True Alliance: How a leading Australian retailer saved over $1.4m annually with unified commerce

Complexity is the killer of growth – something True Alliance, a leading Australian retail distributor of 19 global brands, 23 ecommerce sites, and 100 stores, knows all too well. Saddled with a traditional banking set up and numerous integrations, the company was navigating a host of challenges typical of disconnected, legacy payments technology. 

“We've got a multitude of brands that we need to manage and that becomes quite a complicated process,” says Ken Kennedy, Group Head of Digital at True Alliance.

Since there are few payment providers that have the in-house tech stack to support a truly unified cross-channel setup, many retailers find themselves dealing with a semi-integrated system of providers for online and in-person payments. Unsurprisingly, fragmented systems are more prone to error, increased latency, and complicated payments consolidation.

From managing relationships with multiple providers to struggling with unscalable legacy platforms, True Alliance wanted to prioritize innovation, enhance customer experiences, and drive growth – with payment methods and fraud being some of the key areas for optimization.

“Our banking system within our stores was a traditional EFTPOS system disconnected from our ecommerce,”  says Noel David, General Manager of Finance at True Alliance. 

“If we needed to look at other payment methods, it would introduce more issues based on relationships and disconnections,” says Ken. “The retail space is always evolving, always changing. So if we're not at the forefront of that digital transformation, then we're essentially going to be left behind.”

True Alliance transitioned to Adyen in 2022, with local acquiring, one contact, and one contract with global tiered pricing for all regions of operation across Australia and New Zealand. The decision was led by Adyen’s leading Unified Commerce solution and single financial technology platform, along with the RevenueProtect fraud engine, 3DS2 authentication, and cutting-edge POS terminals across all 100 stores.

With so many global omnichannel brands under their belt, delivering a sophisticated and cohesive experience across sales channels is vital for True Alliance. Being able to offer key local and alternate payment methods, Least Cost Routing (LCR), as well as cross-channel shopping – think buy online, return in store, endless aisle shopping, and click-and-collect – ensured brands like Lacoste and The North Face can deliver world-class experiences to their customers at every touchpoint.

“We were able to add on new payment vendors quite easily – WeChat Pay, Alipay, Apple Pay Express Checkout – which had a significant impact on our business in terms of being able to offer new opportunities for our customers to transact with us,” said Noel. 

Optimized backend operations can have just as big an impact on the bottom line as improved customer experience does, saving both resources and time.

“Seamless reconciliation took us from manually reconciling separate payment files across each payment method to one unique reconciliation file that is integrated into our ERP,” says Noel. “We now reconcile all tenders and channels daily.”

With Adyen’s risk tool RevenueProtect, True Alliance is also able to leverage an integrated fraud engine solution to better protect their brands and their customers.

“Fraud was a big issue for us pre-Adyen, we were unable to understand fraud due to our previous payment gateways,” says Noel. “Now our fraud tool is effective and easy to use – we’re able to set rules dynamically.”

With Adyen’s Unified Commerce solution connecting their online and in-store payments, True Alliance has consolidated their systems into one platform and opened up the business to innovation and growth, from cross-channel payment and data insights to improved authorization rates and fraud prevention.

To optimize their ecommerce experience, True Alliance was able to switch 23 websites to Adyen without missing a single order – giving them a single overview of real-time shopper insights, and peak period transactions just in time for the holiday season.

“We were able to roll out 23 websites onto the Adyen platform,” says Noel. “And that was a remarkable effort, not just from the local team here in True Alliance, but also from the Adyen team. It was fully supported through the process.”

With Adyen’s fraud solution, RevenueProtect, True Alliance can now respond to fraud with customizable risk rules with speed and ease, across all its brands and channels, with massive cost savings.

“When we implemented Adyen, we've seen an overnight reduction in our fraud. I mean, it nearly disappeared completely,” says Ken.

Across its 100 physical stores, True Alliance rolled out new in-person payment terminals, all tied to Adyen’s single platform. In addition to providing a sleek checkout experience, True Alliance’s POS is now connected to their ecommerce system. This finally enables seamless and new customer journeys like cross-channel returns and click-and-collect – delivering a frictionless commerce experience for customers, regardless of how and where they want to shop.

With everything connected on one platform – and integrated with their Salesforce system — harnessing valuable cross-channel data has become possible. With real-time shopper insights across channels, True Alliance can plan, personalize, and protect their payments better. From marketing to risk management, strategic decision-making is optimised across the board.

Backend operations are now streamlined and reliable. “We've been able to have transparent fees and charges through the settlement report,” says Noel. “We've had stability and reliability of the Adyen platform, receiving all payment types quickly and efficiently regardless of payment types.”

With payments from all sales channels sitting within a unified payments platform, True Alliance has a more complete view of the business. Data from the entire payment flow helps the team gain valuable insight into shopper journeys across all channels, adjust commercial strategies, and reward loyal visitors.

“With Adyen, we're able to connect all those dots together, create one unified system, which makes it really easy for us to understand the relationships between one brand and another, and how our teams can manage the payment processes behind the scenes, “ says Ken. That's just not something we could have done before.”

“We're all about innovation, we're all about digital transformation. So the Adyen ethos and their goals and aspirations really align well with True Alliance. And I think because of that, we're going to have a long future together and do lots of exciting things that are going to benefit our customers.”