The future of commerce: Why checkout matters most

[Music]

Charlotte Broom: Hello Making Sense listeners. Today we’re handing over the feed to EMEA in Conversation, a J.P. Morgan podcast featuring in depth interviews with industry leaders on what’s happening across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Making Sense will return to its regular schedule in the next episode. But for now, enjoy this special episode from J.P. Morgan’s EMEA in Conversation.

Patricia Brolly: Every transformation starts somewhere. Every decision shapes what comes next. Welcome to EMEA in Conversation. I'm Patricia Brolly, EMEA Head of Merchant Acquiring Product for J.P. Morgan Payments and I'm joined by Ciaran Walsh, Europe Head of Corporate Sales at J.P. Morgan Payments.

Today we'll explore how evolving payment solutions and merchant acquiring strategies are shaping the commerce landscape, helping businesses grow, scale and stay secure in an increasingly digital marketplace. A little warm-up question for you Ciaran, if today's commerce landscape were a personality, constantly evolving, fast paced, how would you describe it?

Ciaran Walsh: I'd say it's like an always-on multitasker juggling channels, pay methods and markets and expected to perform flawlessly across them all.

Patricia Brolly: Ciaran, when we talk about digital transformation, we often talk about it as big and abstract. New experiences, new technologies, new products, but in reality, transformation shows up in a very specific moment. Moments where a customer makes a decision. Moments where friction either appears or disappears and arguably the most important of these moments is the checkout. So let's start there. Why has checkout become the moment that matters most?

Ciaran Walsh: Well I think checkout is the moment where digital transformation actually becomes tangible. So you can invest in discovery, you can invest in user experience, you can invest in front-end design, but if the payment experience is clunky or if it's even limited that's where it all falls down and customers don't think about those component parts for them, they're simply on one journey.

Patricia Brolly: That's interesting because historically checkout wasn't seen that way, it was more operational.

Ciaran Walsh: Absolutely. If I guess a few years ago, the question was can I take a payment? The question now is much bigger, it's actually can this experience drive value? That shift is huge.

Patricia Brolly: And in EMEA it becomes even more complex, right?

Ciaran Walsh: Absolutely. There is no such thing as a single EMEA customer. There's different expectations, different local preferences, different regulation and these things are all layered on top of each other bringing an additional complexity that businesses have to scale.

Patricia Brolly: Exactly. So let's talk about growth because this is where the mindset shift really comes in. How does checkout move from being operational to actually driving revenues?

Ciaran Walsh: For me it's all about impact. Even the smallest changes at checkout make a very big difference. So reducing friction, adding local pay methods, improving speed all have a very significant and positive impact to conversion rates.

Patricia Brolly: So marginal wins could actually have a big impact?

Ciaran Walsh: Absolutely. The best businesses are constantly optimising. They are testing, they're learning, they're refining. They understand that checkout is a dynamic journey or it's a dynamic part of the overall journey, it's not a static endpoint.

Patricia Brolly: You're absolutely right, businesses have to keep innovating, they have to keep looking at the journey end-to-end, looking for improvement areas. So what are some of those improvement areas and missed opportunities that you see?

Ciaran Walsh: I think the most obvious and the one that we see the most is not localizing enough. If you don't offer the most relevant local pay methods then you're over-complicating the experience. The reality is that less is more. The most intuitive checkout experience is what you're seeking. You'd like it to be almost invisible but that's impossible, checkout won't go away. But I think if you can deliver a really intuitive experience then that's the way to delight the customer. You know, finishing a checkout when that email pops up that confirms your order and you're there thinking it's finished already, I think that's what we're all looking for and that's the type of experience that will bring us back.

Patricia Brolly: Ciaran, from a customer perspective, the checkout process should be simple but it's actually anything but. What's actually happening beneath the surface?

Ciaran Walsh: Actually an awful lot and we're fortunate enough, again this is somewhere where we spend a lot of time with clients, but you have payment orchestration, you have the fraud management, you have compliance, general security, infrastructure, all operating behind the scenes and all have to work simultaneously in partnership together flawlessly. It's an area we know clients spend a huge amount of time because again getting that right, getting that perfect, which is crucial to how they run their businesses, is very very challenging.

Patricia Brolly: So the smoother it is, the more complex actually behind the scenes it is, how do businesses juggle innovation with stability?

Ciaran Walsh: That's the challenge. Customers absolutely have to keep innovating. It's really important, it's how they maintain their business, it's how they maintain their advantage, but it cannot come at the expense of security or reliability. So they want to add local pay methods, they want to remove friction so that they can do things better. They can route transaction flows based on issuer performance or based on geography or based on cost and you know we know from the amount of time we spend with clients, particularly in the ongoing reviews that we manage with them, how important these things are. They measure them very carefully and it's critical actually to really how they measure the success of how they perform in their business.

Patricia Brolly: You mentioned localized payment methods and I think that's a super important point. In France, French customers expect to pay by carte bancaire. In Poland, Blick, Switzerland, Twint, the list goes on. How do you see those approaches differing by market and actually maybe France is a great example of that?

Ciaran Walsh: What works there will not work in the UK and Nordics. This, you know, we know well, we know and we understand that well. And actually more broadly what we're seeing is a move away from this idea that a single setup will allow you to serve all of your customers everywhere. So if you're not offering your preferred pay methods, you're not really competing and in fact the opposite, you're dramatically reducing your addressable conversion.

Patricia Brolly: And it's that adaptability that can really drive performance. And EMEA tends to be bucketed under one region but it's actually more than one region. Different countries, different languages as we've spoken about.

Ciaran Walsh: EMEA is a convenient label but it's an entire region. It's a large number of markets. It's even a large number of different cultures. So not only is there no single EMEA client, there's no single EMEA commerce experience and the drivers for that are the same. The expectations are different, the regulation can be very different and often is. And there's a different expectation around pay methods and so the customers that can scale across that fragmented landscape are those that are really going to be able to say that how they manage checkout and how they handle payments is actually a real strategic driver of growth for their business.

Patricia Brolly: It's easy to see how that can become a stumbling block for merchants trying to scale and win in Europe. So when does the checkout actually break down today? What are you hearing from clients?

Ciaran Walsh: So it should be a trickier question to answer but actually our observations are pretty consistent. There is a conflict. The businesses need to grow as quickly as they possibly can and that often means scaling markets. And so whilst the front end experience is often really good if not exceptional and so the checkout often becomes the weakest point in the journey. It manifests in a number of different ways. It can be poor payment experience generally or it could be even a mobile optimization that's far away from what it should be. And so customers drop out on this journey and it's really interesting because the challenges that are posed they're not insurmountable but the experience just isn't living up to what customers expect and so ultimately they drop away from the experience and you lose them.

Patricia Brolly: Let's unpick one of the challenges you've mentioned Ciaran which is regulation. And I say challenges because regulation can also be an opportunity. If you think about PSD2, AML, DORA, long list of regulations. What are your views on that? Challenge? Opportunity?

Ciaran Walsh: Both. Actually you framed it really well I think Pat. So it can absolutely slow you down but there's no question that it's driven businesses to be much more innovative. You mentioned PSD2 so that you know that directive effectively opened the door for new pay methods and it also led to a much more widespread data sharing which allowed you know new people to enter into the payment space. But we do know that those that use it as a point of innovation have some market advantage and it's really valuable.

Patricia Brolly: And there are some great examples of that globally. You look at PICS in Brazil or India or even Bahrain with real-time payments. Huge innovation. It's been regulators that have been driving that.

Ciaran Walsh: Absolutely.

Patricia Brolly: So how has PSD2 changed the payments landscape and what does PSD3 even PSD4 hold for us?

Ciaran Walsh: We're all very very familiar with the idea that our mobile device plays a meaningful role in in how we complete transactions and we're completely comfortable with it. You know it's been massively beneficial to businesses all across Europe.

Patricia Brolly: And massively beneficial as well for collaboration. Seeing schemes, issuers, acquirers, third parties all working together.

Ciaran Walsh: Absolutely. PSD3 is building on that. That's certainly the drive there is to make transactions much more secure and to reduce fraud which is you know welcome for everyone. And you even mentioned PSD4. It's on our radar. It's something that regulation was something that kind of made us sigh. And I'm sure for some it does because it always presents challenges. But ultimately it makes the experience better. It's good for business. And those that do it well once again they steal a march in the market. And it's become really important for them.

Patricia Brolly: So regulators are actually a force for innovation. Bringing them in early, partnering with them can actually drive real change in the industry.

Ciaran Walsh: Yeah there was absolutely showing my age and going back a bit further than I'd like to. But there was a resistance to regulation. You know new businesses came to market and their goal was really not to tie themselves up in in regulation. That was something that perhaps they could outsource to a bank. It became clear that it was almost impossible for that to be the case. And so look I feel that many have embraced that regulation. They understand it. They know it's really important to how they do business.

Patricia Brolly: Because ultimately we all want what's best for the customer.

Ciaran Walsh: For sure. And like I say that trust component that we all take from knowing that there is you know reasonable regulation across the landscape is very important.

Patricia Brolly: And regulation can actually drive product development. Regulation in itself is very fragmented. There's global regulations. There's Europe wide regulations. Then each country has its own interpretation of the regulations. And I think our role in product when speaking to clients is trying to demystify or simplify that for our clients to understand. And that influences what products we offer to what client segments in what countries.

Ciaran Walsh: To add to that the sheer scale and size of what we do globally means that we have a proximity to regulators that others do not. And so whilst we have to understand and abide by regulation ourselves it's the heart of everything that we do. We're also increasingly bringing an understanding of that regulation to clients. So it's become core component of what we do.

Patricia Brolly: We talk a lot about innovation economy. What does that actually mean in the context of commerce and payments?

Ciaran Walsh: For us innovation economy is the part of the bank that serves startup venture-backed companies. They're usually high growth and tech forward and the investors that support them.

Patricia Brolly: The future FTSE companies.

Ciaran Walsh: Absolutely. That's the hope. They're early adopters. They push the envelope. And so when we serve these companies well it makes our platform better too. These are businesses that will launch across geographies as a first phase. And so it puts a tremendous strain on payments. And so being able to scale across markets with agility has a real focus for them. The way they operate has really even dictated the way that we serve them. In the same way that we adapted to how we serve fintechs we do the same for innovation economy clients because they have an expectation of agility and speed.

Patricia Brolly: And can you give an example of one of those businesses that have launched overnight and have driven that shift?

Ciaran Walsh: Possibly the easiest example to consume might be a media business or a streaming business. They will absolutely launch across geographies at the same time. They need to offer localized payment services and it's super important in a business where there may be subscription. So they need to launch locally but actually they need that experience to feel the same. So that's I guess a really good example of you know what can happen and how the conversation you have on one day with a client can change very quickly given their own strategic agenda. I already mentioned subscription services or marketplaces. The reason that's important is because those consumers have already made their buyer choices, their buyer preferences and so those businesses really need payments to operate with invisibility in the background and seamlessly.

Patricia Brolly: So we understand what innovation economy is. What challenges do they face particularly when scaling up?

Ciaran Walsh: It's a great question. I mean it's something that impacts other businesses too but I think risk and fraud is something that manifests itself front and center in it with these types of businesses. So having real-time monitoring is critical and being able to use data and analytics to make sure that the business is as secure as possible is really really important. The other thing and we touched on the payment services directive which is obviously really important in Europe. This staying on top of regulation as you step into new markets. It's really important that you understand your regulatory obligations in each of those and that's not an insignificant task.

Patricia Brolly: And that's why it's really key to have partners in those markets who speak the language, have relationships with the local regulators that can decipher the regulations that have come out and help our clients.

Ciaran Walsh: You've just described why we play such a key role.

Patricia Brolly: So looking ahead, where does checkout go next? What's the next evolution?

Ciaran Walsh: Data is the big one. Payments contain really valuable insights and we're seeing businesses starting to use that more and more. We're moving from AI that suggests into AI that helps execute. So instead of just showing you options, it can suggest pay methods and it can confirm prior information.

Patricia Brolly: So taking a real-life example, I'm booking my summer holiday. AI would simply give me a list of the hotels but actually what it wouldn't do and what an agentic agent would do is actually proactively book those hotels for me based on my specific requirements. Is that fair?

Ciaran Walsh: It's fair but also including permissions and safeguards that are understood.

Patricia Brolly: So I've just talked about travel but where do you see this showing up for real, i.e. not futuristic? Is it things like subscriptions?

Ciaran Walsh: It's absolutely subscriptions. It's repeatable journeys where the customer intent is clear and where speed really matters.

Patricia Brolly: And what has to be true for customers to be comfortable with that? What are the non-negotiables?

Ciaran Walsh: It's control and clarity. Customers need to know what's happening, what they're agreeing to and that they can step in at any point.

Patricia Brolly: So it should be effortless, strong controls, authentication and transparency?

Ciaran Walsh: Absolutely.

Patricia Brolly: So Kieran, the final whistle, looking ahead, what's going to define the next phase of commerce?

Ciaran Walsh: The direction of travel is towards more seamless, invisible experiences. The checkout won't disappear. We'll become faster, more intuitive and more embedded across the entire journey.

Patricia Brolly: Brilliant Kieran, thank you so much for joining me today.

Ciaran Walsh: Pat, it's been an absolute pleasure. Thank you for having me.

Voiceover: Thanks for listening to J.P. Morgan's Making Sense. If you've enjoyed this conversation, share your feedback by leaving a comment or review wherever you listen to podcasts. And be sure to follow our channel so you don't miss an episode!

©2026 JPMorgan Chase & Co. All rights reserved. JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. Member FDIC. Deposits held in non-U.S. branches are not FDIC insured. Non-deposit products are not FDIC insured. All rights reserved. The statements herein are confidential and proprietary and not intended to be legally binding. Not all products and services are available in all geographical areas. Visit jpmorgan.com/paymentsdisclosure for further disclosures and disclaimers related to this content. This video-podcast/guide is confidential and proprietary to J.P. Morgan and is provided for your general information only. It is subject to change without notice and is not intended to be legally binding. Any services described in this video-podcast/guide are subject to applicable laws and regulations and service terms. Not all products and services are available in all locations. Eligibility for particular products and services will be determined by JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. or its affiliates. J.P. Morgan makes no representations as to the legal, regulatory, tax or accounting implications of the matters referred to herein. Any mentions of third-party trademarks, brand names, products and services are for referential purposes only and any mention thereof is not meant to imply any sponsorship, endorsement, or affiliation. J.P. Morgan and J.P. Morgan Payments are marketing names for certain businesses of JPMorgan Chase & Co. and its affiliates and subsidiaries worldwide JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., organized under the laws of U.S.A. with limited liability. The views and opinions expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of J.P. Morgan, its affiliates, or its employees. The information set forth herein has been obtained or derived from sources believed to be reliable. Neither the author nor J.P. Morgan makes any representations or warranties as to the information’s accuracy or completeness. The information contained herein has been provided solely for informational purposes and does not constitute an offer, solicitation, advice or recommendation, to make any investment decisions or purchase any financial instruments and may not be construed as such.

[End of episode]