Computop provides global payment solutions across illycaffè’s European and Chinese markets

Bamberg – Computop, a leading payment service provider, has announced that it has provided global payment solutions for illycaffè, the Italian espresso and lifestyle brand, and has been instrumental in helping the world-recognized retailer to increase its subscription program turnover by 20% in Europe. As a result of this success, Computop has also supported illycaffè’s expansion into China, integrating its Paygate 5.0 solution with illycaffè’s corporate e-shop payment settlement system.

With an established reputation as a high-end category leader synonymous with global coffee culture, art and innovation, illycaffè exports its high quality coffee blend to over 140 countries around the world. Due to a subscription business model which was technically centralized but locally distributed from both a logistical and administrative standpoint, illycaffè needed a solution to manage the multiple complexities posed by recurring payments while also improving the customer journey by extending its MOTO (mail order/ telephone order) options.

“When it came to selecting a PSP to address these issues, we were looking for a provider with a strong multi-market European presence, an understanding of its core markets and the ability to deliver scalable implementations, as well as help us expand into the Chinese market,” explained Fabrizio Dosi, Global head Business to Consumer division, illycaffè. “Computop’s capability to meet our complete payment method needs – Visa, Mastercard, Amex, PayPal, iDeal and AliPay – was an additional asset.”

Computop initially developed an e-commerce and MOTO solution across the group’s core markets: Italy, Spain, Germany, France, the Netherlands and Austria. At the heart of Computop’s solution is Paygate, its multichannel payment platform.  PCI DSS compliant, Paygate provides secure payment solutions via a single interface that allows retailers to access over 50 payment methods across core currencies.  In addition, efficient fraud prevention and tokenization are included for the customer’s European marketplace.

Through the solution, illycaffè has been able to open up its subscription programme, a value-add for their loyal customer base. As well enabling the company to engage with an extended customer base in a new way, this has created a new revenue stream for illycaffè and, from a customer perspective, has allowed significant improvements to service levels through a larger, more comprehensive and flexible portfolio of payment methods.

“China is expected to become one of the world's top five coffee consuming countries; globalisation and rising incomes, combined with marketing drives are propelling the popularity of coffee drinking, particularly among young people.  Therefore, this has led to a natural extension of our use of Computop’s services with its local payment support in China using Alipay and other recognized local payment methods” said Dosi.

Computop was tasked with integrating a local payment tool with its corporate e-shop payment settlement system for which it implemented its Paygate 5.0 solution, enabling customers to access online payments via third party Chinese payment portals. Such is the success that the team in China is already looking at increasing online payments across a total e-shop transaction.

“Throughout its 80 year history, illycaffè has put innovation at the heart of its culture,” said Ralf Gladis, CEO of Computop. “Taking service to the next level is a real focus for the business and we’re delighted to be a part of that.  Building on the success of this implementation, Computop is now working closely with illycaffè to develop its mobile payments platforms, starting in Italy and rolling this out in different languages across multiple European marketplaces.”