How to Overcome Two of the Most Common Online Payment Issues

— August 7, 2019

How to Overcome Two of the Most Common Online Payment Issues

mohamed_hassan / Pixabay

At the end of 2018, ecommerce sales accounted for more than 14% of all retail sales across the globe. That number is slated to grow even more this year.

There’s a wealth of opportunity to tap into this growing trend. But as an ecommerce merchant, there is a lot of nuance to running a successful online store that brings in revenue. The most important thing? Make it easy for your customers to make a purchase.

Here are two of the most common online payment challenges and how you can overcome them.

Creating a Seamless User Experience at Checkout

If you built a beautiful website, optimized it for search engines, and incorporate marketing tools to increase conversions, but your customers don’t think it’s intuitive… they’ll leave.

According to the Nielsen Norman Group, “Today’s online customers have a desire for instant gratification and immediacy when it comes to interacting with ecommerce retailers.”

And when almost 7 in 10 customers are abandoning their carts, that means poor usability can either make or break your sales potential.

If you dig into your metrics and find your conversion rate is low, it could be a sign that your checkout process needs to be optimized. A confusing path to purchase, slow transaction processing, or even unavailable preferred payment options will drive customers away faster than they flock to you.

Battery Pete

That was the case for Battery Pete, a US-wide battery retailer based in Florida.

After working with Silicon Dales to improve their website’s SEO, they noticed increased traffic but continued to see low conversion for some products, like key fob batteries.

Drilling into the analytics, they discovered that a lot of visitors were on mobile. This makes sense – if you’re sitting in your vehicle and a warning comes up saying, “Key fob battery low!” you’ll likely search on your phone for what type of battery you’ll need.

How to Overcome Two of the Most Common Online Payment Issues

Source: Battery Pete

The challenge was converting these mobile browsers into buyers right as they needed the product – and before they visited the drug store.

Improving the overall mobile experience of the site required more long-term planning. But in the short term, they added one-click payment options through Apply Pay and Chrome Pay to account for both Apple and Android devices.

The result? This seemingly small change to Battery Pete’s mobile checkout process had a sizable impact. Conversions from mobile visitors more than quadrupled across the site as a whole.

Key Takeaway: Find out what devices and browsers your visitors are coming from. Make sure that there are enough convenient options for them to make a purchase fast. As Battery Pete did, adding one-click checkout options for mobile visitors is a simple way to increase conversions, even on a site where no other changes have been made.

Protecting Security and Consumer Data

Ecommerce fraud increased 30% in 2017, and hackers are continuously developing strategies to break down security measures without being detected.

Online retailers need to keep security top-of-mind to protect their store’s reputation and financial stability. According to the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, almost half of small businesses become fraud victims at some point.

So to help businesses safeguard themselves and their customers, the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council (PCI SSC) — which includes Visa, MasterCard, and American Express — has developed a set of standards online retailers must comply with to protect consumer data. To ensure you’re in compliance, you can conduct an audit of your payment transactions on a regular basis, as well as select a payment processor that has PCI compliance built into their solution.

While all this work happens behind the scenes, your customers should also know what measures you’re taking to protect their data.

This is especially relevant since Baymard found that almost 20% of consumers say they abandoned their carts because they didn’t trust a site with their payment information.

How to Overcome Two of the Most Common Online Payment Issues

Source: Baymard checkout usability

How do you show them they can feel safe giving you their information? Display trust symbols on your site to reassure them, no matter where they are in the customer lifecycle.

Blue Fountain Media

This digital marketing agency wanted to boost the number of leads they were collecting from their Request a Quote page. The following is the original design, which included written language about safeguarding user information.

How to Overcome Two of the Most Common Online Payment Issues

Source: Blue Fountain Media

They decided to test replacing that content with a VeriSign symbol with the intent of increasing the number of leads who felt more confident in providing their personal information.

How to Overcome Two of the Most Common Online Payment Issues

Source: Blue Fountain Media

The result? Blue Fountain Media increased their conversions by more than 40%.

Key Takeaway: Displaying seals and trust symbols are a no-brainer to reduce the perceived risk shoppers face when they visit your website. You know the steps you’re taking to ensure PCI compliance and protect against online fraud – so your customers should too. In fact, more than 70% of them find it important for you to display those trust symbols.

As an online merchant in a sea of competitors from around the globe, your value proposition is worth nothing if visitors aren’t able to trust you or pay you easily. As more sales take place online, use the data you’re already collecting to cater your site to suit your customers’ payment preferences. Communicate the work you’re doing to protect their data.

These seemingly small tweaks can help you increase your conversions and, as these case studies showed, may have a larger effect on your bottom line than you realize.

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