alongside ensuring a simple, secure, safe, and swift payment process that respects privacy and promotes offers. On the other hand, the consumers pursue a consistent experience, whether it is mobile, online or in-store defined by immediacy/reward/recognition. Moreover, alongside a growing global adoption of contactless and mobile payments, we see a range of emerging application and wallet players raising the complexity of payment processes for retailers. Consequently, retailers are looking for trusted partners to help them navigate the industry and we help them bridge the gap between emerging technology and legacy/existing solutions for addressing their customers’ requirements.

Please elaborate on your commerce platform and how it simplifies the complexity of payments today.

FreedomPay’s gateway, FreeWay, and middleware, the FreeWay Commerce Connect (FCC), are built for secure processing of transactions and enabling mobile, online, and in-store commerce to take place seamlessly across more than 300 Point of Sale (POS) systems and property management systems, connecting to multiple acquirers and payment networks in 35 countries. It was the first PCI Validated P2PE solution with support for swipe, EMV, and Near Field Communications (NFC) payments in the North American marketplace. No matter how and where the retailers’ customers buy, the FreedomPay solutions enable the payments, incentives, and loyalty programs to integrate seamlessly into the retailers’ POS system. This is all possible without buying new POS hardware. According to a YANKEE GROUP Report, large retailers will spend $20,000 and need around 75 square feet of floor space to install five fixed checkouts.

But providing five fully-loaded hand-held tablets will cost just $2,500 with no loss of floor space.

The essence of the solution is evident from the POS with the cashier tendering a check conveying that it needs money. Conventionally, the cashier would swipe on the workstation itself, but this created full scope for the POS and left merchants susceptible to breaches––having clear text credit card data existing in the POS network. With FreedomPay’s solution, the POS simply asks for an amount, and we handle the credit/debit card transactions through a validated P2PE device that connects to our cloud-based solution for authorization. When returning the approval, our solution also provides a token—stored in the POS in lieu of the credit card data. This removes the POS and network from PCI scope and protects against breaches, which cost retailers money and tarnishes their brand name.

What are the important features of the FreedomPay solution?

The foundation of our solution is secure, safe, fast, and simple commerce. FreedomPay’s main goal is to absolve the complexity of payments for our merchants so that they can focus on the other important aspects of running their business. We then offer Value Added Services such as loyalty, rewards, offers, and analytics to help our merchants understand their customer base and enhance the consumer experience for end-users. With our Incentives Manager, retailers can adjust promotions in real time based on the customers’ purchasing history, location, time of day, and segmentation. Product Mapping enables retailers to find, combine, and promote products across multiple brands, locations, and online channels. Our fully-integrated POS offering allows for real-time discounts and incentives which streamlines the checkout process and brings the online shopping experience to in-store payments.

FreedomPay’s Business Intelligence leverages analytics that captures data and facilitates profitable business decisions. Our state-of-the-art dashboards allow retailers to monitor transaction trends in real time, without IT expertise or report delays. FreedomPay enables segmentation of customers, targeting incentives and customized rewards (Bonus Bucks, VIP programs) to key customers based on spend, frequency, score or even stock keeping unit (SKU).

We provide retailers their own true ecosystem for commerce. They can also share any segment on the platform with their third-party stakeholders for additional promotions. Additionally, we facilitate cost-savings through least-cost routing, lower interchange, and reduced PCI costs.

Who are your typical customers? Please elaborate on a case where you have helped your client achieve their goals.

Global leaders in retail, hospitality, gaming, education, healthcare, and financial services trust FreedomPay to deliver unmatched security and advanced value-added services. We serve airports, universities, hotels, restaurants, and retailers around the world. For instance, a large casino brand wanted to be the first to deploy EMV in the hotel industry. We deployed over 5,000 devices across their estate and had them live in a six-week window. They reduced PCI costs by 80 percent, established the lowest interchange within a bank’s portfolio, and achieved well-above average DCC results. They are now exploring Value Added Services to help enhance the customer experience for their guests.

How have you envisioned the future for FreedomPay?

Today, we are the engine inside the world’s expanding yet interconnected ecosystem of commerce. We can apply our solution from scratch or show you how to adapt it to any legacy technology. We operate in the U.S., Europe, and Canada, and continue to expand globally.

FreedomPay is a successful, upstanding business, strengthened by our people’s unparalleled focus on the customer and commitment to excellence. As our ecosystem of customers grows, 24/7 customer support will continue, and our platform reach will expand. And, as practical visionaries, we will capture customer data and turn it into business intelligence that can drive sales and productivity. With broad integrations across top POS, device manufacturers, and payment processors, supported by swift API adoption, FreedomPay, the industry’s first TransAtlantic payments solution, is driving the future of commerce and customer interaction.