Why offer different payment methods?
If you own an online business, you must consider the distrust that buyers have when paying online. Giving money without seeing the recipient’s face or having the product or service at their fingertips leads to a logical fear of being scammed.
The majority of consumers own smartphones (91 percent), followed closely by laptops (83 percent). Right now, technology brings the highest volume of online transactions between businesses and consumers.
But the real currency of digital commerce is trust.
In addition to offering transactional security to protect customer data, a great way to build trust is to provide various payment methods.
That way, the buyer will be able to choose the one he trusts the most. If you don’t offer a secure payment method, that potential customer could go to a competitor with a single click.
There are many online payment methods, but the most popular methods you should consider accepting in your online business are Apple Pay, Google Pay, Paypal, and Amazon Payment.
While these most popular methods are suitable, many others use the same technology, so they are also worth investigating.
However, it’s essential to understand some terms first and how these payment methods are provided, processed, and accessed to make the right decision for your online business.
Is it worth the effort spent on adding new payment options?
A study by the Baymard Institute found that 19% of shoppers abandon the purchase because of trust issues with the website regarding giving out their card information. And another 8% directly stated that there were not enough payment options.
19% of shoppers abandon the purchase due to trust issues
Doing a quick calculation, for a typical eCommerce store, 70 out of every 100 shoppers who add an item to their cart abandon it. And 8-19% will leave because they are not satisfied with your offer’s online payment methods.
By offering more online payment options, you could reduce up to 13% (that’s 19%) of those 70 distrustful shoppers. And if you add the payment methods, your target audience prefers, you could reduce the second type of cart abandonment (the 8% who want other payment options) to 5%.
Gaining up to 18 more conversions for every 100 potential buyers is worth it.
Here are the payment methods for your online store for you to evaluate and choose the ones you think are the most convenient.
1-Payment by credit card
This is the most common of all. Customers must enter their credit card details, something that can cause fear of fraud. It can be done through a bank payment gateway, through a private entity that is not a bank, or with your SSL.
Credit card payments
Suppose you want to offer this payment method in your eCommerce (MasterCard, Visa, American Express, Discover). In that case, you need to have an online merchant account, except for Paypal, which offers payment solutions that do not require a merchant account.
An online merchant account is a bank account for an online business. It allows merchants to deposit and refund payments online, who pay a processing fee for each transaction processed.
Generally, you can get an account for your eCommerce through your credit card bank. For processing major credit cards in your online business, you may need to obtain several versions with different banks, as many banks only deal with some of the credit cards involved.
You can also obtain an account for your online business through a merchant account provider, such as Merchant Accounts, Beanstream, Moneris, PSiGate.
2-Paying with PayPal
PayPal is considered one of the most secure payment providers for online purchases. Customers only need an email address and a password, which they choose when they register with PayPal. The good thing is that bank or credit card information is never accessible to the online store or platform. In case of fraud, you can wait up to 180 days for a dispute to be resolved, often ahead of or tail dispute.
From an eCommerce point of view, Paypal is a payment method that you must offer. The number of users is very high; customers already trust this provider, and most CRMs have long since integrated PayPal into their system. The downside of this payment system is that the commissions are pretty high.
⚡️Tip:
When choosing a service to process online payments, be sure to examine the transaction fees, as they vary from one payment provider to another.
3-Paying with Amazon Pay
Paypal may be very popular, but Amazon is arguably one of the most popular sites on the Internet and one that almost all of your customers already have accounts. Adding Amazon Pay to your online business can make it easier for Amazon customers to buy from your eCommerce without having to enter their payment details at your checkout.
You’ll lower the barriers to purchase for hundreds of millions of customers while offering a secure payment option. Amazon’s payment method works well on mobile devices, offering a seamless shopping experience where it matters most.
Setting up an Amazon checkout button on your website with their Express Integration option is a task that can take just a few minutes. Or you can also use their API, which takes a little longer, but allows you to customize the experience to better suit your website. As with PayPal, the cost to use Amazon Pay is 30 cents plus 2.9% for each purchase.
4-Payment with Google Pay
This is the payment system developed by Google. Its popularity is far from that expected by the Internet giant, although it is increasing. The great added value of this alternative is its ease of payment from the smartphone.
Industry giants such as Airbnb and StubHub have already added Google Pay to their payment processes. After integrating the new Google Pay API to their website, StubHub saw a 600% increase in unique users purchasing with Google Pay. Customers are slowly becoming familiar with this payment method.
Google Pay is straightforward to integrate into your eCommerce. Just access the API and add it to your website. After a few tests, you will be all set to start receiving payments.
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