EcomStream is an independent payment advisory firm for retailers and brands, founded in 2017 and based in Zeist, the Netherlands.

The work covers four areas: payment cost optimization and PSP contract renegotiation, payment performance improvement, PSP selection and RFP management, and interim payments assignments. Advisory engagements are delivered on a no-cure-no-pay basis. Interim assignments are agreed on a day rate or project fee basis. All work covers online, POS, and unified commerce payment solutions.

Independence is not a positioning claim. It is a structural feature of how EcomStream operates. The firm has never worked for a PSP, an acquirer, or a payment institution, and never will. No referral arrangements with PSP’s, no implementation revenue from providers, no commercial relationships with PSP’s that create conflicts of interest. Every recommendation is made solely on the basis of what is right for the merchant.

That independence matters most in the moments when it is most tested: during a PSP renegotiation, a competitive tender, or a performance dispute. In those situations, an advisor with PSP relationships is structurally compromised. EcomStream is not.

Ramon Helwegen founded EcomStream in July 2017 after nearly two decades in B2B sales, the last eight of which were spent on the PSP side of the payment industry.

That background shapes everything about how EcomStream works. Having sat across the table from merchants as a PSP sales professional, Ramon understands exactly how payment pricing is constructed, where the margin is hidden, which commercial levers PSPs respond to, and which arguments they will use to defend existing terms. That knowledge is the basis for the advice EcomStream gives and the negotiations it conducts.

PSP and payments background

From 2011 to 2013, Ramon was Business Development Manager EMEA at Ingenico ePayments, responsible for international sales to tier-1 retail merchants across the EMEA region. Ingenico’s GlobalCollect business was one of the leading global ecommerce payment platforms at the time, covering credit card processing and localized payment methods across markets.

From 2013 to 2016, Ramon was at European Merchant Services (EMS), a joint venture between Fiserv and ABN AMRO Bank providing omnichannel payment services across Europe. As Corporate Sales Manager and New Business Manager International, he closed multi-year contracts with international brands including Red Bull GmbH, Zalando SE, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd, and Vodafone Group Services Ltd. Notable projects include the three-year Bancontact processing agreement with Zalando for zalando.be, and the global credit card payment services contract for the Red Bull Wings for Life World Run.

At Newgen Payments from 2016 to 2017, as CCO, business development, sales strategy, and marketing.

Those years on the PSP side gave Ramon a detailed understanding of how acquirers and PSPs build their commercial propositions, where pricing flexibility actually exists, and how contracts are structured to protect provider margins. That understanding now works exclusively for merchants.

Since October 2021, Ramon has been the owner and moderator of Betaaloptimaal.nl, a payments-focused news and insights platform covering developments across online payments, PSPs, and commerce. The platform publishes over 500 curated articles and serves as an independent reference point for payment professionals in the Netherlands.

Before payments

Ramon’s commercial career started in 1996 and spans 25 years of senior B2B sales across multiple industries and geographies.

At TNT Express (formerly Jet Services Worldwide Express), he managed regional corporate accounts across Europe from 1996 to 1999.

At Verizon, over an 11-year period from 1999 to 2010, he held a series of progressively senior roles covering new business acquisition, global account management across EMEA for clients including Daimler Chrysler, Reed Elsevier, Dell, and American Express, and relationship management and global account direction for the ABN AMRO Bank outsourced account. That role included responsibility for managed network services, cloud communication services, and corporate payment gateway services.

EcomStream deliberately operates as a senior-led practice rather than a consulting firm that scales through junior staff. Every engagement is handled personally by Ramon Helwegen, from the initial diagnostic through to the final negotiation or implementation.

That is a deliberate choice, not a scale limitation. Payment optimization is a commercial negotiation discipline, not a research exercise. The value comes from knowing how PSPs think, what they will and will not move on, and how to structure a commercial conversation that produces a real outcome. That is not something that can be delegated to an analyst running benchmarks.

Clients work directly with the person who has the experience. That is the model.

Ramon holds a NIMA-B qualification from the Nederlands Instituut voor Marketing, the professional marketing standard in the Netherlands.

Recent certifications include:

Advanced Valuation and Strategy covering M&A, Private Equity and Venture Capital from Erasmus University Rotterdam (2024),

Modern Technology with MACH and MACH Mindset from the MACH Alliance (2024),

Advanced Scrum from the Project Management Institute (2023),

Organisational AI Strategy from Coursera (2025).

The technology and valuation credentials reflect a deliberate effort to stay current with the commercial and technical landscape that EcomStream’s clients are navigating.

Ramon has published across several leading Dutch commerce and payments platforms, including Frankwatching and Emerce.

Selected publications:

Gamification in the online checkout process: Enhancing loyalty and conversion (Henry Stewart Publications, 2025),

Is er een evolutie gaande op de Europese betaalmarkt? (Emerce, 2024),

Economische tegenwind? Focus op je bottom-line groei (Frankwatching, 2023),

Online afrekenen begint al vóór de betaaloplossing (Emerce, 2021),

Hoe ziet het snelste online betaalproces er straks uit? (Frankwatching, 2021),

Gamification van het checkout-proces: zo krijg je meer loyale klanten (Frankwatching, 2020),

Weg met de traditionele klantreis, op naar contextual commerce (Frankwatching, 2019),

Quick wins voor je check-outproces en betaaloplossing (Frankwatching, 2018).