6 questions for Tranzzo CPO: How to increase conversion in payments

• A 5% increase in conversion can bring your business 2 times more profit if you know what to influence. 

Conversion in payments is one of the key indicators for any business. The company's profit and customer loyalty depend on how convenient, fast, and smooth transactions are.

To find out how to work effectively with conversion and what solutions really deliver results, we talked to Tetiana-Tamara Soloveі, Chief Product Officer at Tranzzo. She is responsible for the development of the company's payment products and has deep expertise in building efficient payment processes.

⬇️ Below, Tetiana-Tamara shared with us

• what influences conversion in payments and how to improve it
• what technologies and solutions work best
• how Tranzzo helps businesses optimize their payment processes.

Why is conversion rate, not just a number but a strategic indicator for business?

Tetiana: Conversion is not just a number in reports, but a real indicator of business health. 

Low conversion = the company is literally losing money, and what's worse, it often doesn't even understand where and how.

I would say that conversion is an indicator of the effectiveness of the entire chain: from marketing to the final ‘Pay’ click and payment processing. If you have great advertising, a powerful product, but the customer cannot pay conveniently or quickly or faces a bank refusal, this whole path is meaningless.

It is also important to understand that improving conversion is not a one-time action, but a systematic work. It needs to be constantly monitored and analyzed for the reasons of drawdowns, and hypotheses tested. 

Therefore, at Tranzzo, we are always working to optimize every stage of the payment process so that our customers receive the maximum number of successful transactions.

How do you find a balance between quick changes to increase conversions and a long-term product strategy?

Tetiana: This is a classic challenge for any product developer: putting out fires here and now or building a foundation for years to come. The balance is not to go to extremes: you can't live only with ‘quick fixes’, but it is also a mistake to wait too long for the perfect solution.

At Tranzzo, we use a two-layer approach:

• Operational solutions – if we see that there is a simple fix that will immediately improve conversion (for example, changing the logic of sending 3DS or optimising the timing of API requests), we do it quickly.
• Strategic changes – if the problem is more complex, we evaluate how solving it will affect the product in the long run. For example, if the solution reduces conversion here and now, but in 3-6 months it will give +5-10% due to scalability, it is an investment in the future.

It's also important not to get yourself into the illusion that everything needs to be fixed ‘for yesterday’. We have a clear framework: if a potential improvement yields a quick ROI and has minimal impact on other processes, we launch it immediately. If it is a complex update, we conduct A/B testing and look at the numbers.

A product-based approach to conversion is not about ‘making the button redder’, but about understanding how even the smallest changes can affect the user journey, banking logic, and even the reputation of the business. And this connection between quick solutions and long-term value is something we always keep in mind.

What metrics, besides the classic conversion, are important to you and your team?

Tetiana: Conversion is definitely a key metric, but it's not enough to understand the full picture. If you only look at the overall percentage of successful payments, you can easily miss deeper problems in the payment process.

That's why at Tranzzo, we work with several important metrics that help us make the product even more effective:

1️⃣ Authorisation Rate (AR) is a measure of how many payments have been approved by banks. A high percentage of rejected transactions is a signal that we need to check the routing, the acquiring bank, or even the types of cards used.

2️⃣ Decline Rate analyses the reasons why banks reject payments. Often, you can find patterns here and correct the situation, for example, through smart routing or recommendations to customers on the choice of payment methods.

3️⃣ Chargeback Rate – the level of chargebacks for disputed transactions. If it is too high, it can signal fraud or UX issues (when the user does not understand what they paid for).

4️⃣ Latency (Delays in payment processing) – even an additional 300ms in server response can reduce conversion. We constantly monitor the speed of processing requests and optimise it.

5️⃣ Retry Success Rate – shows how many repeated payment attempts are successful. If the user tried again and the payment went through, it's fine. But if they tried 3-4 times and still failed to pay, it means that the problem is deeper.

• Conversion is a consequence, not a cause.

To increase it, you need to dig deeper and work with the whole context: how banks work, what payment methods the audience uses, and what UX looks like on the client's side. That is why we do not just ‘look at the numbers’ but build an analytical ecosystem that provides a complete understanding of the situation. And this is what really makes a difference for business.

How do you set tasks for the development team so that they help to improve conversion and not just ‘fix bugs’?

Tetiana: If developers don't understand why they are doing a particular task, they will just ‘code’ - and it's not a fact that it will benefit the product.

That's why the main rule for me is to set tasks not in the format of ‘Make it work’, but in the format of ‘What business effect do we want to get’. 

For example, not just: ‘Optimise API timings’, but ‘Reduce server response time from 800ms to 500ms, which will potentially increase conversion by 2-3%’.

Here are some approaches that help make tasks more understandable and effective:

1️⃣ Problem-Solution-Impact

• The problem: Users often abandon payment at the 3DS stage.
• Solution: Add the ability to save the card and use frictionless flow.
• Expected effect: Increase in conversion by 5-7% by reducing the number of abandonments.

When the development team sees the final effect, they start offering cool solutions themselves.

2️⃣ Focus on quick feedback

The sooner developers see that a change has a real impact on conversions, the more they will get involved in the process. For example, we often give the team access to analytics so that they can see the impact of their changes in real-time.

3️⃣ Collaboration, not just pushing

Developers are not a service department. They are partners in product development. We constantly involve them in discussions, and share case studies, and information about why this particular fix or new feature is important to users.

They can notice technical nuances that product managers don't, and their ideas can significantly improve the solution. But if the team feels like they're just ‘doers,’ this won't happen.

Therefore, the main rule by which I do my job is not just to give tasks, but to explain the value. Then development starts working not on ‘feature implementation’ but on a real business result. And this is the key to a strong team and an effective product.

Was there a time when a conversion decision did not go according to plan? What conclusions did you draw from it?

Tetiana: Yes, there was a case when we implemented a feature that was supposed to significantly increase conversion. And it really worked – the indicators increased, but it turned out that it was not for all clients.

The main problem was that its integration required changes in the payment flow of customers. That is, businesses had to adapt their processes, which not all of them were ready to do. As a result, some customers were unable to use this opportunity without additional resources and time for refinement.

The main conclusion is that even the most effective solutions in terms of analytics can have barriers to actual implementation. That is why we are now testing even more deeply not only the technical effectiveness of features but also their real-world applicability for customers. At the development stage, we always assess how easily and quickly customers can adapt a new feature without any extra effort.

Our focus is not only on performance growth but also on customer comfort in using the solutions.

What changes in the product have given the biggest increase in conversion over the past year?

Tetiana: One of the key updates that gave the biggest increase in conversion was

• Optimization and refinement of the cascading service.

This allowed us to redirect payments between providers even more efficiently in case of failure, reducing the number of failed transactions. As a result, our customers received a more stable payment process, and we saw a significant increase in conversion rates.

• Improved Smart Routing

We've improved our payment routing algorithms to more accurately determine the best path for each transaction. This means that the system automatically selects the best provider based on the region, card type, payment history, etc. As a result, more payments go through on the first try, and businesses experience more stable performance.

Overall, these changes have given our customers not just better conversion rates, but also a more predictable and controlled payment process. And we continue to move in this direction so that every business can get the most out of their transactions.