Don’t Leave Your Payments Strategy in the Past
When setting up an online business, the key question “How will my customers pay” is sometimes left as an afterthought. Which is pretty frightening considering that businesses need payments to survive. When an eCommerce doesn’t pay proper attention to its payment solution, it will struggle to grow and thrive in a competitive market, no matter how exceptional the product is. As a payment management solution, we have solved some pretty shocking problems. In order to help others from repeating the payment mistakes of the past we have put together a list of the top three and how they can be avoided.
Not connecting with the right international and local payment methods
It may come as a surprise (but if you have an eShop or are working in payments it most definitely shouldn’t): not all countries use the same payment methods. In fact each country has its preferred local payment methods of choice. For example in the Netherlands iDeal is a trusted and well used payment service whereas in the UK Chaps or Bacs is the preferred domestic payment method. If your audience is not being presented with the payment method and the local currency that they know and trust, they will more often than not abandon their shopping cart. And again it is not just countries that are different but there is also a generational gap. If your demographic is of an older generation – think Boomers of Gen Xs – they would be more likely to pay by credit card, whereas the younger generation – Millennials and Gen Z – will be more likely to pay with an eWallet such as Apple pay or Google pay. You know who your audience is, you’ve created a whole shop or service with that thought in mind, so just make sure that you apply that logic to your payments too, you would be surprised at what a difference it makes!
Static payment options
There are many companies out there that provide what they call a “one-stop shop” but before you get sucked down that rabbit hole, remember that old saying about eggs and baskets; don’t risk everything on one option. If you use only one payment provider to process your payments, they will most likely tokenize your customers' payment data, as it is a great way to encourage customers to make additional purchases. However, if your relationship with your payment provider goes south (or north depending on what side of the equator you live) all of that valuable payment information becomes a child at the center of a very nasty custody battle. It is best to store any payment data in an independent 3rd party secure vault, so that if you do want to switch payment service provider you can do so easily without losing valuable customer data. It will also give you the flexibility to route your payments to the payment provider of your choice based on routing rules which increase the number of successful transactions.
In using one payment service provider, you are also putting your business at risk, as if your payments service provider goes down, you are suddenly unable to accept payments, which can damage your bottom line and your customer reputation. There is also the issue that some payment providers change the industries they work with and can shut down your MID without prior warning, as they are no longer prepared to take the risk. If 2020 has taught us many things, one of them being that it doesn’t matter how big you are you can fail. Having a payment back up is good practice and protects your business from issues outside of your control.
Am I being defrauded?
One of the main reasons a customer will not complete a checkout scenario is because they do not trust the payments page. What do we mean by this? It is simple, a client has spent time looking through your beautifully crafted eShop carefully choosing what products they would like to buy, but then when it comes to pay, they are sent off to a payment page in a new window, and a company they have never heard of (and sometimes in a different language) is asking them to insert their payment data. This instantly sets off alarm bells and a lot of consumers will not want to take the risk. By integrating your payment pages you are able to add your own branding and give your customers peace of mind when it comes to filling in their payment data.
All three problems are common and easily avoidable. By using a payment management system you are creating a flexible solution for your payments that will enable you to reach the customers you want to reach by offering them the payment methods they feel comfortable with. You are also protecting yourself from provider fallout and ensuring you have a back up plan so that you don't miss out on payments and keep customers satisfied. Your business will not be able to survive without a cash flow, so make sure you protect it by avoiding the above mistakes. For more information about IXOPAY and payment management please get in touch, and one of our sales team will be happy to give you a demo.
Take control of your payments with IXOPAY
ContactAbout IXOPAY
IXOPAY is a payments orchestration platform enabling independent, flexible and global payment processing. As a highly scalable and PCI-DSS certified “fintech enabler”, IXOPAY fulfills the needs of large merchants as well as those of “white label” clients: payment service providers (PSPs), acquirers and independent sales organizations (ISOs). The modern, easily extendable architecture offers smart transaction routing & cascading, state-of-the-art risk & fraud management, fully automated reconciliation and settlements processing, comprehensive reporting as well as plugin-based integration of acquirers, payment service providers and alternative payment methods (APMs).
IXOPAY is part of the IXOLIT Group, founded in Vienna, Austria in 2001. With local entities in Austria and the USA, IXOLIT supports national and international customers across various industry verticals. The owner-led and -financed company has grown from 2 to more than 65 employees and is focused on building innovative solutions for eCommerce.
Please find more information about IXOPAY here: https://www.ixopay.com