RTIH interview: Kevin Carson, Senior Vice President - Global Business Development at FreedomPay
RTIH sits down with Kevin Carson, Senior Vice President - Global Business Development at FreedomPay, to discuss the rapidly shifting payments landscape, his company’s unique positioning within it, and planned activity at Retail Technology Show 2023, which will take place on 26th and 27th April at London Olympia.
RTIH: Tell us about yourself and how you came to join FreedomPay.
KC: I haven’t always worked in payments. I started out as a semi-professional footballer for Airdrieonians F.C. in Scotland and other teams.
I spent ten years at Yellow Pages, where I sold print advertising and was promoted to leadership roles. I then worked for Three Mobile and Google, crossing over to tech.
Later, I moved to Sage, leading the direct sales organisation for accounting and payroll products. Part of Sage was Sage Pay, which I managed end to end, prior to its acquisition by Elavon.
At that time, I was approached by FreedomPay who were starting their global expansion and had just won substantial international business. I was brought in alongside Tony Hammond (SVP - Global Product Delivery). Tony was working at Oracle, a primary integrated partner of Sage Pay.
FreedomPay is a US-founded company. I kicked off the commercial business outside of the United States. We’re just four-and-a-quarter years into that expansion, complicated by two years of pandemic restrictions, yet the business just continues to accelerate.
When I started at FreedomPay, we were live in two countries. We are now live in more than 70, covering everywhere from Australia to the Caribbean and in-between. Later this year, we will debut our platform in the UAE, our first venture into the Middle East… with more countries going live soon.
We will go live in Hong Kong, Singapore, Sri Lanka, and other Asia Pacific countries in the second half of this year.
We are scaling fast and it’s an exciting time to be at the company.
RTIH: What does FreedomPay have planned for Retail Technology Show 2023?
KC: We have been at the show for four years now. Covid restrictions are over, our growth plans are firmly back on track, our deployments into international markets are accelerating, and we are firmly established as one of the key players in the UK market.
I believe that we differentiate ourselves from the competition.
We sit on the consumer side and the business side, offering that true independence from any of the banks or schemes. Our President, Chris Kronenthal calls us a FinTech. We are not a financial company, but a technology company that operates in the financial sector.
We continue to focus on enterprise merchants and/or large scale financial institution relationships, with the likes of Global Payments, FIS, Fiserv, and Network International. We consider these huge organisations our strategic partners.
As an American-based company operating internationally, we value the regional and local knowledge and expertise that our overseas employees and partners offer.
Retail Technology Show is a fantastic opportunity to display our comprehensive capabilities, tech solutions and key partnerships.
We are winning business in every vertical, and we have secured and rolled our major contracts. You can find our solutions in every major town and city in the UK.
Our international expansion continues, and we feel we’re just getting started.
RTIH: Given that the payments space is experiencing seismic change right now, which key themes and conversations will you be looking to focus on at Retail Technology Show 2023?
KC: We are an open platform built for change. We are independent and agnostic. That allows an independence of thought, integration, partnerships, and decision making.
FreedomPay originated in Philadelphia so there’s a recognition in the name of the Liberty Bell. FreedomPay is about freedom of choice, and freedom to do whatever suits you best as a business.
Right now, our key message is that, as a global merchant, you have choices when looking for a consumer-focused experience. They exist. You do not need to settle for underdeveloped products or second best.
If you want to keep a relationship with your acquirer or local bank, we give you that flexibility, setting us apart in an increasingly all-in-one world.
The idea of a one-stop-shop can appeal to certain merchants, but optionality is still vital if, for example, you are a multi-national clothing brand operating in 90 countries. In that case, you will have relationships with banking organisations in every single market.
As an agnostic platform, we offer the freedom to unify with your PoS vendors and support partners of choice, and more.
We are well positioned in the market. I have not seen anyone else doing what we do.
There are lots of other players in the market, including brilliant players in their own specialities, but we operate with a slightly different ethos and strategy. We build solutions for our customers across all verticals, irrespective of the size of the business.
It is a case of one world, one platform. Whether you operate in Hong Kong or Los Angeles, our single, unified Next Level Commerce™ platform is available. This allows us to build at scale and pace, to move quickly through different markets - as our growth has shown.
RTIH: Many retailers are investing in omnichannel strategies in a post-Covid world. How can FreedomPay help them in this area?
KC: In 2021, FreedomPay commissioned an independent study to understand the pain points of mid-to-enterprise Chief Technology Officers.
The number one finding was that leaders are increasingly dependent on third-party vendors as ‘business consultants’ and ‘guardians of reputation’ to democratise data, drive stakeholder value, and cope with compliance and ethical complexity.
FreedomPay has not lost a single enterprise client on our platform, and our guiding principle is customer satisfaction. We behave almost as the consultant tech partner for the merchant.
We often hear about how businesses struggle with the complexities of managing disparate, siloed systems such as Point of Sale devices, payment processors, and incentive engines.
Meanwhile, the customer is unaware of the merchant’s struggles. Across all touchpoints, the entire commerce experience should be safe, secure, and uniform for customers and merchants.
FreedomPay’s technology prepares retailers to deliver Next Level Commerce using a growth solution that is efficient, agnostic, and open. The one key principle of omnichannel operations is to safeguard your investment with an enterprise payments platform that supports you and your customers.
RTIH: What else can we expect to see from FreedomPay during Retail Technology Show 2023?
KC: Across our two days at Retail Technology Show 2023, we will present some really cool stuff on our stand.
Cedric Lourie, VP - Digital Development at FreedomPay, will be running hourly sessions on payment data, how to handle it seamlessly and understand the full consumer story. We will talk loyalty, using technology to address customer loyalty in a fragmented world.
Tech is so competitive now, from comparing the user experience of mobile apps to how customers engage with brands. Merchants need to position their apps top of mind for consumers, and consider about their connectivity in-store, as consumers return to brick and mortar locations.
Loyalty points, incentives, and rewards will play a bigger role, too. It all comes back to personalisation and a value exchange.
Our platform allows merchants to securely track consumers’ spend and transaction history, to effectively personalise communications and loyalty incentives and rewards. We see that as vitally important - there is so much value to be had in returning customers.
On Wednesday, 26th April, we are hosting a panel discussion with thought leaders around personalisation, how data driven strategies are really shaping retail, and the role of a unified tech strategy in commerce.
This is central to our message: we are not just a payments company. We build customer-centric solutions inside our stack to solve different payment use cases around the world.
RTIH: Seeing as Retail Technology Show is a UK-based show, we would be interested to hear your thoughts on the state of the UK market right now.
KC: The biggest thing that UK merchants are struggling with right now is choice. There is just so much out there. It’s complex.
The UK is arguably the most competitive market in the world. London is one of the largest global financial centres. From a payments perspective, there are so many companies based here, that offers so much choice, for instance in the PoS market.
A race to the bottom, to get every service and product as cheaply as you can, is not every company’s strategy. So many businesses have been burnt by focusing exclusively on pricing over the years.
However, there is no need to pay through the nose - people will negotiate. Technology choices exist, so shop around without overly focusing on cost, I would advise.
Employees from every FreedomPay department will be on our stand, talking to people, and listening to their demands and requirements. This show will inspire the next six months of our development strategy, because we will walk the floor and make strategic decisions about our future.
A show like Retail Technology Show allows people to shop around. If I were a merchant, I would take the chance to go and meet people, shake their hands (if that’s allowed again) and get to know them.
I would go along and meet the people I intend to do business with over the next five to ten years.
Visit FreedomPay at Retail Technology Show 2023 at booth #6E70 and find out how the company is delivering Next Level Commerce to some of the biggest brands in the world across retail, hospitality, F&B, gaming, and much more.
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