How EcomStream turned Versuni’s direct-to-consumer payment set-up from a fixed cost into a source of recurring margin.
The client
Versuni is the company behind Philips Home Appliances, one of the most recognised home appliance brands in the world. Its direct-to-consumer business sells across multiple European markets, and at that scale the payment stack is not a back-office detail. It shapes margin on every order, the share of transactions that complete, and the operational load carried by the teams behind the checkout.
The challenge
A D2C operation the size of Versuni’s carries payment economics that compound across every market and every method it offers. Costs that were competitive when the contracts were first signed had gone unchallenged. Payment performance had headroom that was not being captured. And the day-to-day around payments, from dispute and chargeback handling to the internal processes sitting between finance, operations and the payment providers, added friction that rarely showed up on a single invoice but added up across the business.
The brief was not only to negotiate improved contract terms. It was to improve what the whole payment set-up delivered, on cost, on performance, and on the processes around it.
The approach
EcomStream works exclusively on the merchant side, never for PSPs or acquirers, and every engagement is handled personally by Ramon Helwegen. The arguments brought to the table came from having built the very pricing structures and defences a merchant faces, and they
were made in Versuni’s interest alone, with outcomes Versuni could verify in its own dashboard rather than take on trust.
At the core of the engagement was the renegotiation of Versuni’s contracts with its payment providers. Ramon led those conversations himself, at the table with the PSPs, and reset the terms in Versuni’s favour. Around that ran two further fronts in parallel: the performance of the payment flow itself, and the internal processes and dispute handling that determined how much of the improvement actually reached the business.
Payment performance and internal processes
On performance, the focus was on lifting the share of transactions that authorise and complete, so that revenue already won at the checkout was not quietly lost in the payment flow. On process, the work tightened the operational side that surrounds payments, reducing manual overhead and the friction between the teams that touch every transaction, and putting dispute and chargeback management on a firmer footing so that recoverable revenue was actually recovered and the handling load came down.
The outcome
The renegotiated provider contracts delivered a recurring reduction in Versuni’s PSP costs of more than 30%. Because it is a structural change to what the payment set-up costs rather than a one-off rebate, that saving recurs every year the improved terms hold, and it flows straight to EBITDA, since there is no cost of delivery standing against it. Alongside the cost result, payment performance improved, dispute management was sharpened, and the internal processes around payments were streamlined, so the benefit reached both the margin line and the teams doing the work.
Video transcript:
My name is Kamèr Aykaz. I work for Versuni, the company behind Philips Domestic Appliances, where I am Commercial Director for our own D2C business.
Our D2C operation is growing very fast. In the past year alone we opened around 18 new webstores.
Our payment setup needed optimising, so we brought Ramon in as our expert, someone who would firmly take our side with the PSPs.
He took it all on himself.
He ran the conversations with the right stakeholders, sat at the table with the PSPs, and made sure everything was optimised in our favour.
We now have far more control over our payments. Over the providers we choose, the partnerships, the processes, and the cost.
Our payment performance has improved, and it has cut our costs by more than 30%.
I recommend EcomStream to any merchant with a serious D2C channel that wants a firmer grip on their payment and fraud management.
