Fintech Finance x Aevi Interview: Changing customer expectations at the POS

In this interview with Fintech Finance at Money20/20 in Amsterdam, our Director of Marketing and Communications Sarah delves into the evolving customer expectations at the physical point of sale (POS) and sheds light on how Aevi is proactively staying up-to-date with the changing landscape of fintech and payments. Additionally, she unveils Aevi’s exciting plans for the future.

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Tim: Hi, I’m Tim Goodfellow for FF News and we’re here at Money 2020 Europe in Amsterdam and I’m pleased to be joined by Sarah Koch from Aevi. Sarah, could you just give us a brief introduction to your role at Aevi?

Sarah: Hi, I’m Sarah. I am leading the global marketing communications department for Aevi.

Tim: That’s great. Thank you. Where’s Aevi been? Could you give us a brief background to the company, how you work at this point?

Sarah: Sure. So Aevi as an organization provides seamless and innovative payment solutions. And we are experts in the in person payment space, which I think is quite unique in the market and cool, especially now in the eCommerce boom space, so to say. And our mission is to bring the in person checkout experience back and make it as innovative as those made online. So we built an in person commerce orchestration platform that enables our clients, like banks, acquirers, financial institutions, but also ISOs and ISVs to manage and orchestrate payments and data to flow across territories, different endpoints partners and channels.

Tim: Yeah, it’s good to have that kind of wide perspective. And how do you see consumer expectations evolving this year, particularly in the European payment space?

Sarah: The expectations are, I think, massively evolving due to several reasons. I think the main three pillars are new technology and consumer really expect new payment methods also at the point of sale in the physical store. Right. So we also see like wallet to wallet transactions at the physical point of sale and even more digital methods coming to the store. For sure, there’s a COVID situation. So people do not want to touch things if it’s not necessary. They want to have a smooth and quick experience at the point of sale. Go cashless, go contactless, even. And I think the last pillar is the newer generation coming to the consumer market. So Gen Z, they have a different mindset. They want to have the freedom to pay in their preferred way whenever and wherever they need it, actually.

Tim: Absolutely. And it’s almost like it’s not necessarily a shift away from the physical store, the physical presence, but it’s just a different way of paying and it’s almost a revolution of that.

Sarah: And also to deliver experience across different touch points. It’s not only in-store, it’s not only online, it’s like the whole holistic experience in the end where you need to meet your customers. And this is something we need to bring all together on one platform and that’s the orchestration platform we deliver in that case.

Tim: How do you stay up to date with those latest industry trends and consumer preferences?

Sarah: Yeah, so I think staying up to date is the bread and butter of what we do because we want to change the payment game. We want to offer our clients more so that they compete, in a word, whatever comes next in paymentech, so to say. And so we do different things we do in house research. We also work together with external parties to really get the data in. We monitor trends at conferences like Money20/20, of course. And the most important thing is that we listen to our customer. So we get the feedback, we analyze, and we really value our customer and their feedback because they are at the storefront, so to say, and can feed that back.

Tim: Yeah, absolutely. They’re the ones using it. And speaking of Money20/20, firstly, how have you found it so far? And also you mentioned kind of the trends, the things you’re hearing, the conversations that are going on. What are some of those trends and conversations that really excite you so far?

Sarah: It’s our 7th time or so here at Money 2020 Europe, right? We kicked it off 2016 in Copenhagen with the first booth, and now we’re here knowing the people, knowing the industry. But for us and also the team, it’s really important to meet the community, to speak to the people. For me, as a marketer, it’s important to get the insights, to join those content sessions. Great to see that a lot of people are talking about partnerships, which is really the core of what we want to do. About expectations, about the approach, is customer centric. And that’s what I hear everywhere. And that’s great to see.

Tim: We’ve heard a lot of those things as well, the conversations we’ve been having. Just finally, really, what can we expect to see from Aevi in the coming year?

Sarah: In a nutshell, I would say innovation and partnerships because this is what we do, what we want to deliver. Partnerships. We just recently announced two great more partnerships, one with OvationCXM in the US and one with XAC. But we are always looking for more partners to deliver even more for our customers. And innovation, we want to extend the capabilities of our platform so that we can offer a wide range of new applications, new payment methods, new host connectors or whatever is needed to keep the customer happy. And that’s what you can expect from Aevi in the future.

Tim: Great. We’ll be paying close attention. Really excited for you. Sarah, thanks for coming to speak to us today and hope you have a great rest of the conference.

sarah.koch@aevi.com