City Retail Services Monitor client feedback to drive innovation efforts, Terry O’Neillsaid Head of Connected Commerce and Strategic Growth, Citi Retail Services. Bank automation news.
in 2023 city In the survey, 85% of respondents agreed that retailers need flexible payment options at checkout, O’Neill said. Prohibited. In order to meet that need, $2.4 trillion city launched city pay In 2023.
“Use of our Citi Pay service supports this finding that consumers want more flexibility at checkout,” he said.
In an interview with Bank automation newsMr. O’Neal discussed Citi Pay’s growth, innovation efforts within Citi Retail Services, and how he is leading his team with ongoing consumer feedback in mind. Below is an edited version of that conversation.
Bank automation news: How do insights help your team innovate based on client needs?
Terry O’Neill: The needs of our merchant partners and consumers are at the core of all Citi Pay innovations, and we are committed to continuous dialogue with our partners and customers to ensure that our products continue to align with their dynamic needs. We strive to evolve. This means we spent countless hours interacting with merchants and consumers to ensure we understood and fulfilled their needs while developing Citi Pay. Research shows that both merchants and consumers want three key things from payment products: flexibility, security, and ease of use. Citi Pay products meet all of these criteria.
As we launch Citi Pay in 2023, we continue to listen to customer and merchant feedback to enhance our product. With a conscious focus on flexibility, we designed Citi Pay’s products and platform to be extremely agile.
For example, in response to feedback from distributors seeking flexibility to support secondary financing options for merchants (of which Citi is the primary lender), our team implemented an open API concept. This approach separates the user experience from the API and allows distributors to host the customer acquisition experience on their own side.
Prohibited: How has Citi Pay grown since its launch a year ago?
To: This fall marks the one-year anniversary of City Pay. Citi Pay is Citi’s suite of hourly payment services, including Citi Pay Credit, a digital-only credit card and dedicated line of credit, and Citi Pay Install Loan, a monthly merchant installment loan. . Since its launch, Citi Pay has experienced significant growth by establishing relationships with new merchants and payment platform partners. For example, Citi Pay announced new partnerships with payment platforms such as FreedomPay and ChargeAfter.
Citi Pay products are currently available at over 150 merchant partners. This number continues to grow with the goal of bringing the Citi Pay product suite to consumers at scale, both in-store and online.
Prohibited: What does the introduction of Citi Pay indicate about the future of digital payments?
To: POS financing products such as Citi Pay Credit and Citi Pay Installment Loans increase the number of payment options available to consumers at checkout, and this added flexibility will be a defining feature of the future of digital payments.
Citi Pay products are available through a set of APIs or applications and are used by merchants of all sizes, highlighting the democratization of POS lending in terms of merchant availability. This shows that the future of digital payments and the flexibility offered by hourly payment products will not be limited to large merchants, but will extend to merchants of all sizes and industries. .
Citi Pay’s suite of time-pay services provides consumers with a simple and intuitive checkout process. In fact, a key element in developing Citi Pay was to allow consumers to claim and check out items in their basket in one session. This real-time, fully automated decision-making application experience represents a frictionless experience that will be at the core of the future of digital payments.
Prohibited: Are there any innovations in the pipeline that your team is working on that you’re looking forward to?
To: We are constantly working to expand the Citi Pay family of partners, both on the merchant side and on our payment and commerce platforms. The Citi Retail Services team is always looking for opportunities to accelerate the integration of our services among our existing partners. We have some exciting developments planned for the future, which we will be happy to share when the time is right.
Prohibited: How would you describe your leadership style?
To: My personal view is that the best types of leaders are those who lead by example, and that’s the mindset I strive to bring to work every day. Throughout my career, my roles have been internal in nature, working to build new capabilities and businesses within large, established financial services leaders. These experiences helped define my leadership style.
I encourage the team I lead to be self-motivated and to bring solutions to the table when we ask questions. No one knows 100% of the answers, and that’s okay, but the best results are often achieved if you can workshop proposed solutions together. I think this approach will also give my talented team confidence when similar situations arise in the future.
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