Majid Al Futtaim bags a 3% boost in acceptance rates with unified payments

For nearly three decades, Majid Al Futtaim has shaped how people across the Middle East, Africa, and Asia shop, eat, rest, and play. From its world-class shopping malls and entertainment destinations to holding exclusive regional franchises for more than 90 global brands, it has become synonymous with innovation and experience.

Today, that same spirit of transformation extends to how it handles payments. By partnering with Checkout.com to unify its payment ecosystem, the group has boosted acceptance rates by 3% across all brands and markets, improving performance and creating a more consistent experience for millions of customers.

“At Majid Al Futtaim, customer experience sits at the heart of everything we do. This partnership is a clear reflection of our commitment to delivering fast, reliable, and rewarding journeys for our customers. By creating a payment experience that is easy and consistent, we ensure people spend a lot less time worrying about the client transactions or hidden fees, and more time enjoying the moments that really matter to them.” – Darren Taylor, SVP, Customer Solutions at Majid Al Futtaim

Challenge: Complexity to match the scale

Operating across an extensive network of brands, markets, and channels, Majid Al Futtaim faced the challenges that come with scale. A fractured payment setup was holding back efficiency, visibility, and performance across the group. 

Multiple integrations created technical overhead and slowed down developers and technical teams. With each market working in isolation, fraud management and reporting lacked central visibility, making it difficult to spot coordinated threats or performance trends.

Acceptance rates fluctuated from one region to another, with limited tools to measure or compare results. Misrouted cross-border transactions led to wasted processing costs and missed opportunities to improve performance.

Adding to the complexity, integrating local payment methods across countries required separate connections and providers, creating data silos that obscured intelligence and masked opportunities at the group level.

To cut costs, reduce complexity, and improve performance across its portfolio, the group set out to bring every payment flow under one global partner. The group needed a provider with the technical depth to simplify integration, the local expertise to manage regional differences, and the unified infrastructure to power its next phase of growth.

‍Solution: Lower costs, more control

Working with Checkout.com, the Majid Al Futtaim payments team designed a unified framework that brings every brand, market, and channel under one umbrella. The new setup simplifies and strengthens the group’s entire payments ecosystem, driving consistency, visibility, and control. 

Through close collaboration, the partnership delivered a comprehensive solution addressing every key payment challenge across the business: 

Centralized management 

The group now manages all payments through a single, unified platform. This “one integration” approach reduces technical complexity, simplifies operations, and enables faster adoption of new payment methods across multiple brands.

Enhanced fraud visibility and protection
With Fraud Detection Pro and Network Tokens, Majid Al Futtaim gained group-wide visibility over fraud activity. Centralized monitoring and real-time detection now provide consistent safeguards and faster responses to coordinated threats, improving both security and customer trust.

Cost optimization through localization
By switching to local acquiring, Majid Al Futtaim eliminated unnecessary cross-border processing, cutting costs and increasing issuer trust. Payments are now faster and more cost-effective, improving performance across all markets.

Data transparency and insight
Consolidating providers and data sources with Checkout.com gives the group a unified view of its entire payments landscape. Teams can now track acceptance, analyze trends, and make informed decisions from consistent, real-time reporting.

‍“Ultimately, this drives greater efficiency, empowers our teams to make faster data-driven decisions, and supports long-term business growth across Majid Al Futtaim.” – Darren Taylor

Agile, scalable framework
Built for scale, Majid Al Futtaim’s unified infrastructure enables faster launches, localized innovation, and continuous optimization. Whether introducing new payment methods or expanding into new regions, the business can now adapt with speed and confidence.

“By moving to a unified payment strategy, we created a platform that drives measurable business impact from unlocking new revenue, improving acceptance rates, reducing fraud risk, and increasing operational efficiency.” – Raffy Karamanian, VP, Commercial Growth, Customer Solutions at Majid Al Futtaim

With every payment now running through a single framework, the group turns consistency into performance, and performance into growth. 

Results: One partner powering better performance

‍Through its partnership with Checkout.com, the group has strengthened its payments performance across its entire network of brands and markets.

• 3% uplift in acceptance rates across all brands and markets between August and March. 
• 6% increase in card acceptance for Carrefour, directly improving customer experience and conversion. 
• AED 4 million in operation savings across the grocery retail business through local acquiring and cost optimization. 
• Faster, more reliable transactions, as localized processing reduces declines and improves issuer trust.
• Centralized fraud visibility, enabling real-time detection and consistent protection across every market.

“Between August and March, we saw a 3% uplift in acceptance rates across the entire Majid Al Futtaim ecosystem, spanning all markets and entities. At the same time, operational and cross-border costs decreased, driving greater efficiency.” – Raffy Karamanian

Today, Majid Al Futtaim’s unified payment foundation, powered by its partnership with Checkout.com, continues to drive efficiency, trust, and growth across the group’s diverse portfolio.

Looking ahead: Strategic partnership for ongoing growth‍

Now operating on a unified payments foundation, built in partnership with Checkout.com, Majid Al Futtaim is poised for faster expansion and stronger performance across all markets – with richer insights and more connected customer experiences.

“With payments complexity behind us, we can now expand into new markets with greater speed, and confidence.” – Darren Taylor

As Majid Al Futtaim continues to scale across MENA and beyond, Checkout.com remains a strategic partner in this growth – providing the infrastructure, intelligence, and collaboration that empower the group to stay ahead of evolving market dynamics and customer expectations.