Plaid and Mollie join forces to simplify ecommerce for merchants across Europe

The shift to online spending in Europe is rising at a dramatic pace. In fact, nearly 60% of Europeans, 424.5 million, now use ecommerce services, and one in three consumers in the UK do at least 80% of their spending digitally, according to a Plaid survey. As a result, merchants are optimising their consumer payment experiences – in-person, online, and mobile – to delight customers and keep them coming back. For many small-to-midsize (SME) merchants implementing the right technology to provide that seamless experience isn’t easy.

Today, Plaid is adding Mollie, one of Europe’s fastest growing payment service providers, to our  Payment Partner Ecosystem. Together, we’ll provide SME merchants across the UK and Europe with better tools to grow their business amid a thriving ecommerce landscape. 

Mollie onboards thousands of merchants on a monthly basis. Currently, the process involves multiple checks of identity and bank account ownership. Through the partnership, Plaid’s open banking data network is connected directly into Mollie’s platform. As a result, Mollie can validate bank account ownership in real-time and merchants can get their digital storefronts open and ready to accept payments more easily across Europe. Initially, we’ll support Mollie’s merchants in the UK, with support for the onboarding process in France and Germany soon to follow. 

“Our customers are at the heart of our business and we are constantly improving and striving to offer the best payments experiences,” said Rogier Schoute, Chief Product Officer at Mollie. “Plaid shares this same philosophy with us and creates exceptional products. We’re particularly excited because the partnership will allow us to offer our customers a fantastic solution to facilitate quick and easy onboarding, not only the first time they join Mollie, but also as they grow their business abroad. Gone are the days of the overcomplicated verification method.”

The opportunity for SME merchants has never been better–anyone, anywhere in the world can easily find your digital storefront. In 2021, 30% of online shoppers in the EU purchased from merchants in other EU countries. With that opportunity comes challenges, like offering the preferred payment methods for local customers. Together, Plaid and Mollie will continue to develop new joint solutions that help SMEs provide their customers with the best digital experiences available so that they can reduce costs, increase loyalty, and ultimately compete with any online store – no matter the size. 

With more payments going digital and commerce moving borderless, the opportunity for open banking to make that process faster, easier, and less costly increases with it. If you’re a PSP interested in partnering to embed Plaid’s open banking solutions into your platform, reach out to our team.