How to Make Payments Convenient for the Customer and the Seller

More payment options, simpler ordering and more transparent terms — more satisfied customers and higher profits.

To make payments convenient for customers, you need to analyse your target audience and your competitors. This will help you understand what your customers are used to and look for solutions that improve the user experience.

As a merchant, you need to compare internet acquiring services, payment gateways and other payment acceptance methods to avoid going broke on commissions and connection costs.

We wrote more about how to choose a payment system, what they are in general, and what is the difference between the most popular UK services here. But let's once again quickly list the ways in which online shops can accept payment.

Bank Card

Simple, secure and easy to understand. It's also fast — you as a seller will receive your money within 24 hours. Payment by card is a classic solution for an online shop.

After the customer clicks on the "Pay" button, he will be redirected to a secure page where he will need to enter the details — card number, expiry date and CVV-code. If your customers have the bank's app, they won't even need to remember these numbers. For example, they can copy the number and expiry date, and receive the security code in SMS (which should be deleted immediately). In the same application you can also confirm the payment by going to it with pin code or face/touch ID, or you can do it by entering the code that will come in SMS.

The average commission of acquiring services is 2.5% of each transaction. Liqpay, Fondy, WayForPay and almost all others will charge you the same amount.

Apple Pay and Google Pay

The easiest way to pay for iOS and Android smartphone owners. The very same "1-click" payment. No need to fill out or confirm anything, but full 3D-secure protection.

After clicking on the "Pay with Apple/Google" button, your customers only need to press the smartphone button (the same one they press when they pay with their phone at a regular supermarket checkout), Face/Touch ID authorization and that's it. Payment takes 5 seconds. This is not the most obligatory payment option for an online shop, but for taxi, catering and any other kind of app — a must-have.

Cash

Some of your customers, especially those who are older, don't trust cards. Others are not ready to pay before they see the product, especially if it is something expensive or something that may not fit.

In order not to lose such customers, it is absolutely necessary to add the possibility to pay for the goods in cash, for example, to the courier or by details in the bank cash desk and payment terminals. By the way, the transfer to the current account will cost you cheaper.

Cash on delivery — payment to a courier company for delivery and return shipment of money. For example, your buyer will need to pay 2% of the amount. But he will be able to check the purchase before paying for it. Give him this opportunity, especially since there are no additional costs for you.

Electronic Wallets

Pay from WebMoney, PayPal, GlobalMoney wallet is as convenient as from a bank card. All you need from the user is to enter his login and password on the page of the payment system.

If you work only in the UK, it is unlikely that many of your clients will choose this method, but for international companies it may be more favourable. Connect wallets only if you are sure that your customers use them. Prepare yourself that the process of signing a cooperation agreement, setting up and connecting will take more time than in the case of bank cards. As well as withdrawal of money — e-wallets prefer to transfer everything you have earned "in bulk", at the end of an agreed term or when a certain amount is reached. Although, it is always possible to agree on personalized terms for large turnovers.

Instalments

Payment in instalments is a very convenient service for almost any business. Banks are directly interested in the fact that you offer their customers their financial product, so problems with the connection and operation of services are not expected. Especially if it is payment by instalments, where all the functionality for the user is embedded in the branded application. By adding these services, you will not lose anything, but you can significantly increase sales.

Payment Links and Chatbots

One of the newest and coolest technologies making life much easier for sellers and buyers in social networks.

What does a purchase on Instagram or Facebook usually look like? Here is the card number of our manager, in the best case the company's current account — send money here, and we will send you what you ordered. Or not.

Who is comfortable with this? Nobody. The user will think three times whether you can be trusted and, if you do not sell something unique — will go to look for the same product in a regular online shop. You as a seller will endlessly check the screens of customers with data in online banking, wasting time on the real ones and missing potential customers.

Payment links, which offers, for example, payment gateway Fondy, is the solution to this problem. All you need to do is to create a payment link for each product in your personal cabinet of the payment service provider. Then you can embed it in Instagram and Facebook posts, forward it in messenger chats, send it via email and SMS.

When the client clicks on it, he will be taken to the usual secure payment page, where he will have to enter the card details or click on the "pay with Apple/Google Pay" button. Everything is fast and transparent, and most importantly, safe for both the client, who is now protected under all the clauses of the Law on Consumer Rights, and the seller.

By the way, in addition to links, you can generate QR codes and insert both into chatbots to maximize sales automation.

Subscription Payments

If you sell not goods and one-time services, but provide a service on an ongoing basis, you definitely need this financial tool. News media, education centres, streaming services, online games and apps for literally any purpose sell their services with monthly payments. And that's not even counting the more familiar mobile operators and internet providers. Fortunately, almost all Internet acquiring services provide periodic debiting of the linked card.

The client only needs to register once, and the subscription will be automatically renewed, for example, on the 25th of each month. The main thing is to make sure that you will remind users about the debit and make a convenient subscription cancellation page. Otherwise, you will not only have to deal with subscribers' demands to return the money, but also face a serious risk of getting banned from payment systems and app shops if there are a lot of such requests.

What is convenient for business is what is profitable and stable. This means that you need the most popular and reliable payment system among those used by your target audience. To find out which one, you need to do a little market research.

In addition, each Internet acquirer, payment gateway and aggregator has its own tariffs for all services offered and terms of co-operation. Some conclude contracts only with legal entities, others send money to your account not immediately, but at the end of the agreed period, others take not only a percentage of the transaction, but also a payment for subscription, and so on. This should also be taken into account at the analytics stage.

It is more profitable and convenient to start co-operation with one Internet acquiring service. They offer not a ready-made set of payment tools, almost for all occasions, but also ready-made plug-ins for integration with sites and applications on different platforms. Plus, if they do not come and set up everything themselves, they will at least provide instructions and a consultant.

The customer is comfortable with what he understands. This is especially true for payments, where you need to prove that you can be trusted. How convenient the payment system on the website is for the client depends on 3 factors:

Time

The faster you can place an order and the fewer clicks you have to make, the better. It is considered that if it takes more than 3 minutes to complete all actions, from the moment you click on the "Checkout" button to receiving confirmation of payment — it's bad.

If your customer frequently places online orders from a smartphone or Google account, let your fields pull up stored information — name, phone number, email, and so on.

Regardless, it's a good tone to add autocomplete, such as city by first letters or post office by number/address. Of course, you should keep the data of authorized users, so that when purchasing again, it will be enough for him to confirm the previously entered information.

Informativeness

The whole site in general and the checkout pages in particular should answer any questions a buyer may have. This applies not only to questions about security (secure connection, payment system logos, PCI DSS certificates), but also to the "Delivery and payment" sections. It is very important to describe not only the rates and terms, but also the refund process, which will be appreciated not only by the buyer, but also by the search engine.

It is equally important to add hints in all the bottlenecks. To find them, you need to conduct analyses and ask users questions. Among the common ones are payment terms, for example, from what amount delivery with a courier will be free and how much it will cost depending on the carrier, as well as the percentage of cash on delivery. In case the payment fails, add notifications about the reasons — exceeding the internet limit, lack of funds, etc.

Support

If something can go wrong, it's bound to happen. Add everything you can about payment to the FAQ section, give the opportunity to ask a question in a special form, or better in a chatbot and, of course, on the phone. Another very good tone is to give the customer the opportunity to choose a channel for communication, in particular, Viber or Telegram. This way you will first take care of people with disabilities, and secondly, you can make the buying process more convenient for everyone else. In addition, those who prefer to communicate in messengers are much more willing to leave feedback.

What else? Lots of things! For example, check if the payment page is adaptive for mobile devices with different diagonals. Also, don't force customers to register if they don't have time for it, but also don't forget to remind an authorized customer about an abandoned cart. And these are all just basic things to consider. Do A/B testing, ask for customer feedback, analyse what else you can change and do it, because your profit depends on customer trust.

A good user experience is the reason why people will come back to you. Convenient payments are one of the most important parts of that experience. Connect the maximum of the online payment services your target audience uses and give them the option to pay with cash.

Once you've selected the most financially favourable payment system, look at the payment process through your customer's eyes. If your customer can make a purchase in less than 3 minutes, and they have no questions (and if they do, they can solve them quickly and conveniently), then you're doing well.