Meet Tim Cooper, Nuvei’s Product Manager for Payment Optimization
Ask Tim what he does to make sure businesses get the most out of Black Friday and other high-stakes events for merchants, and he’ll tell you:
“I help merchants ensure their customers don’t get unnecessary declined payments.”
That’s the simple version. The full picture? Tim and his team work behind the scenes to make sure every legitimate payment is approved, even (and especially) when transaction volumes surge.
How Nuvei’s payment optimization works
Tim’s remit covers every step through the checkout process, from a customer’s intent to pay to the moment funds are secured via their preferred payment method. Unlike teams focused on processing speed or infrastructure uptime, Tim’s mission is to maximize the percentage of successful transactions, turning more payment attempts into revenue for merchants.
Nuvei enables this through a set of optimization levers:
- Smart routing – Uses billions of transaction data points to route payments through the path most likely to be approved, based on issuer preferences, authentication logic, and card brand behavior.
- Cascading retries – If a payment is declined, Nuvei analyzes the response in real time, adjusts the payment parameters, and retries — all within milliseconds. One in four retried transactions is recovered through this process.
- Partial approvals – If a customer has insufficient funds for the full amount (e.g., $100), Nuvei can automatically suggest a partial amount (e.g., $50), helping businesses recover otherwise lost sales.
- Network tokenization – which replaces static card numbers with dynamic, scheme-issued tokens that retain trust and support seamless payments, even when cards are reissued or expire. Combined with one-time-use cryptograms and token-to-PAN fallback, this significantly improves authorization rates while reducing fraud risk and PCI scope.
“These capabilities matter most during peak volume events, such as flash sales or Black Friday,” says Tim. “Because each recovered transaction means higher approval rates, which boosts overall revenue.”
Why peak season demands more
Black Friday puts pressure on every part of the payment stack. Customers may only have a narrow window to complete a transaction before inventory runs out or discounts expire. If a payment fails, there might not be a second chance.
Smart routing increases the chance of approval on the first attempt. If that fails, cascading retries offer a seamless fallback giving legitimate customers another shot without disruption.
For brands, this can be the difference between a missed opportunity and a completed sale. One that enhances customer experience and increases the likelihood of them returning in the future.
How Nuvei does it differently
While there are multiple payment partners that offer some of the same tools, Tim highlights one key differentiator that Nuvei has: human expertise.
A dedicated team of conversion analysts works directly with businesses to configure the right mix of features for their operating model. Whether it’s enabling partial approvals, applying 3D Secure exemptions, or adjusting retry logic, these specialists provide hands-on guidance ahead of key sales periods.
“Some businesses need high authorization rates in high-risk markets. Others want to streamline deposits in gaming or reduce drop-off during subscription renewals. Our analysts help map the solution to the goal.”
Tim’s advice for Black Friday readiness
According to Tim, the most successful businesses do three things in advance:
- Run a payments health check – Identify and resolve weak points in the transaction journey.
- Ensure payment method coverage – Make sure the right methods are enabled for every target currency and market.
- Activate recovery logic – Confirm that features like cascading retries and smart routing are fully deployed and tuned.
“The worst outcome,” Tim says, “is discovering mid-sale that a critical configuration is missing. Preparation is what turns peak events into revenue milestones.”
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