France-based digital payments company Worldline has entered a strategic partnership with payment firm Opn to solidify its presence in the Asian ecommerce market. As per the information detailed in the press release, Worldline's collaboration with Opn intends to reinforce the former’s presence in the ecommerce market in Asia, with the two companies aiming to launch a joint solution.

This intends to support international online businesses entering Thailand’s expanding ecommerce market, which is among the largest in the world. At the time of the announcement, Thailand ranked the second-largest economy and ecommerce market in Southeast Asia, having a population of 70 million and a GDP of USD 574 billion. The Thai Government’s statistics show that the region received ecommerce revenues of approximately USD 23.4 billion in 2022, projected to increase to USD 34 billion by 2025. Additionally, the number of ecommerce users is predicted to rise from 41.2 million in 2023 to 45.8 in 2027.

This expansion can be attributed to the increase in the use of the internet and mobile phones, as well as the enhanced logistics and e-payment systems in Thailand. Worldline – Opn collaboration objectives The alliance between Worldline and Opn is set to leverage the former’s global payment knowledge and the latter’s local market insight to allow ecommerce businesses to maximise this current market opportunity. The joint solution aims to support businesses to reach local consumers with enhanced approval rates and reduces costs for cross-border payments via local acquiring and flexible remittance, either in local Thai Baht or cross-border in over 20 international currencies.

Also, the solution intends to reduce the time-to-market while ensuring an increased level of payment security and compliance, as all card transactions meet PCI DSS and 3D Secure standards. According to Worldline’s officials, the strategic partnership with Opn is set to provide a joint solution that eliminates friction from cross-border payments, delivering increased approval rates, minimised costs, and faster time-to-market. Through this move, the company works towards enhancing companies’ abilities to benefit from the potential of Thailand’s ecommerce growth. Moreover, representatives from Opn underlined that, by joining forces with Worldline, the two companies aim to help ecommerce businesses in achieving their strategic objectives in the Thai market.

Their ecommerce proposition intends to allow them to offer their customers a simplified solution and to ensure an improved user experience. Furthermore, Worldline and Opn’s solution is projected to go live at the end of the second quarter of 2024, being currently piloted with two hospitality customers. By leveraging Worldline’s online payment solutions, global ecommerce businesses receive access to over 150 online payment methods and a range of currency options with local entry in multiple global markets, including Turkey, South Korea, and Brazil. .