E-commerce is already an important aspect of your business, and you know it’s only going to continue growing. As more and more consumers turn to online shopping, it’s important for businesses to not only provide an e-commerce option but to provide a number of payment solutions for their clientele.
Why Are Options So Important?
Today’s customers turn to online shopping for the sheer ease of making a purchase. When your business provides only one or two options for payment, customers may decide not to purchase from you—especially if they cannot use their preferred methods of payment or if they cannot pay in their own currencies. That can translate into lost sales.
Customers may similarly decide not to follow through on a purchase if the payment process is long or complicated. Online shoppers are more likely to abandon their carts. Drop-off rates for mobile users are estimated at 60 to 80 percent. Most of these lost sales can be pinned directly on a complicated checkout process.
Clearly, offering a simple checkout process and more options will lower the rate at which shoppers abandon their shopping carts. Here’s what your business can do to ensure better sales conversion in your online shop.
Accept Multiple Currencies
The online-shopper base is truly global, so one thing you can do to make transactions simpler for customers is accept multiple currencies. This can save them the frustration of being billed high conversion fees for purchases—something that may discourage them from following through with their purchases when they realize you only accept US or CDN dollars. You do not need to accept every currency, but a few more options could mean more customers worldwide decide to make their purchases with your business.
Multiple Payment Methods
Along with offering the option of different currencies, you should also offer your customers different methods of payment. Credit cards are the most popular way to pay online, yet many small businesses offer only one option, such as Paypal or a similar money-transfer service. Even those that offer credit card payments may only accept payments for one or two card types. The more easily customers can pay using their preferred methods, the more likely they are to purchase from you.
Alternative Payment Solutions
Another important consideration is the way you collect payment. Most online stores ask the customer to pay up-front and immediately. This actually contributes to the high drop-off rates, particularly among mobile customers who are browsing and shopping while they are on the go.
Maybe they do not have their credit card handy. They might be discouraged or distracted if the checkout process is complicated—leading them to say, “I’ll just do it later.” They then abandon their carts—and never come back to finish the purchase.
Alternative payment solutions can help you combat this problem. Most alternative payment solutions offer simple, streamlined checkout processes that allow even the busiest and most distracted of shoppers to complete their transactions quickly and easily. That, in turn, translates to higher sales conversion rates.
The Pay-Later Option
Alternative payment solutions can also enable a pay-later option, which makes online shopping with your business even faster and easier for customers. With these solutions, customers have the option of paying up front or after delivery—the pay-later option. Deferring payment can make transactions that much easier to complete and more enticing for customers.
Noticeable Improvement
With alternative payment solutions, you get a simple process that incorporates plenty of options to make your customer shopping experience as great as possible—not a long, drawn-out affair.
Businesses that adopt an alternative payment solution usually see their sales increase 30 to 40 percent, with both the number of transactions and the average value of those transactions increasing. Making the simple decision to use alternative payment solutions pays!
