ffering several payment gateways is no longer a “nice-to-have.” It safeguards revenue, lifts conversion, and unlocks global growth—yet it introduces integration, cost, and compliance complexity. This guide explains the business case, risks, and step-by-step best-practice rollout, and shows how Ottu’s middleware simplifies the journey.
1. Why Multiple Gateways Matter
Digital buyers now expect to pay with their preferred method—card, wallet, BNPL, local A2A, or crypto. A single gateway often falls short, resulting in lower authorization rates and higher cart abandonment (69.99% average).
- Higher reliability: Merchants using two or more gateways see up to 12-15 percentage-point increases in successful authorizations during peak sales, compared with single-gateway peers.
- Global reach: 90 % of cross-border shoppers will abandon a purchase if local payment options are missing.
- Cost leverage: Competitive routing (sending every transaction to the lowest-fee or highest-success gateway) can cut blended processing fees by up to 8 %.
Importance of Multiple Gateways — and what’s at stake if you don’t adopt them:
- Flexibility & Redundancy
– What it delivers: Multiple rails minimise downtime and eliminate single-point failure.
– Risk if ignored: Lost revenue during outages (each hour can cost $100k+ for large merchants).
- Improved Customer Experience (CX)
– What it delivers: Local payment methods lift trust and checkout conversion.
– Risk if ignored: Higher cart-abandonment rates in markets where cards are not dominant.
- Cost Optimisation
– What it delivers: Smart routing lets you send each transaction to the lowest-cost or highest-approval provider per BIN/currency.
– Risk if ignored: Locked-in, non-competitive processing fees.
- Scalability
– What it delivers: Faster roll-outs when you enter new countries or add channels.
– Risk if ignored: Lengthy project lead-times and duplicated work for every market launch.
- Compliance & Resilience
– What it delivers: Diversifying providers mitigates exposure to sudden regulatory or licensing changes.
– Risk if ignored: Business continuity risk if a single PSP loses its licence or changes terms.
3. What Exactly Is a “Multiple-Gateway” Setup?
Definition: Integrating two or more independent payment service providers (PSPs) behind one checkout and routing layer.
Core elements:
- Unified token vault
- Smart routing engine (success-rate, cost, or geo-based)
- Centralised reporting & reconciliation
With Ottu’s middleware, merchants gain a single API while still adding/turning off providers in minutes—no code redeploys.
4. Benefits in Detail
4.1 Enhanced Transaction Reliability
When one PSP’s uptime drops (average 44 minutes/month) across Tier-1 gateways traffic auto-fails-over to the next, keeping checkout alive.
4.2 Global Reach & Local Trust
Adding regional wallets can raise conversion +30 % in LATAM and +25 % in MENA compared with card-only flows.
4.3 Scalability for Growth
A multi-gateway fabric lets brands enter new geographies 3× faster, because compliance, FX, and settlement rail are pre-abstracted.
4.4 Risk Mitigation
Diversification shields merchants from sudden PSP outages, licence suspensions, or scheme fines (e.g., the Wirecard 2020 collapse that froze thousands of merchant accounts).
5. Common Challenges
6. Selecting the Right Gateways
Decision Criteria:
- Acceptance rate in your target region.
- Fee structure vs. average ticket size.
- Support for APMs (wallets, BNPL).
- Contract flexibility / SLAs.
- Ease of adding via Ottu’s plug-in catalogue.
7. Implementation Road-map
- Assess Needs – Analyse volume, markets, risk appetite.
- Short-list Providers – Scorecards based on criteria above.
- Integrate via Ottu API – One connection, many gateways.
- End-to-End Testing – Sandbox → pilot country → global.
- Monitor & Optimise – Use Ottu analytics to adjust routing and fees.
8. Best-Practice Governance
- Tokenize cards once, vault centrally.
- Apply PCI-DSS v4.0 scope reduction.
- Enable 3-DS 2.2 with TRA exemptions to balance security and UX.
- Run quarterly A/B tests on routing rules (success vs. cost).
- Maintain a provider exit strategy (SLAs, data portability).
9. Ottu: Your Orchestration Layer
Ottu unifies onboarding, routing, reconciliation, and token vaults under a single merchant portal. Key modules:
- Smart Router – AI-driven algorithm chooses best gateway per BIN/currency.
- Compliance Hub – Built-in PCI-DSS Level 1, PSD2 SCA, and local KSA/SAMA rules.
- Plug-and-Play Connectors – 50+ PSPs across MENA, EU, APAC.
10. Conclusion
Multiple payment gateways are now a strategic imperative for any merchant targeting reliability, global reach, and fee leverage. The complexity is real—but with an orchestration platform like Ottu, businesses gain the upside without the overhead.
Ready to future-proof your payments? Contact Ottu to schedule a demo.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
- What are multiple payment gateways?
Integrating two or more PSPs under one routing layer for higher uptime and choice.
- Why are they crucial for global commerce?
They enable local methods, multi-currency, and redundancy.
- How does Ottu reduce compliance overhead?
By centralising token vaulting and delivering PCI-certified infrastructure.
- Do small businesses benefit too?
Yes—SMBs adding a local wallet saw +17 % conversion on average.
- Key metrics to track?
Authorisation rate, cost per transaction, and downtime minutes per gateway.
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