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posted in Give your customers a choice of how to pay
The most likely place for a visitor to abandon their purchase on an e-commerce website is right at the point of payment. This is often attributed to an attack of conscience - the need to save money being greater than the desire to spend it. There's no doubt we all go through a dilemma of sorts before buying (or deciding not to buy) a non-essential item - the internal war is waged quietly in our heads and payment is either made, deferred until later, or abandoned altogether.But there's another reason why would-be customers decide not to purchase right at the moment of payment: the website payment options put them off. By 'options' this might mean only ONE way to pay. What if you don't want to use a credit card? Can I pay by cheque? Do I *have* to pay by PayPal? Other customers may never have heard of the payment provider you use, and want to choose a familiar one.
Give your customers various methods of paying for their items, and tell them clearly the what those methods are before they have to enter any of their personal details.
Things to bear in mind:-
- Some people will NOT pay by credit card on the internet, no matter what. They may want to buy your items, but not by credit card - it's good to offer an option to pay by cheque and/or BACS (bank to bank payment which is becoming more popular thanks to online banking)
- Some people refuse to use Nochex because they don't offer refunds if items aren't delivered - nor do they allow users from many countries to even use their payment system
- Some people refuse to use PayPal because they have heard bad things about their terms of service
- Some people refuse to use any of the free payment providers like PayPal or Nochex because they believe they have to be a member to pay
- Online shoppers are getting more savvy and recognise when a vendor has a merchant account - a reassuring sign
- A phone number clearly displayed in the shopping basket page will help reassure shoppers you are real and they can directly contact you
- MOST people will only use a payment provider they've heard of
- Customers want to know the methods of payment BEFORE they put in their details!
The above examples aren't meant to pick on any provider in particular - all payment providers have their strengths and weaknesses. You can see from the above list that just providing one system isn't adequate to reassure all of your visitors - but providing a good choice of how to pay, you should cater to the vast majority of people.
We recommend to online traders the following:-
- Get a merchant account, if you're really serious about making sales. Be bothered, and invest some monthly spend into this - Protx offer an excellent service for merchant account holders - just £20 a month with no hidden costs. We're not affiliates of Protx, we just like their service and have never had any issues with them in over 4 years - they are reliable and worth the cost.
- Take cheques / accept payments by BACS for those who refuse to use credit cards.
- Leave a phone number explicitly on the checkout page, reassuring customers they can call you to discuss the order if they want to.
- Offer a way to pay through PayPal (free to set-up) - not because it's the best, but only because it's so familiar to many shoppers who use this payment provider often - and it may be the only familiar choice you have on offer. If Google Checkout takes off and becomes the most popular free payment provider, we would recommend Google Checkout - we're not just trying to promote PayPal!
- Let customers know the types of payment methods you accept BEFORE you ask them to enter their personal details! A typical scenario when attempting to buy online: you add items to a shopping basket, you click a button to checkout the items - you're then taken to a screen telling you to enter your personal details like your phone number, your e-mail address, your delivery address. Hang on.....you still don't know the methods of payment available! This is where a lot of people give up the purchase.
We realise our recommenations will add up to at least 3 payment methods to the user - this is good! At least one of these options should be a comfortable choice for the shopper.
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