Instantly turn ecommerce declines into approvals

Ze'ev Shoval missed an important Uber ride when his card was declined, an unlikely event considering his excellent credit rating and account in good standing. Instead of shrugging it off, he partnered with Elio Vitucci, a former colleague, to investigate the problem. After unearthing an array of payment processing inefficiencies, they established FlexCharge in 2021, an AI-driven platform designed to instantly review and recover failed ecommerce transactions at no risk to merchants and no cost to consumers.

FlexCharge co-founders Vitucci and Shoval, who serve as chief commercial officer and CEO, respectively, leveraged decades of experience in advanced credit score modeling at Experian and other global enterprises to create AcceptIQ. The flagship solution, they noted, can convert rejected sales to accepted transactions in real-time without alerting customers. Shoppers whose transactions are declined can click an okay button to checkout using credit; debit; buy now, pay later; or other payment methods—all supported by the platform, they added.

Pointing out that more than 50 percent of consumers abandon shopping carts due to declines, Shoval stated AcceptIQ can reduce churn by stepping in as Merchant of Record to purchase the invoice of a declined transaction, fund the merchant and enhance the customer experience.

"We're always there, in the background," he said. "Our job is to maximize revenue by rescuing declines and creating a zero-friction customer experience."

Increase retention, revenue

Philip McHugh, payments industry leader and former Paysafe CEO, joined FlexCharge as investor and executive director in 2022. Noting that Shoval and Vitucci are payments industry outsiders, he commended their fresh, pragmatic approach to solving declines.

"Elio and Ze'ev came into our industry asking simple questions and attacking problems in a unique way," he said. "This outside-in approach has been providential for us, our partners and our clients."

FlexCharge is committed to improving payments acceptance rates, but never at the cost of the customer and will continue to evolve its technology stack and solutions in response to everchanging compliance, privacy laws and regulatory environments worldwide, McHugh added.

Customer promise, stakeholder value

McHugh further noted that FlexCharge has stayed true to its founding principles and customer promise: "Customers get the product they want, using the payment method they choose, leveraging existing credit lines or limits, at no additional cost to them."

Additionally, FlexCharge platform and AcceptIQ are designed to benefit all stakeholders in the ecommerce value chain, which McHugh summarized as follows:

• Merchant value: Merchants can leverage advanced, real-time technologies to convert declines into approvals, helping to improve sales and customer lifetime value. FlexCharge assumes fraud and credit risk for all rescued transactions, which are displayed on its secure merchant portal.
• Customer value: Shoppers who would have otherwise been declined can click okay and check out with their preferred payment method without having to register for the service or share additional information.
• Partner value: FlexCharge partners, including merchant level salespeople, merchant acquirers, gateways and payment processors, benefit from the company's advanced, proven and highly scientific approach to ecommerce acceptance optimization.

Real-time ecommerce decisioning

"You'd be surprised how many sales are lost due to simple technicalities," McHugh said. "FlexCharge brings a wider set of information to help our partners and their merchants make effective real-time decisions across all error codes."

Vitucci agreed, stating the FlexCharge cloud native technology stack builds on market-leading data and credit models that drive sophisticated decisioning and instantly solve complex issues at a transaction's last mile. Given the complexity of processing rules, he added, there are billions of reasons why transactions may fail, and FlexCharge can help maximize outcomes across all payment types.

Pointing out that advanced, real-time credit decisioning has long been a hallmark of healthcare, insurance and other industries, McHugh said FlexCharge can help acquirers win back some of the $500 billion lost each year to declines.

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