R2M2 Solutions came online in 2015 with the goal to combine point of sale, marketing and management, online reservations, in-house reservations, and retail sales all into one application. This, of course, didn’t happen overnight.
The team of three co-founders has embraced a slow-to-market strategy utilizing omnichannel payments in their application, a solution that was built in collaboration with NAB sales engineers and integration specialists.
Starting out with chip-and-pin hardware, the team knew that it had to evolve quickly to keep up with payments technology and industry trends.
The Lay of the Land
R2M2 had already differentiated itself by combining reservations and retail sales in one platform. However, in the campground and resort property management space, transactions are still often split, with 20-30% of their revenue coming from retail sales, according to Brewer.
A booking might occur online with a deposit, for example.
This online booking might be followed up with the rest of the payment made in person at the brick-and-mortar location, which could also include a retail sale on top of that. The merchant’s back office management system needed to be able to handle all of that, plus refunds.
An Integration with Payments Hub Answered the Call
R2M2 was operating from a WordPress site and needed to add ecommerce payments. NAB provided a WooCommerce plugin for WordPress sites to allow the processing of e-commerce transactions and refunds. This was then paired with a retail integration powered by Ingenico POS terminals.
This allowed R2M2’s platform to really be a one-stop shop: e-commerce and in-person transactions, combined with a POS application that offers barcode scanning and inventory control. Merchants never leave the app that R2M2 built. In addition to that achievement, the integration set the company up for its next adventure: payment profiles.
Uncharted Territory
The advanced integration directly into EPX — NAB’s in-house processor — via the Payments Hub Developer Portal means that R2M2 can implement payment profiles so that merchants are able to store cards securely, process balances due, and make refunds.
The introduction of payment profiles will help lead the way into new market ventures for R2M2, namely the spa and hot spring sector, in which people aren’t just making lodging reservations and purchasing retail items, but are also reserving time slots, buying tickets, and booking services.
Because of this, the company is looking toward RFID/NFC integrations for wristbands and keycards — both literally and figuratively opening up new doors for what’s to come.
“Now we’re in a stable environment where the sky’s the limit,” Brewer said. “A safe zone. We have a place where we know we can assess transaction fees, we can give one portal to our merchants for managing back office transactions, and institute payment profiles so that they can collect payments from their customers on the fly when they need to. Both sides win.”
“The people at NAB are the differentiator. The ability to work directly with integration specialists set NAB apart and made our complex payments integration successful.”
