69 Vital Things You Need to Know for a PERFECT Checkout System
The world today is fastly becoming more and more digitally intensive. If you have any kind of business, you are bound to promote it and sell your items online one way or another.
And for that, you need trusted and reliable payment methods. You want to make things easier for any customer to pay you and you want to have as many options for as many customers as you can.
In this article, we will learn about:
- NINE NON-NEGOTIABLE PAYMENT METHODS Your Business Must Have
- TEN REASONS Why Optimising Payment is Vital to eCommerce (Customer Service)
- TEN BAD PRACTICES That Negatively Affect eCommerce Payments – What You Should Avoid at All Costs
- TEN EXCELLENT PRACTICES for eCommerce Payments – TIPS for Excellent Checkouts
- TEN WAYS Conversion Rate Optimisation and Its Tools Help You Improve Your Checkout Results
- TEN BEST PAYMENT TOOLS for Your eCommerce Store
- TEN METRICS TO WATCH When Evaluating Your Payment System’s Effectiveness
Let’s get started!
Payment Methods in the eCommerce World
One of the most crucial parts of an eCommerce store is its checkout system and payment methods. The mode by which an e-store’s visitors and returning customers pay to confirm their transactions with an online store website, and how easy it is to do, can affect whether or not people will ultimately make a purchase or not.
It is pertinent that an e-store makes it easy for anyone to pay for products. The fewer steps it takes for people to get what they want, the more they will appreciate you and your store. Customers today want it to be quick, easy, and convenient.
Making the payment process easy means that you must have all the relevant digital payment methods available on your e-store and use the most simple and most secure online payment gateways or tools available. When you have a wide range of online payment methods that are safe and secure on your site, you can convert more and earn more.
Here Are NINE NON-NEGOTIABLE Payment Methods Your Business Must Have
PAYMENT METHOD NO.1: Credit Cards
Credit card is a payment card that is provided by a financial company, usually a bank. This method lets a cardholder borrow funds from the bank to pay for products and services.
Credit cards are a straightforward and secure way to make online payments because of their robust consumer protection provisions. This payment method is widely considered to be one of the most dependable ways to make transactions online.
With a credit card, consumers have few to no liabilities for fraudulent transactions.
PAYMENT METHOD NO.2: Debit Cards
This is a type of payment that deducts money directly from a customer’s savings and transfers the money to the receiving seller’s account. Debit cards are sometimes called bank cards or check/cheque cards. Online merchants widely accept this payment method.
The payment method offers many of the conveniences available to a credit card. In several instances, a debit card has the same user protections as a credit card.
PAYMENT METHOD NO.3: Third-Party Payment Services
A third-party payment service is an entity that helps consumers make or receive purchases online without needing to set up a bank account.
The following are the most widely used third-party payment services.
PAYMENT METHOD NO.4: PayPal
PayPal, an online payment processing company, is one of the best ways to send and receive money online. You can choose between PayPal–Personal or Business.
The rules and fees or PayPal differ based on currencies, cash amounts, and user account type.
If you are a customer, the tool typically doesn’t charge you for making purchases online or making in-store purchases. If you are a business and you receive any form of major payment, then you will have to pay transaction fees via auto deductions.
PAYMENT METHOD NO.5: Amazon Pay
Is an online payment processing service launched by Amazon in 2007 which was initially intended for the company’s Amazon.com consumer base.
Because many consumers in Europe and North America have Amazon accounts, the eCommerce company extended the payment capability of Amazon pay. You can pay on other certain e-stores and merchants using this service.
PAYMENT METHOD NO.6: Google Pay
Google Pay is the former Google Wallet, also known as G Pay. Google designed the payment service for mobile phones, tablets, and watches.
With the application, users can make in-app and tap-to-pay transactions with qualified e-stores and merchants.
PAYMENT METHOD NO.6: Apple Pay
This is a mobile payment system created by Apple that allows consumers to transact in person, apps, and e-stores, with their Apple devices. Users can use this payment system with aniPhone, Apple Watch, iPad, or Mac device.
PAYMENT METHOD NO.7: Bank Transfer
Just like the debit card method, a bank transfer is a method of transferring cash from one bank account to another, except without a physical card, which makes it faster and more secure.
This method is most common in the European Union and Asia-Pacific locations.
PAYMENT METHOD NO.8: Electronic Cheque
Electronic cheques are a method of payment that withdraws cash from a checking account, without the physical paper cheque and the inconvenience of having to mail or deposit it. They are referred to by some as ACH or eChecks.
All they require is the payer’s name, amount of the payment, and the routing and account number of an individual’s checking account. The information is used to authorise the transfer of funds from the consumer’s bank website to a store.
PAYMENT METHOD NO.9: Electronic Bill Payment
Electronic bill payment is one more method of directly transferring money from one bank account to another. This payment method is commonly used to settle transact credit card payments or other bills and is not regularly used to make transactions to merchants or eCommerce transactions.
If you are running an eCommerce store, you have to extend the number of payment methods available for your consumers to use, mostly if you are selling items that all kinds of people need. The more payment methods you have, the easier it will be for your customers, and the more you can convert them.
The point is to make it convenient and secure for people to transact with your e-store. It is just excellent customer service.
People should be able to trust that they can give you their sensitive information and payment details, or else they will not transact with you.
Here are TEN REASONS Why Optimising Payment is Vital to eCommerce.
REASON NO.1: Excellent checkout makes your e-store trustworthy.
If you use a trustworthy payment method, people will be more likely to buy in your e-store. The more streamlined and professional you make your checkout system, the more people will feel secure to give their card, bank, or e-wallet details.
Eliminate hidden fees, accept many kinds of payment methods, and streamline your checkout process.
REASON NO.2: It decreases cart abandonment.
If you make it complicated for your e-store site users to pay for products they have chosen, they will get annoyed and leave before checking out. If you make it difficult for people to use your e-store, they will bounce and go for an easier-to-use website from your competitor.
REASON NO.3: Good payment implementation improves your conversion rate.
When you make it easy for your eCommerce website’s users to pay, you can get more conversions. People want to get what they want fast and with the least resistance, so if you make it convenient for them, they will choose your store over others.
REASON NO.4: It decreases your bounce rate.
If you make it hard for people to complete transactions in your eCommerce e-store, people will leave your site in search for others. The higher your bounce rate, the more likely former users will give you a bad review.
REASON NO.5: An efficient checkout process makes for excellent customer service.
Customer service principles should be the foundation of your eCommerce business. You have to know who your users are and assist them in getting what they want by making their experience with you convenient and pleasurable.
One of the top non-negotiable areas that will determine ifyour guestsbuy from you or not is how easy or hard it is to complete a transaction with you.
REASON NO.6: It keeps your customers going back.
An excellent checkout system with reliable and diverse payment methods improves your customer retention rate or CRR. Selling to an international audience requires a diverse range of payment methods. The more options you provide the better the chances are that customers will come back, especially if their payment methods are accepted.
REASON NO.7: A better checkout process attracts more international customers.
Not all countries share the same widely-used payment methods. If you apply different checkout gateways in your store, you open yourself to cross-border transactions.
Not only does this mean that you have to offer more types of payment systems, including some niche ones at scale, but you should optimise your website content with the correct translations too.
If you are targeting a particular territory, you can focus on the payment methods that your audience prefers.
REASON NO.8: It helps you get good reviews.
If you have a complicated checkout system and disallow payment methods for some people, they can give you a bad review, telling how hard and frustrating it is to transact on your website.
Avoid this by making transactions easy and users and satisfied customers will not hesitate to testify about how convenient it is to buy from your e-store.
REASON NO.9: Optimised payment processing makes you earn faster.
The more comfortable, more secure, and faster your checkout system is, the quicker you can convert and earn more money for your business. Make all payment options available, and set-up your checkout page to be trouble-free.
Make transactions faster by eliminating extra steps.
REASON NO.10: It promotes your business.
When you make payments easy on your website, you will keep on converting new customers and returning patrons who will not only add to your revenue but become reliable social proof of your business’ excellent customer service.
The point is that you have to avoid making it hard for leads landing on your website to use it. Do not do or have things on your website that makes it difficult for users to get what they want.
Here are TEN BAD PRACTICES That Negatively Affect eCommerce Payments – What You Should Avoid at All Costs.
BAD PRACTICE NO.1: Hidden Fees
Consumers hate it when they think they have an estimate of how much they will pay at the checkout and are surprised to find out that you are adding more because of previously undisclosed fees. Make shipping and handling fees transparent from the start, or else users will probably abandon carts after an annoying experience in your checkout page.
BAD PRACTICE NO.2: Crappy Website
If your e-store is poorly designed and written, hard to navigate and has a significant number of broken pages, orhas unreliable information, nobody will buy from you. If users find your website lousy right off the bat, they will probably not purchse from you.
If the first impression on your e-store is negative, people will definitely, automatically assume that your checkout system is unreliable.
BAD PRACTICE NO.3: Buggy Payment Gateways
If you are not cautious enough to assess the payment gateways you are employing for your e-store, you might use tools or apps that are buggy or glitchy. Even the most reliable payment tools can have issues sometimes, and you have to avoid those that are poorly reviewed, as they are most often totally unreliable.
Whenever your third-party payment method provider announces an issue, you should make it clear on your website too until it is fixed.
BAD PRACTICE NO.4: Having Only One Payment Method
Some people use credit cards only, and some e-wallets only. If your store only receives one kind of payment method, you are denying more than 90% of users and losing that much potential revenue.
Allow all payment methods: credit card, debit card, e-wallet, e-cheque, and others.
BAD PRACTICE NO.5: Using Questionable Currencies
While some niche audiences might appreciate bitcoins for transactions, not all people trust websites that allow cryptocurrencies. When consumers find a particular currency that your website uses a little bit shady, the distrust might trickle down to your entire business as well.
You are better off sticking to mainstream currencies or those authorised by banks and governments to appeal to a general audience, unless, of course, you have a niche business whose audience demand otherwise.
BAD PRACTICE NO.6: Leaving Your Checkout Page Broken
One bad experience with your website can make an angry customer rant on social media and deny you of some potential leads. Always look after your checkout page and make sure people can get what they want from you without trouble.
Food retailers, paywall social media sites like OnlyFans, and other businesses with a similar level of delivery urgency are especially encouraged always to watch over any checkout issue. Hungry and horny people are the worst to disappoint.
BAD PRACTICE NO.7: Lousy Products
No matter how well you plan your marketing and prepare your checkout for easy transactions if your products are sub-standard, nobody will buy from you again, and you will get ugly reviews. Nobody will trust you if other people claim that your product or service is low-quality.
BAD PRACTICE NO.8: Inconsistent Prices
Inconsistent pricing information on your site can be a content problem. If you say on one page that your item is £39, but at checkout, it calculates £40, you are inconsistent, and customers will not appreciate it.
Consumers do not trust businesses that seem like they are lying. Avoid this mistake by ensuring that your pages are always up-to-date, especially when you are changing prices and promoting discounts.
BAD PRACTICE NO.9: No Security Badges
Modern consumers are eagle-eyed when it comes to looking for red flags in online stores. They want to protect their money and will transact only on reliable websites.
It is now a common practice to pay for website security and acquiring a badge that tells people that the sensitive information they are providing is safe from hackers and data thieves. Without a security badge, nobody will buy from your e-store.
BAD PRACTICE NO.10: Too Many Ads During Checkout
Your user goes to checkout to make a purchase and is already sure of buying from you. There is no more need for you to advertise heavily to a person who is already paying.
You can, at a scale, offer supplementary products or accompanying discounted offers for the item a user has intheir cart, but never overdo it. If you bombard a user who is checking out with ads, you are delaying the payment process and are depriving your customer of an easy transaction. This may result in cart abandonment.
What you should do is to improve your site’s user and customer experience so that people will be effectively convinced to purchase.
Here are TEN EXCELLENT PRACTICES for eCommerce Payments – actionable TIPS for Effective Checkouts
TIP NO.1: Have detailed and easy-to-follow information on your site on how to use your checkout page.
Createa dedicated FAQ category onhow to use your store. Making this self-help information available on your site is excellent not only for customer service but also for improving the usability of your payment gateways.
You should include your checkout page’s features and your available payment methods. Your FAQs must explain why unsuccessful checkouts might happen and what users can do to avoid and fix those errors, and the contact information or hotline they can use for help.
TIP NO.2: Employ multiple payment gateways and allow options for different currencies.
It couldn’t be emphasised more that you should make all payment methods available where possible. You should accept credit card payments, debit cards, e-cheques, mobile network billing, e-wallets, banks transfer, as many third-party payment services as you can, and even cash on delivery. Obviously this is an ideal situation however, the more options you provide, the better the chances of you receiving payment.
Also, allow your users to choose which country they are buying from so that they can see your product prices in their currency.
One more thing to keep in mind is that not everyone has a bank account. If you want to convert those customers who do not have credit or debit cards, or savings accounts, you have to provide accessible payment gateways for them.
The more people you enable to transact on your site, the better it is for your eCommerce business. More options = more people and countries = more conversions.
TIP NO.3: Allow payments without requiring sign-up or creating an account.
No sign-up payments are the online equivalent of walk-in customers. You can buy without a membership.
Some people find signing-up to be cumbersome and confining. Some users just want to buy with no strings attached – so let them.
Sign-ups, at a scale, are a reason for abandoned carts. Have a checkout-as-guest option on your website.
TIP NO.4: Make your checkout seamless.
Design your checkout page well and make the payment steps easy and quick to do. Convenience and security are crucial to increasing your conversion rate.
Make your website look professional and easy to navigate, and ensure that your checkout page is streamlined as well.
TIP NO.5: Put everything on one page.
Do not redirect users during checkout. Keep them on your website and, if possible, on the same page when they are finishing a purchase.
People tend to be confused if you redirect them and they might end up having doubts if they are transferred somewhere else just to pay. Doubt makes for cart abandonment.
TIP NO.6: Have live and detailed calculations, a clear CTA, and helpful shopping reminders.
Users will greatly appreciate it if you conveniently allow them to see how much they are spending inyour e-store. Calculations have to show your users the details oftheir current total basket cost and the subsequent shipping, handling, or delivery costs.
The calculation tool should update each time an item is added to a user’s cart, and it should have a clear CTA or call to action telling people to either ‘continue shopping’ or ‘proceed to checkout’.
It would be wise to have an automated reminder pop-up when your user is reaching a payment threshold that entitles them to a benefit like free shipping or a gift. If they find out that they are, for example, only £1.99 away from getting their gift, they might indulge and shop more.
TIP NO.7: Minimise the information you are asking from your users.
The more things you require from your users during the checkout process, the more likely they are to get annoyed and abandon their carts. Do not irritate your guests, especially the new ones, by making it cumbersome to checkout.
As much as possible, leave information requirements optional.
TIP NO.8: Reassure your payment method’s security.
Place security badges in conspicuous places on your checkout page and make them appear active. Use loading elements like ‘verifying account’, ‘securing connection’, and other reassuring terminology.
These elements can reinforce the trustworthiness of your payment gateway and your overall checkout experience.
TIP NO.9: Offer free shipping.
Having to think about extra costs can add inconvenience to a payment transaction. It would be best if you offered free shipping from the get-go.
In addition to making ordering and checking out more straightforward, free shipping is also a great promotional marketing material.
TIP NO.10: Apply Conversion Rate Optimisation or CRO on your page.
Perfecting your payment methods and checkout processes are some of the final steps of the entire CRO process. These focus areas should be applied together with other optimisation strategies.
Enhance your site’s overall user and customer experience by applying CRO on your entire website to maximise your conversion potential.
Here are TEN WAYS CRO and CRO Tools Help You Improve Your Checkout
CRO or conversion rate optimisation is the technique of improving your website and its elements so that people will have a great experience and understanding of it. The idea is to make your website worthy of using and purchasing from.
- CRO streamlines your entire website and makes it look professional and trustworthy. People who think your e-store is lousy will not shop and reach the checkout stage – they will bounce to your competitor’s website.
- It speeds up your website and of course, checkout. The faster your website speed, the more pleasant it is for your users, and they will trust that your checkout will be quick and trouble-free too.
- Conversion rate optimisation requires that you run A/B tests on your website’s elements, so that you only use the best ones. This ensures that your e-store will be highly receptive by your users, and ultimately lead to more conversions.
- CRO makes your website easy to use and buy from. The easier it is for people to navigate your website, the more likely they will proceed to purchase.
- CRO helps you automate your site’s chatbots to be helpful to your users. You can use chatbots to help people learn how to use your payment gateway and checkout process effectively.
- CRO tools allow you to see analytics on which payment gateways you have that are most preferred by your target market. You can evaluate what gateways your audience use the most for you to integrate into your checkout process.
- It supplements your customer service, which makes it easier for your users to shop and checkout. If you place customer service as the foundation of your eCommerce, using CRO will enable you to make all parts of your website easy to use, including your checkout stage.
- It informs how you should engage with your customers on your site. CRO tools have analytics that tells you your users’ profiles, demographics and behaviours – all information that you can use to advertise better.
If you know what bank or e-wallet they use, you can customise your promotions to each of them. You can include their payment brands in ad content to let your audience know that the product you have is accessible to them.
- It tells you what CTAs best trigger your users to purchase. CRO can tell you whether your users most prefer ‘Pay With Your Google Account’ or ‘Enter Card Details’ or other CTAs.
You can also see which demographics click what button during checkout.
- CRO will help you determine what payment tools match your audience and brand. CRO uses A/B tests that you can run with test audiences that represent your target market. Fromthe get-go, if you are implementing CRO in your site building, you will already know whether they prefer one payment method over another.
The best thing that you can do to perfect your CRO is by hiring a top-notch eCommerce optimisation company. With an expert partner, you won’thave to worry about whether you are taking the right measures or not.
Not only can an outsourced expert help you with CRO, but they can help you build your business’ online presence from the ground up.
The Kas Andz Marketing Group has more than 30 years of collaborative experience in bringing millions of returns to online stores. Leave your information in this online form, and the team will reach out to you and tell you how they can TRIPLE your conversions in just 90 DAYS.
If you are interested to learn more about conversion rates and how you can optimise your website, here are 201 actionable steps you can take to implement perfect CRO in your website. One of the most pressing topics in that ultimate guide is how you can optimise your checkout with exclusive hacks to maximise your payment tools.
Here Are TEN EXCELLENT PAYMENT TOOLS for Your eCommerce Store
- Square has POS systems for in-person payments, as well as eCommerce options for your e-store. This tool is excellent for entrepreneurs who have physical retail locations that are planning to start selling online, especially those who already have a Square POS system.
You can use Square with WooCommerce, Wix, Ecwid, GoCentral Online Store, OpenCart, 3DCart, Miva, Magento, Zen Cart, Drupal Commerce, Unbound Commerce, X-Cart, nopCommerce, Sociavore, ShipStation, WP EasyCart, Mercato, and WordPress.
Adding Square to your website requires no monthly fees, and they only charge 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction, as does Stripe and PayPal.
- Stripe is one of the most positively reviewed payment gateways available. It is one of the best choices for eCommerce stores, subscription services, and on-demand marketplaces.
This tool enables you to set up recurring payments from your clients and supports online and in-person payments.
The payment gateway supports Visa, Discover, American Express, Mastercard, JCB (Japan), and UnionPay (China).
With Stripe, you can also integrate other alternative tools like Visa Checkout, American Express Checkout, Google Pay, ACH transfers, Masterpass, Apple Pay, and Microsoft Pay.
It has a feature where you can customise your check out process, and it is perfect for mobile. It also offers a 24/7 customer support service for your users. Businesses that use Stripe have been shown to increase their revenue by 6.7% after implementing the tool.
With Stripe, your website can have up to 81% fewer outages. You can also save up to 24% more in operating costs compared to other gateways.
- Paypal is used by 305 million users today (October 2020 statistic). It is one of the most popular and secure payment gateways for your eCommerce business.
The tool is proven safe, and its customer support system has long been in place. Whatever your e-store is about, you have to accept Paypal payments.
- Apple Pay is the digital wallet for iOS users. Today, Apple controls 44.1% of the worldwide market with 3.5 billion iPhone users (October 2020 statistic), and you need Apple Pay in your e-store if you want to engage these consumers.
Apple Pay makes it easy for both you and your users as purchases can be completed with one click – no more filling out of information. The tool even has a feature wherein a consumer can finalise a purchase with only a fingerprint or facial recognition.
- Leaders Merchant Services is a California-based company with a high approval rating of 98% in the digital space. They can customise how much you pay them depending on your business, allow you to accept all major credit cards, completetransactions quickly for both you and your clients, and have excellent 24/7 user support.
They secure transactions with card verification value (CVV2) authentication, end-to-end secure socket layer encryption, and address verification. With LMS, you can accept credit cards online, physically in a retail or mobile environment, via phone, or Point of Sale (POS) system.
- Payment Depot claims to be the “Costco of credit card processing” with their membership fee-based pricing system, and their affordable processing fees – they have a tier costing $0.05 per month for an unlimited, complete membership. This tool is best if you have a big business that processes multiple monthly transactions.
- ProMerchant hosts a great deal of payment processing solutions. It has a virtual terminal that comes with no up-front costs when you accept credit card payments through phone, text, email, or your purchase button on your website.
It caters to major credit cards and others and allows your customers to transact through all modes of communication aside from digital, like texting and mail.
- Google Pay is a payment tool crafted by Google for mobile apps, eCommerce shops, and in-person checkouts. Airbnb and StubHub now use it.
The industry giant, StubHub had a 600% increase in unique visitors after installing Google Pay in their checkout process. The tool integrates with almost any other payment platform and is easy to use.
- Opayo (formerly Sage Pay) is one of the most reliable payment gateways in the UK. They boast fast transactions, accept chip and PIN card payments online or in-store.
They use multi-channel transactions that give your users more options to pay.
- Cardstream is a premium end-to-end payment solution for any type of business. It is best at providing a white-label transaction platform for banks, Acquirers, Payment Service Providers or PSPs, Payment Facilitators or PFs, Independent Sales Organisations or ISOs, Independent Software Vendors or ISVs, and other Value Added Service Providers or VASPs.
TEN METRICS to Watch When Evaluating Your Payment System’s Effectiveness
- Add-to-Cart Rate: If your add-to-cart rate is higher relative to your conversion rate, there maybe something wrong with your payment system. This means that people are abandoning their carts.
- Conversion Rate: While your conversion rate is informed by more than just your checkout optimization, if it is low while your traffic and add-to-cart rates are high, you may have a problem in your checkout.
- Cart Abandonment Rate: This metric directly tells you that there could be something to investigate about your checkout process. If you have a high CAR, your payment process may be complicated or untrustworthy.
- Average Order Volume: If you have a high AOV, you are sending the right messages during your checkout that encourages conversions, and your payment gateway is correctly working.
- Payment Gateway Costs: It is important to look at how much money you are spending on each of your payment gateways and to compare it to how many conversions you are getting per tool. If you are spending on a payment service more than you are earning with it, you should consider abandoning it.
- Customer Retention Rate: If your CRR is low, it’s either your product or website that is lousy, and maybe you have a cumbersome checkout process, and people don’t want to come back.
- Traffic and Searches on Your FAQs Page, Specifically the How to Checkout Portion: If many users always have to search and find out how to use your checkout page, there might be wrong with your optimisation or payment gateway.
- Customer Service Calls Frequency: If your users frequently have to call your company for payment issues, you have to recheck your payment method and checkout process. Remember that customers should not have to call you in the first place. If they are, then something is going wrong somewhere.
- Payment Failure Reports: This is the most straightforward metric that will tell you directly whether you have an effective payment method issue or not.
- Revenue Growth: While your revenue growth is informed by the amalgamation of all business processes, remember that your checkout and payment methods are the nets for getting revenue for your business. If you have a negative revenue growth, do not dismiss the possibility of a problem in your payment process.
In conclusion, if you are running any business, you should make it easy for your customers to pay you by making your checkout process convenient and fast, and using the best payment gateways, as many kinds as practical, that match your audience’s needs.
All of these can be achieved with proper CRO in your website as checkout optimisation is part of conversion rate optimisation. This eCommerce building process can be complicated and demanding to do especially if you are a more product-specialised entrepreneur.
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