In the age of internet shopping, identity theft is the norm. Your potential customers encounter fresh stories of internet data breaches every other day. It’s no wonder they’re nervous when you ask for their credit card information. For many, it’s just not worth the risk.
That’s why ecommerce entrepreneurs need to help their customers feel safe during the payment process. Fortunately, there are three simple things you can do to ease the worried minds of your customers: 1) offer multiple alternative payment methods, i.e., credit card alternatives; 2) require a minimum amount of information during checkout; (3) make it easy for customers to correct errors.
Offer Multiple Alternative Payment Options
If your only way of accepting payment is a credit card, you’ve made a big mistake. You want to give your customers every means of paying possible. That way, a potential customer who visits your website with a “round-peg payment system” will not have to leave your site after finding a “square-hole billing technology.”
Imagine two customers want to spend $100 on your site. One has PayPal and the other has a credit card. If your website accepts PayPal and credit cards, you just doubled your sales.
One way of boosting your customer’s trust levels is to accept payments through a trusted payment gateway that already has name recognition. Here are some of the most popular payment gateway solutions:
- PayPal: PayPal has established itself as the global leader in alternative payment solutions that will inspire immediate trust from your customers. Ecommerce entrepreneurs can integrate a PayPal payments portal — and even use an integrated shopping cart feature — to begin accepting credit card payments in minutes. Also, PayPal’s Website Payments Pro feature ($30 per month) allows your customers to make purchases without being directed to PayPal, and PayPal itself becomes invisible.
- Due: Due is a low-cost payment gateway that lets your customers pay with domestic and international credit cards, e-cash and e-check, while including digital wallet functionality. It also includes a wide range of business management solutions to help with organizing and submitting your invoices.
- Flint: For digital entrepreneurs who take credit card payments in person, Flint offers a secure, encrypted on-the-go solution. No dongle or credit card reader is required. With Flint, you simply scan your client’s credit card with the camera on your phone or tablet, your customer signs the receipt with a finger and Flint emails the receipt to the customer.
- Authorize.Net: The one trusted payment portal to rule them all. Through Authorize.Net, your clients receive so many payment options that they’re bound to find one that suits their needs. This payment gateway accepts payments through Visa, MasterCard, Discover, American Express, JCB, PayPal, Visa Checkout, Apple Pay, Google Pay and e-check.
Do a study on your customers to determine which of the above payment options they use. Also determine if they like to use direct bank transfers or pay with cryptocurrency. Don’t make the number of payment methods overwhelming but do include at least three popular options. With any luck, at least one of your payment methods will inspire a sense of trust in your customers.
Ask for a Minimum of Information
Common sense dictates that if someone wants to give you their money, you should make it as easy as possible for them to do that. Therefore, your payment process should require as little information as possible. If you can accept credit card payments without requiring the full address, phone number, mother’s maiden name, etc., then don’t require your customers to enter these details.
Alternative payment options like instant point-of-sale financing solutions offer another strategy to reduce the application burden for customers who only require a small amount of credit to buy your product. Cryptocurrency payment systems and the alternative payment options mentioned in Section 1 (above) will also help eradicate the amount of information your customers need to provide.
Make Error Correction Easy
Have you ever tried to order something online with a credit card and received a rejection because you made a mistake while filling out the form? If the error correction messages aren’t easy enough, your customers could run into problems. Here are a few tips to simplify this process:
- Make error correction simple: It should be easy for buyers to correct the errors they will invariably make when entering in their credit card information, phone numbers, security codes, addresses, email addresses and ZIP codes during a purchase. Your error messages should appear in red, immediately next to the error on the payment form. Correction instructions should be simple, clear and to the point.
- Don’t erase the field when asking for corrections: Allow the original information to remain in the field but indicate to your customer what’s wrong so they don’t have to retype. The frustration of needing to refill all the forms could be enough to drive your customers away.
Providing a stellar product is your first responsibility as an ecommerce entrepreneur. But making the purchase process safe and easy is equally important. By providing a variety of payment methods through a trusted payment gateway, and by simplifying all aspects of the payment process, you could experience a dramatic increase in your ability to capture sales and increase business profits.
References:
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/234131
https://www.americanbanker.com/news/why-point-of-sale-lending-is-hot-right-now
