HOW A GLOBAL FMCG LEADER BUILT A FUTURE-READY EPAYMENTS FUNCTION
- Apr 7
- 4 min read
The Hidden Cost of a Fragmented ePayments Strategy
For large enterprises operating across B2B, B2C, and marketplace channels, payments are rarely treated as a strategic function. Instead, their growth is organic, resulting in a fragmented landscape of legacy systems, disconnected vendors, and inconsistent processes distributed across various regions and business units.
The result? Runaway operational costs, uncontrolled fraud exposure, compliance gaps, and a poor customer payment experience that quietly erodes revenue. Most organizations only realize the scale of the problem when a fraud incident hits, a major reconciliation failure surfaces, or a regulatory audit reveals systemic weaknesses.
This is the reality that many global Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) companies face today. And it's exactly the challenge that Allyiz was brought in to solve.
Why a Centralized ePayments Strategy Is No Longer Optional
As digital commerce accelerates, the payments function has evolved from a back-office necessity into a frontline business driver. Yet most enterprises still treat it as an IT or finance afterthought. The consequences of this approach are measurable and severe:
Fraud and financial risk. Without a centralized fraud strategy and real-time monitoring, enterprises operating at scale become easy targets. Chargebacks, friendly fraud, and payment scheme abuse can cost millions annually.
Compliance exposure. Regulations like PSD2, PCIDSS, and GDPR carry significant penalties for non-compliance. Fragmented payments architectures make it nearly impossible to maintain consistent regulatory coverage across markets.
Operational inefficiency. Disconnected IT systems, manual reconciliation workflows, and unoptimized settlement processes generate avoidable costs and create friction in the finance function.
Missed revenue opportunity. A poorly designed payments experience directly impacts conversion rates, customer retention, and international expansion. In FMCG, where margins are thin and volume is high, even a 0.5% improvement in payment acceptance rates translates into millions.
The case for a centralized, professionally managed global ePayments function is not just strategic - it's financial. And the following case study proves it.
Case Study: Global ePayments Transformation for a Leading FMCG Group
Who Is the Client?
The client is a leading global FMCG group operating simultaneously across B2B, B2C, and marketplace channels. With a presence in multiple markets and high transaction volumes across several payment methods and currencies, the organization had outgrown its informal approach to payments management.
Despite its scale, the company had no dedicated ePayments team, no centralized strategy, and no structured oversight of payment risks or costs. The payments function was fragmented, underleveraged, and quietly draining value from the business.
Key Challenges
When Allyiz engaged with the client, the diagnostic was clear. The organization faced four critical problem areas:
No centralized ePayments strategy or dedicated budget. Payment decisions were made ad hoc across departments or at country level, with no unified vision or ownership.
Fragmented resources and lack of industry knowledge, Internal teams lacked the specialized expertise needed to manage modern digital payments at enterprise scale.
High operational and fraud risks with limited control. The absence of a coherent fraud management framework exposed the business to significant financial and reputational risk.
Inefficient IT and financial processes. Poorly integrated payment systems caused reconciliation delays, settlement inefficiencies, unnecessary costs, and a subpar experience for both business clients and end consumers.
What Allyiz Did: Building a Global ePayments Function from the Ground Up
Allyiz was engaged to design and implement a complete global ePayments function, not as a consultant delivering a report, but as a hands-on partner responsible for execution and outcomes.
Working alongside the client's internal stakeholders, Allyiz launched five interconnected strategic setup projects:
ePayments and Fraud Strategy
Allyiz defined end-to-end payment procedures, fraud prevention frameworks, and staff training programs. A forward-looking roadmap was established to optimize payment acceptance rates, systematically reduce fraud losses, and drive down total payments costs, converting a cost center into a performance-managed function.
IT Architecture for Payments
A scalable, resilient microservice-based payments platform was designed to support the client's multi-channel operations. The architecture prioritized flexibility for future payment method integrations, high availability, and the ability to scale as transaction volumes grew.
Finance and Treasury Optimization
Allyiz established structured reconciliation protocols, optimized settlement processes across payment providers and geographies, and implemented currency risk management frameworks to reduce FX exposure and financial leakage.
Regulatory Compliance
A comprehensive compliance framework was built to ensure full adherence to PSD2, PCIDSS, GDPR, and applicable local regulatory standards. This reduced the organization's legal exposure and created a defensible, audit-ready compliance posture.
Business Intelligence for Payments Growth
A data-driven payments intelligence layer was built to generate actionable insights across customer acquisition, retention, and revenue optimization. This transformed raw transaction data into a strategic asset for business decision-making.
Beyond the five core projects, Allyiz supported the full vendor selection process, managing payment provider RFPs, leading commercial negotiations, and overseeing a structured knowledge transfer to in-house teams. The goal was not dependency, but capability: ensuring the client could independently own and evolve its payments function long after the engagement concluded.
The Results: Measurable ROI from Day One
The outcomes of the engagement were both structural and financial, with results that continued to compound over time.
Turning ePayments into a Profit Center: The Strategic Shift
What makes this case study exceptional is not just the scale of savings - it's the fundamental transformation in how the client views its payments function.
Before Allyiz, payments were an unmanaged cost. After the engagement, they became a profit center: a strategically owned, data-informed function that directly contributes to EBIT, reduces risk exposure, and supports the company's ability to grow across channels and markets.
This shift, from cost liability to strategic asset, is the outcome that every enterprise operating at scale should be targeting. It requires expertise, the right architecture, and a disciplined approach to execution. It also requires a partner willing to be accountable for results, not just recommendations.
Summary
The Allyiz engagement with this global FMCG group demonstrates what becomes possible when ePayments are treated with the strategic seriousness they deserve.
In under four years, the client went from having no centralized ePayments capability to operating a fully scaled, compliance-ready, data-driven payments function - one that generates measurable EBIT contribution and positions the business for sustainable international growth.
If your organization is operating with a fragmented payments setup and leaving value on the table, the question is not whether you can afford to build a proper ePayments function - it's whether you can afford not to.