According to research, 68% of UK consumers have abandoned an online retail site because of the payment process. This could be because the process seemed long, complicated or insecure, or simply because the customer didn’t have the required payment method to hand when it was time to pay.
Streamlining your payment process will help to ensure that customers go the distance and complete their purchase. Keep reading to find out more.
1. Boost security.
Security is one of the most important elements of the payment process. A huge 89% of Brits are worried about online security. By visibly boosting the security of your site, you can help put your customers’ minds at ease and take the stress out of shopping online.
There are a number of different ways that you can make your site more secure. One of the best things you can do is invest in an SSL certificate. This will encrypt the data that’s sent between your website and your customers’ computers, helping to keep sensitive information out of the hands of hackers.
It’s also a good idea to use a payment processor with a high level of built-in security. Select a processor that allows you to use CVV2 verification for credit and debit card payments and ensure your chosen processor is PCI compliant.
Place as many official logos on your payment page as you can. These could include Paypal, credit card and antivirus logos, as well as logos that show your business is recognised or accredited by an industry body. These official symbols can go a long way when it comes to reassuring customers that your site is legitimate and that their payment details are secure.
2. Give your customers choice.
The last thing you want is for a customer with hundreds of pounds worth of products in their shopping cart to abandon the process because they don’t have their credit card handy. So the more choice you can give your customers when it comes to payment, the better.
Instead of only taking payment via debit and credit cards, try to include a few other options like Paypal in your checkout process. As well as helping to encourage customers to take that final step and complete their purchase, it also makes your ecommerce site more accessible to customers from other countries.
3. Keep it simple.
57% of the people who abandon an online purchase at the checkout phase do so because they find the process too complicated. Try to keep your payment process as simple as possible by getting rid of unnecessary forms, and try to avoid asking your customers to click through multiple pages to complete the action. The quicker the process is, the more likely customers will be to make it to the end, so make sure you remove any steps that aren’t absolutely necessary.
4. Tokenization.
A great way to make your payment process more secure and boost customer confidence is to use tokenization. A service like the Oracle payment processing system uses tokenization to help protect customer information. This can dramatically improve the security of your site and help to make the payment process even smoother.
5. Go omnichannel.
Just 15 years ago, customers used an average of two touch points when buying an item. These days, shoppers use around six touch points before making a buying decision. Ensuring your online shop has extensive reach across multiple channels is therefore very important if you’re going to give your customers what they want.
Work to integrate your online and offline payment processes. You could do this by asking customers to create accounts so their shopping baskets are accessible from all of their internet-enabled devices. You could also allow customers to reserve products online and pay for them in store. Giving your customers an integrated online and offline shopping experience, and making it easy for them to browse your products from multiple devices, should help to make the payment process easy for everyone.
6. Check for glitches.
Glitches and errors on your website, especially in the final phases of the payment process, can easily put customers off. Make sure you go through each page of your site on a regular basis to ensure there aren’t any major faults with the payment process. If you come across any errors or glitches, make sure they’re fixed as quickly as possible.
Streamlining the payment process is incredibly important if you want to get more from your ecommerce site. Take a look at your online shop today to see if you can improve then customer experience and boost profits in the process.
