by You are surrounded by customers who have choices for everything. From products to services to platforms to the payment gateway, the more choices the greater the customer loyalty. Customers who shop online today are more likely to trust websites that offer more choices of payment methods. That way, they can be assured of the payment experience they are most comfortable with.
Many times, customers go through the entire process of searching for products, adding them to their cart, switching products from wishlist to cart and applying coupon codes. However, if the checkout page does not have a payment option they want, say UPI or mobile wallet payments, it could drive them away. With the wide availability of choices, nothing is stopping them from going to a different platform even if it’s slightly more expensive.
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Are Multiple Payment Options Really a Big Deal?
Several studies and reports by leading marketing research institutions prove that more methods of payment are available on a website. A lack thereof would have a significant impact on the number of completed transactions on a website. Everything else, including your product, could be perfect. But for the lack of a few payment options, you could lose a customer.
About 23% of online customers tend to leave their carts without completing their transactions if their payment method of choice is not available. Another survey by Statista shows that 20% of customers abandon carts for lack of preferred payment methods. There could be many reasons for this, including not trusting e-commerce platforms with credit card data. Another 4% of customers also abandon cards if their credit card is declined on a particular platform, according to Abandonment Rate Statistics. According to the Vouchercloud study of e-commerce psychology, about 59% of customers who are interested in a product leave the platform without completing the transaction if the method of payment they want is not available.
This makes it abundantly clear that of all the factors that contribute to ensuring consumers complete a purchase, lack of sufficient payment options plays a key role. As a business looking to thrive in a highly-competitive market, losing customers over lack of payment methods is no longer an option.
According to Statista, credit cards remain the most popular method of payment across the world. It is the leading choice for 42% of all online buyers around the world. In India, UPI or Unified Payments Interface has become the leading payment method for customers. This is followed by debit cards, IMPS and credit cards, in that order according to a February 2020 report. In 2019, about 10.8 billion UPI transactions were made in India as per a WI (Worldline India) report. The India Digital Payments Report 2019 stated that UPI is the fastest payment method to reach 1 billion per-month transactions since its inception in 2016. While UPI is a popular method, it doesn’t mean mobile wallets, netbanking and QR codes, among other payment methods, are no longer required. Businesses need to consider customers across categories, locations and other demographics.
Benefits of Accepting Online Payments:
Using Automated Clearing House or credit card payment processing services raises the chances of customers completing transactions. However, where these payments get accepted is equally critical. About 56% of all bills get paid digitally today. It proves that sellers who charge for their products and services are likely to lose more than half of their sales and profits without an online payment gateway solution.
Another aspect to consider is that your gateway should be mobile-friendly. In a survey by the Pew Charitable Trusts, over 65% of the respondents have either made bill payments on their smartphones or have at least heard of it. With the growing volume of smartphones and unique individual users today, this percentage will rise quickly in the coming years. You need to show these mobile customers that you are up to date on all current trends by providing them with all the latest digital payment methods on a single payment gateway.
Benefits of eBill Payment Systems:
There are several ways to conduct business online today than ever before. Certain merchants need to get authorizations and verified documents from customers during every payment process. These processes are time-taking, wasteful and tedious. It also takes longer to complete the payment process and could turn customers away forever.
When you use a digital payment solution for your business, you reduce the billing cycle significantly. As a merchant, you can now also get all signatures and payment requirements from customers in one transaction in just a few minutes.
Payment Trends in India – Why You Need Multiple Payment Methods:
According to one JP Morgan report in 2019, 29% of India’s e-commerce payments were made through cards. About 25% were done through mobile payments and 20% through bank transfers. Only 17% of all transactions were done through cash. A portal offering multiple payment options helps you reach a significantly larger audience as compared to a portal with limited payment options.
When you offer several digital payment options, it’s also more cost-effective for your business. Despite what people believe, collecting payments online is not costly if you choose the right payment gateway partner.
Quartz India conducted a study that showed cashless payments, particularly UPI and mobile wallet payments are growing at a faster pace than in any other country.
Another benefit of multiple payment methods is that it becomes easier for customers to give in to impulses while shopping online. When there are payment option limitations, customers have enough time to rethink their purchases and often end up not shopping.
Additionally, having multiple methods of payment also introduces businesses to new segments in the market. Various payment methods are popular in different segments depending on income, culture, and geography. Using an integrated gateway to process payments helps you reach out to each of these segments and drive them to complete transactions on your platform.
Businesses that accept multiple online payment methods used advanced gateways like Plural by Pine Labs for a seamless experience. In this data-driven digital world, accepting multiple payment options is almost mandatory if you want to scale up.
