Direct integration and PSP integration
There are two ways to use Vipps MobilePay:
- Direct integration: The merchant or partner uses the APIs directly (e.g., ePayment, eCom, Checkout, Recurring, Login, Userinfo, Order Management, QR), etc. All the functionality of the APIs can be used, and also combined as described in Solutions.
- PSP integration: The merchant or partner uses the PSP's API, which is based on our PSP API. The merchant or partner does not have a direct communication with Vipps MobilePay, and uses none of our services directly. Without a direct integration it is not possible to use all functionality provided by our APIs.
How the PSP API works
The PSP API provides tokens for the users' payment cards. The PSPs uses the token charge a Vipps user's card.
To put it simply, The PSP API is a "card token lookup service". The PSP uses the token to process the payment, and then send us an update to us about the success or failure.
Benefits of direct integration
The ePayment and eCom APIs have some functionality that is not available in the PSP API:
- Direct integration allows you to have more control over the integration - and the user experience - and to customize it to your specific needs. This can lead to a better user experience for your customers and also increase conversions.
- Higher success rate. With a direct integration, you have full control over the user flow, and use the Vipps MobilePay APIs directly without any additional steps or middleware. Direct integrations have an extremely high success rate.
- Retry functionality: If the user attempts to pay with a card that is declined, the user can retry with a different card, while still in the same payment process. This results in a higher success rater for payments. The PSP API does not have this functionality, as it is the PSP, not Vipps, that (attempts or) makes the charge.
- Express checkout (Vipps Hurtigkasse) is only available with direct integration.
- Userinfo is only available with direct integration. The Userinfo API lets merchants ask for the user's profile information as part of the payment flow: name, address, email, phone number, birthdate, etc.
- When using the ePayment API and eCom API, Vipps handles soft-declines, 3-D Secure, BankID, etc. We have taken care of the regulatory required "strong customer authentication" (SCA, required by the Payment Services Directive 2, PSD2), as we have regulatory approved delegated SCA from the card issuers. This means that Vipps MobilePay complies with the SCA requirements when the user logs into the app, and the need for additional SCA is eliminated. The user gets a simpler and faster user experience and an extremely high completion rate. See: When do users get a "soft decline" and need to complete a 3-D Secure verification?
- With direct integrations the merchant is guaranteed top get the money, as Vipps Mobilepay takes the risk in case of fraud.
Extremely high success rate of direct integrations
We have extremely high success rate (low drop-off) for direct integration: Almost every user that selects to pay with Vipps completes the payment. The success rate is significantly higher than when using a payment card directly.
When comparing success rates: Remember to compare data for when the user selects payment method, do not compare Vipps to numbers for when the user has selected card payment and already has manually entered the card number, etc.:
- Drop-off data for Vipps: Measure the success rate after the user has selected Vipps.
- Drop-off rate for cards: Measure the success rate after the user has selected card, but from before the user has to enter the card details.
Users that select Vipps will simply have to use biometric log-in to the app and confirm the payment. Very, very simple.