Marketplaces and Platforms
Marketplaces and platforms enable commerce, by connecting remote buyers and sellers. By embedding payment acceptance in their solutions, they make it easy for businesses to accept payments from their customers, often across a wide range of payment methods. These capabilities can come in different flavors: end user visibility, digital wallet capabilities, additional payments adjacent features, and multiple settlement and disbursement options are variations to consider. The three major capabilities that these solutions have to solve for are:
1. Onboarding (which includes regulatory compliance considerations)
2. Payment Acceptance
3. Payouts to End Users
Platforms and marketplaces also have to manage multiple types of risk compared to a traditional merchant, which requires decisions about risk sharing, fraud vendors, operational structure (in-source vs outsource) and how a risk control strategy should be developed.
This enabler role offers opportunities and challenges. To perform it well, marketplaces and platforms often come to us with questions like:
How do we respond to upcoming or newly implemented regulatory changes?
What strategic payments plays are our competitors doing?
What role are we obligated to play in fraud and risk management? What role should we play?
What could we do to make payments a source of revenue?
Are we working with the right partners? Do we have the right contracts in place?
How we can help
Assessments
of current operations, of partner performance, of market opportunities, and of regulatory environments
Research
qualitative, quantitative, and mixed method research and analysis
Strategic advisory
Education
Marketplace & Platforms Case Studies
Resources
Articles
Glenbrook shares our perspectives on activities in the industry.
The Missing Context Layer in Agentic Commerce: Part 3
Glenbrook’s Drew Edmond explores the specific implications for the payments and agentic commerce industry: how discovery changes when agents mediate it, how payment selection shifts upstream, how merchants need to prepare differently across categories, and who ultimately controls the agent layer.
The Missing Context Layer in Agentic Commerce: Part 2
Glenbrook’s Drew Edmond examines why the agent’s role in agentic commerce varies significantly by purchase category, where the context layer is being built today, and how far along it actually is.
The Missing Context Layer in Agentic Commerce: Part 1
Glenbrook’s Drew Edmond discusses the critical role of a persistent, cross-application context layer, ideally provided at the operating system level, in enabling the envisioned future of agentic commerce where AI agents can proactively and intelligently assist consumers in transactions.
Podcasts
Glenbrook speaks with industry leaders to share a variety of perspectives on the latest payments trends and activities.
Episode 290 – The Evolution of VAMP and Card Network Fraud Monitoring, with Keith Briscoe, MRC, and Allan Shearer, J.P. Morgan
In this episode, Chris Uriarte welcomes Keith Briscoe, VP, Advocacy and Education at the Merchant Risk Council, and Allan Shearer, Executive Director, Head of TMT Relationship Management at J.P. Morgan, to focus on the evolution of card network fraud monitoring programs, and in particular, VAMP, Visa’s Acquirer Monitoring Program, which combines fraud and dispute metrics to better manage risk at both merchant and acquirer levels. Listen in as the group discusses industry reactions, data transparency and reporting challenges, and implications for enforcement of new thresholds.
Episode 289 – Stablecoin Infrastructure in Emerging Markets, with Chris Maurice, Yellow Card
In this episode, Chris Maurice, the CEO and co-founder of Yellow Card, joins Drew Edmond to explore how stablecoins are transforming global payments, especially in emerging markets, by addressing liquidity issues, reducing costs, improving compliance transparency, and enabling faster cross-border transactions. Listen in as they highlight the challenges of legacy infrastructure, regulatory evolution, interoperability, and the evolving role of banks and technology platforms in this ecosystem.
Episode 288 – The First 25 Years of Glenbrook – Fanning the Flames with our Founders
For Glenbrook’s 25th Anniversary, we speak with the three founding partners – Carol Coye Benson, Scott Loftesness, and Allen Weinberg – to celebrate the progress of the industry and the firm.
Listen in as they recall the early days of the firm, discuss how Glenbrook’s strategy work expanded to form our education and global practices, consider the evolution of the “payments professional”, and reflect on payments industry shifts over their years both in and out of Glenbrook.
News
Glenbrook objectively curates the news to keep you abreast of important daily headlines in payments.
Visa Launches Validator Node on Tempo Blockchain
"Visa announced it launched its validator node on the Tempo network, marking a milestone in Visa’s advancement of blockchain infrastructure leadership and shaping stablecoin payments. The launch underscores Visa’s commitment to running blockchain operations in-house....
Trust, Privacy Concerns Holding Back Consumers From AI Shopping Tool Adoption
"Consumer interest in artificial intelligence is strong, but trust still remains a barrier to full adoption. Only 39% of Americans trust AI agents to make everyday purchases on their behalf, and only 34% are comfortable with AI-driven purchasing for larger items,...
American Express Debuts Agentic Commerce Experiences (ACE)™ Developer Kit and Announces Industry-First Protection for Registered Agent Purchases
"American Express is building for the next era of commerce. As AI agents reshape how Card Members make everyday transactions, the company is bringing its longstanding tradition of trust, security, and service into AI-powered commerce. Today, American Express is...
Ready to see how Glenbrook can support your marketplaces and platform company to be as efficient and effective as possible?