Cómo protegen los comercios las ventas presenciales

Siete minutos.

Según FreedomPay, ese es el tiempo que la gente está dispuesta a esperar en la cola antes de marcharse.

La bienvenida, el ambiente, el servicio: cada interacción con el cliente en una tienda física es una inversión que se decide en un solo momento: el pago. Si ese momento sale bien, las posibilidades de que el cliente vuelva aumentan considerablemente. Si sale mal, nada de lo que haya pasado antes importa.

El pago es lo último que experimenta el cliente. Si falla, se convierte en lo único que recuerda.

Los comercios de gran tamaño de los sectores minorista, de la restauración y hotelero saben que ofrecer una experiencia fluida es la clave para proteger sus ingresos, su marca y la fidelidad de sus clientes a largo plazo. Pero los pagos en los establecimientos físicos también deberían pasar desapercibidos. El cliente realiza la compra, paga la cuenta y ni siquiera se da cuenta de la infraestructura que hay detrás.

Eso es justo lo que Nuvei y FreedomPay están desarrollando.

Comunicado de prensa

Nuvei y FreedomPay anuncian una alianza para unificar los pagos empresariales a nivel mundial

«El comercio empresarial requiere una tecnología que funcione igual de bien en tiendas, estadios, hoteles y dispositivos móviles sin añadir complejidad». Chris Kronenthal, presidente de FreedomPay

La experiencia oculta de pagar

Lo que pasa a la vista solo funciona gracias a lo que ocurre entre bastidores.

Imagina una tienda de lujo. La experiencia ideal es fluida: un dependiente se acerca, tramita la compra allí mismo, sin colas ni complicaciones. Detrás de esa sencilla interacción hay toda una infraestructura: capacidad de funcionamiento sin conexión por si falla el wifi, cifrado para proteger los datos y una lógica de enrutamiento que garantiza que la transacción se complete incluso con una mala conexión.

O piensa en una cadena de cafeterías muy concurrida a la hora del almuerzo. Seguro que lo has visto: una cola que avanza rápido hasta que se atasca un pago, y de repente todo se atasca. Ese retraso de 20 segundos no solo afecta a un cliente; tiene un efecto dominó en toda la cola.

En el sector hotelero, la complejidad es menos evidente, pero hay mucho más en juego. Una estancia en un hotel no es una simple transacción, sino una secuencia de preautorizaciones, cargos incrementales y el cobro final. Cuando ese flujo se interrumpe, se traduce en salidas complicadas, retenciones duplicadas o en que el personal tenga que resolver los problemas a mano mientras el huésped espera.

Puede que estos incidentes no salgan en los titulares, pero minan los ingresos y la confianza. Solo en EE. UU., las interrupciones en los pagos ponen en riesgo cada año unas ventas estimadas de 44 400 millones de dólares en los sectores minorista y hotelero. La mayoría de las empresas sufren varias interrupciones al año, y la mayoría de ellas ocurren en los momentos de mayor actividad, justo cuando hay menos margen de error.

Cómo Nuvei y FreedomPay dan soporte a los sectores del comercio minorista, la hostelería y la restauración

Paso mucho tiempo hablando con comerciantes de los sectores minorista, hotelero y de la restauración. La frustración que más escucho no tiene que ver con cortes catastróficos, sino con esa pérdida gradual que se produce cuando las soluciones provisionales se convierten en permanentes, los procesos manuales que nadie ha tenido tiempo de arreglar, y esos días de mayor actividad que deberían haber sido un éxito pero no lo fueron.

Así es como Nuvei y FreedomPay cambian las cosas en tres sectores en los que el margen de error es mínimo.

Para el comercio minorista: cada transacción, en todo momento

Retail has one rule: the payment has to go through. Not most of the time, but every time.

That includes Black Friday, when stores are packed and networks are strained, and the unexpected moments too, like a temporary connectivity drop in the middle of a busy Saturday afternoon.

Nuvei handles acquiring, optimizing how transactions are routed to maintain high approval rates even under pressure. Nuvei merchants that consolidate onto direct acquiring infrastructure often see approval rate increases of up to 14%. At scale, this is material revenue.

At the same time, FreedomPay ensures the store doesn’t stop when connectivity does. Its Store and Forward capability lets transactions continue offline, securely queued and then processed once the connection returns. From the customer’s perspective, they tap, pay, and leave, which is exactly what they expect.

Then there’s the moment every retailer recognizes: the queue that starts to build. FreedomPay’s mobile line-busting devices let staff step in and complete transactions on the floor, right where the customer is standing. It’s the difference between “I’ll wait” and “I’ll come back later”, when, in many cases, “later” means never.

Together, Nuvei and FreedomPay ensure that no matter how or where the sale happens (fixed lane, mobile device, online-to-offline) the transaction completes as smoothly as the experience that led up to it.

For food and beverage: Speed is the margin

In food and beverage, a short delay at the terminal during peak service can throw off the entire rhythm of a restaurant. Staff feel it immediately. Guests feel it too, even if they don’t consciously register why the experience feels slower. In high-volume environments, even a small delay per transaction can translate into lost revenue over the course of a single service. More importantly, it affects whether customers come back.

Nuvei keeps authorization stable when volumes spike, while Nuvei Optimize works in the background to recover transactions that would otherwise be declined incorrectly.

FreedomPay connects every ordering and payment surface (counter, table, kiosk, drive-through, QR code) into a single system. Whether someone orders at a kiosk or pays at the table, the experience feels consistent, and the data behind it stays unified.

For hospitality: The authorization lifecycle

Hotel payments are rarely simple.

A guest checks in, and a pre-authorization is placed. Over the next few days, charges accumulate: meals, minibar, spa visits. At checkout, everything needs to reconcile cleanly into a final transaction.

When systems aren’t aligned, that’s where things fall apart. Guests see multiple holds on their card. Charges fail even though services were already delivered. Front desk staff step in to manually fix issues while a line forms behind the guest.

Research shows that 40% of travelers have experienced payment issues during a hotel stay. This directly impacts how the entire stay is remembered.

Nuvei manages that full lifecycle, from pre-authorization through to final capture, while optimizing for international transactions and consolidating settlement data across properties. FreedomPay integrates directly into the systems hotels already use (property management, POS, spa and restaurant systems) connecting what are often fragmented touchpoints into a single, consistent payment flow.

Growth begins with a payment, not after it

Many enterprise merchants are under pressure to modernize their customer flows.

The Nuvei and FreedomPay partnership gives them a way to strengthen the moment of payment, improving performance, expanding payment options, and making sure that the payment experience feels as seamless as everything that went before it.

One acquiring layer. One integration. And a payment experience that holds up, even when everything else is under pressure.

Done well, payment isn’t really the last step of the customer experience. It can become the beginning of a long story of growth for your business.

FAQs

We're already on FreedomPay with a different acquirer. How disruptive is the switch to Nuvei?

One integration on the Nuvei side. Terminal estate, POS certifications, kiosk flows, and handheld devices stay exactly as they are. There is no recertification, no hardware replacement, and no store-level project. The acquiring layer changes and nothing else does.

What does "direct acquiring" actually mean for our authorization rates?

It removes the intermediary between transactions and the card networks. Transactions route locally in the US, UK, and Canada rather than cross-border, which reduces issuer declines caused by unrecognized acquiring entities. Nuvei Optimize runs continuously in the background to recover false declines in real time. Nuvei clients typically see approval rate lifts of up to 16% after consolidating onto direct acquiring infrastructure.

We care about in-person data feeding our loyalty and CRM programs. How does that work here?

Every transaction across POS, kiosk, handheld, and mobile flows into a single consolidated reporting view in Nuvei's control panel alongside online channel data. That unified record, with the same customer token across all touchpoints, is what makes real-time loyalty recognition and personalization possible at the point of sale. Nuvei's How America Pays survey shows that nearly 30% of consumers will abandon a purchase if their preferred payment method is not available, which means the payment layer is already shaping the loyalty relationship whether the infrastructure is designed for it or not.

Which verticals are supported and are there any exclusions we should know about?

Retail, Hospitality (hotels and resorts), Food and Beverage/QSR. Events and stadium operators as an adjacent fit.

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