How Avarda boosted its checkout solutions with Aiia

March 21, 2022 | Louise Basse

Avarda is an online merchant's best friend. 

Based in Sweden, Avarda is known for its omnichannel payments platform that offers complete white label solutions to retailers and merchants. 

To provide an even smoother checkout experience, Avarda recently teamed up with Aiia to boost its core payment products with open banking. 

We sat down with Avarda’s CEO, Mikael Johansson, and Avarda’s Development Manager, Eeva-Liisa Marjomaa, to talk about what is important to consider when choosing an open banking provider. 

So let’s get comfortable, grab a cup of coffee and hear what they said. 

The key to customer loyalty 

Avarda has always had a relentless focus on putting the retailer’s and merchant’s brand first. That’s why Avarda offers a true white label solution that puts the retailers’ brands in focus throughout the entire customer journey: 

“We want to provide great customer experience to the retailers’ customers in all touchpoints of the customer journey. With our payment solutions, retailers can focus on building their own business and brand,” Avarda’s CEO, Mikael Johansson, says and continues: 

“Consistently branded customer journeys improve the customer experience and increase retailers’ brand awareness towards the customers. At the same, we offer retailers a channel for increasing customer loyalty and driving organic sales. We believe the key to organic growth is customer loyalty.”

To provide an even better customer experience to retailers and their customers, Avarda recently teamed up with Aiia – and now, Aiia’s payment solution is implemented as part of Avarda’s two core products: Checkout and ‘buy now, pay later’ payment methods.

With that, Avarda has launched a new user-friendly solution that shows consumers the invoice balance in real-time. Consumers can see all the information related to payments on the retailer’s own website. If the consumer pays with Avarda’s ‘buy now, pay later’ payment method, the invoice can be paid with account-to-account payments in the same place without separate login to the online bank, explains Avarda’s Development Manager, Eeva-Liisa Marjomaa: 

“There’s no doubt this is a convenient way to pay your invoices – and at the same time continue shopping with the same familiar merchant or retailer. With Aiia, we can get account-to-account payments through one integration for all Nordic markets. This is a clear advantage when it comes to both implementation and maintenance of the services,” she says. 

Open banking that simply works 

But what is important to consider when choosing an open banking platform? And what should you be aware of? 

According to Avarda’s Development Manager, Eeva-Liisa Marjomaa, finding the right open banking platform is all about finding a technically strong solution with an emphasis on security and compliance: 

“Aiia’s payment solution was easy and fast to implement. Good technical documentation saves time and increases productivity of the technical team,” she says and continues: 

“Aiia’s solution also supports our strategy to put the retailer’s brand in focus. The better the payment experience, the better the conversion rate. It’s as simple as that,” Eeva-Liisa Marjomaa explains. 

She also points out that businesses are based on relationships and relationships are based on people: 

“Open communication is the backbone of any relationship. For us, it’s extremely important that the partner shares the same spirit as we do. We’re happy that Aiia has the same level of enthusiasm, innovativeness and mindset for growth as we do at Avarda,” she concludes. 

Avarda currently offers payment solutions in Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark, Germany, Austria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland. 

Want to know more about how open banking payments can boost your checkout game? Then feel free to download our latest report on digital payments that explores how open banking can build better user experiences and create new revenue streams.