Cartes Bancaiers, the key solution to successful e-commerce in France
Success story: Payvision’s partnership with Rentabiliweb | Be2Bill
French e-Commerce Payment Landscape
France is internationally renowned for its export of local products and services with great international
appeal. High e-commerce turnover and a large population make the Grande Nation a worthwhile
market. With 79.6% of the French population (~53 million) online, France has currently 31.7 million
active online shoppers; online sales rose to 45 billion euros in 2012 and are expected to soar to €70
billion by 2015. According to a recent PwC study, in 2013 France attracted only 5% of new webbuyers making their first purchase in the past year, compared to 21% in 2012, meaning the online
shopping market in France is very mature and settled.
Notwithstanding the growing popularity of innovative payment methods, cards remain the preferred
Online Payment Method (79%) in France throughout 2012. The uptake of alternative payments in the
French market is rather low compared to other countries like Germany and The Netherlands with PayPal
as exception.
Cartes Bancaires
Focusing on Card Payments, more than 80% of online sales are paid through Cartes Bancaires, the
French interbank and universal payments system; via Visa, Mastercard or American Express.
Groupement des Cartes Bancaires (GIE CB) is the French domestic Card Association. The Groupement
Cartes Bancaires, created in 1984, is responsible for organizing the CB interbank system by means of
three fundamental tasks: managing interbank cooperation, guaranteeing the security of the CB
interbank system and organizing the authorization and clearing of transactions between its members.
The GIE CB is an Economic Interest Group (EIG), representing more than 8 billion transactions, 130
banks or member payment institutions, 1.2 million merchants in France and nearly 60 million
cardholders.
Besides the Cartes Bancaires, we should consider French language a main barrier, but also driver for
cross-border e-commerce in France. From the whole French speaking population around the world,
more than 20 million citizens of Canada, Belgium, Switzerland, Luxembourg, and Monaco, have a very
high probability rate to access French e-tailers and shop.
In order to make this possible, French e-merchants need to offer international payment processing
services and multicurrency processing features, meaning they need to partner with international PSPs
and acquirers and open up the French market. On the other hand, international e-merchants who want
to expand into the French e-commerce market, need to provide the French online shoppers with their
local preferred payment method: Cartes Bancaires.
As Carte Bancaire scheme uses a closed national network operated and controlled by the GIE Carte
Bancaire, together with the language barrier, French market is not very easy to access by international
merchants who intend to expand their business and sell their products in France.
Rentabiliweb Group
This Case Study focuses on Payvision’s partnership with the first French non-banking Financial
Institution to have been approved by the French Prudential Supervisory Authority as a payment
institution, specialized in acquiring online transactions.
Rentabiliweb Group provides professionals and webmasters with the most extensive platform of
monetization services for their traffic, notably including payment and micro-payment solutions. It is
also developing affiliation program; it has recognized expertise in the fields of loyalty-building and Direct
Marketing solutions.
Created in 2002, by Jean-Baptiste-Descroix Vernier, Rentabiliweb has become a key player in the
European Internet sphere by inventing a new business: audience monetization. It obtained membership
of Cartes Bancaires consortium from the French Prudential Supervisory Authority in 2011, testimony of
the reliability of its secure payment and transaction systems. Obtaining the PCI-DSS (Payment Card
Industry-Data Security Standard) level 1 service provider certification gives recognition of compliance
and reliability.
Rentabiliweb Social Commitment:
Rentabiliweb is a company that engages its social responsibility in its areas of activities. The Group
strictly applies the 10 principles established by the UN through the Global Compact. The Group is eligible
to FCIC, with the label “Innovative Company” by OSEO.
Be2bill
In 2012, after one decade of acquiring expertise in all the marketing aspects of e-commerce, offering
French e-retailers enhanced services such as publishing solutions, payment and micro-payment
services, Rentabiliweb launched Be2bill. This allows Rentabiliweb to sell its innovative and optimized
card payment solution, enabling its clients to accept online and mobile payments from France and from
card-holders abroad.
The partnership between Payvision and Rentabiliweb/Be2bill provides French e-merchants with card
payment solutions to expand their e-commerce cross-border through Payvision’s global acquiring
network, while Payvision offers international PSPs and their merchants in the different regions exposure
to the French market through a French optimized Cartes Bancaires processing solution.
3-in-1-Solution
Be2bill provides e-retailers with a "3 in 1" solution for managing their online payments, which includes
the services of a bank, a-PSP (Payment Service Provider) and the Group's web expertise in Data
analytics. This new approach to the e-commerce value chain allows e-retailers to maximize their
turnover while reducing their risk levels and minimizing the expenses related to online collection. Be2bill
offers services such as a payment page 100% customized, one page checkout, retargeting and
customized message errors, smart 3D Secure etc. This unique position in France also allows
Rentabiliweb to reconcile transactions generated on e-commerce sites with the flows of funds that are
actually credited to e-retailers accounts. Given the complexity and multiplicity of payment techniques
and scenarios, it is not always easy for accounting and finance departments to match a transaction to
an amount credited to the e-retailers account.
"For the first time since the announced market deregulation and the end of the banking monopoly on
online collection services, e-merchants can now optimize their card-based transactions and entrust
them to a web and Internet marketing specialist. The challenge is not only to build an audience base
and generate traffic, but first and foremost to take full control of one's conversion tunnel and to analyze
the data relative to a purchasing process. Our approach is clearly innovative. It places the payment
action at the center of the attention, aiming to increase turnover, transaction security and build
customers loyalty and potential prospects," indicates Thibaut Faurès Fustel de Coulanges, Chairman of
Rentabiliweb Europe.
Legal Aspects
The Group is authorized by law to provide payment services in the sense of article L314-1 II of the
French monetary and financial code; to issue payments and to acquire card payments, in addition of
payment services related to reporting. Rentabiliweb is also the first company to have benefited from
the European passport procedure after obtaining authorization in Germany, the UK, Spain and
Luxembourg. The Group also intends to accompany the international development of its clients in the
UK, Italy, Spain, Belgium and Romania.
It is also the only web specialist to be an affiliate member of the GIE Cartes Bancaires (French clearing
network). Furthermore, Be2bill is built on a secure platform that is PCI/DSS compliant).
About PAYVISION
Payvision has built a global acquiring network in various regions around the world, connects PSPs, ISOs
and their Merchants to ONE Global Acquiring Platform, based on a non-competitive partnership model
in which all stakeholders share revenue and are able to expand their footprint in different Regions, in
an expanding profitable cross-border e-commerce market.
PSPs and ISOs face challenges, posed by increasingly demanding clients who expect growth into an
expanding global market. Profitable cross-border e-commerce offers all stakeholders involved,
boundless commercial opportunities, but demands cross-cultural, linguistic and legal expertise from
both Acquiring Banks and PSPs. By connecting to our global acquiring network, PSPs and ISOs are able
to sustain their worldwide geographical expansion of their clients, while being less vulnerable to
financial crime, thanks to the solid Risk Management Protocols and technological infrastructures in
compliance with PCI-DSS requirements of Payvision.
Payvision’s partnership with Rentabiliweb & Be2bill
France‘s CNP payment landscape is quite specific, with Groupement des Cartes Bancaires as France‘s
interbank and universal payment system. CB manages more than 8 billion transactions, and as an
economic interest group, CB represents 130 banks or member payment institutions, 1.2 million French
merchants and nearly 60 million cardholders.
Only a few PSPs in Europe are able to offer Cartes Bancaires as a worldwide payment solution, making
the French market very hard to access. International PSPs and merchants interested to expand their
business and to sell their products in France have to ensure that they offer to the new French buyers
their own local preferred payment solution. Giving diversity to Payvision’s product portfolio and enabling
merchants worldwide to expand in France, the partnership also gives Rentabiliweb the possibility to
expand its global footprint and process multi-currency transactions in the different Regions, through
Payvision’s worldwide Acquiring Network. In the same time, Rentabiliweb enables PAYVISION’s
customers to benefit from the French card processing specificities and achieve significantly better
transaction conversion rates.
The solution offered by Payvision & Rentabiliweb has impressive features, such as cost effectiveness,
a single price, based on collection volumes, for the processing of French issued Visa-MC cards, which
is amongst the most competitive in the world, acquiring and processing of all Card Payments on the
French Market; conversion rate - Rentabiliweb offers the best French Cartes Bancaires – Visa MasterCard acceptance ratios on the French market, reaching rates of more than 95%; fraud prevention
and chargebacks reduction – with a highly sophisticated fraud prevention tool in place it allows
merchants to detect and identify fraud threats in real time, based on a collaborative rule engine.
“Payvision’s strategic partnership with Be2bill enables the company to expand into the French market,
Together with Be2bill, we can now provide French e-merchants with tailor-made & cutting-edge
solutions for processing Cartes Bancaires transactions”, said Gijs op de Weegh, COO Payvision.
“This partnership gives us the opportunity to assist our clients beyond the French market, giving them
not only access to a hundred means of payments used by foreign consumers locally but also to multi-
currency transactions with a local settlement in foreign currencies, at a much more competitive price
than any of their banks could ever offer. To offer a smart payment solution to any e-merchant in the
world is a key step in our international development strategy”, Thibaut Faurès Fustel de Coulanges,
Chairman of Rentabiliweb Europe.