The introduction of credit cards over the last two decades contributed to the explosion of the e-commerce space. While this has vast benefits for consumers, merchants are faced with new challenges. If you want to be successful in business, you need to offer multiple payment methods on your website or storefront so that customers can pay you however they wish. Here’s why.
Decrease Shopping Cart Abandonment
There are a number of reasons why online shoppers might abandon their shopping carts, but one of the top reasons is that they don’t want to provide credit card information. In fact, you could say this is the very reason behind the existence of sites like PayPal and Amazon Payments. You can decrease shopping cart abandonment by allowing customers to securely pay with an option other than credit cards. Merchants should accept multiple payment methods in order to drive up sales; preferences in payment methods may vary depending on the product or service offered. For example, customers who want to purchase a product using loyalty points may prefer using PayPal and customers who want to purchase something quickly and easily may prefer credit card payment.
For Security Purposes
Since consumers are paying for items or services using different payment methods, they need to provide their personal and credit card details only once. In addition, offering multiple payment methods is a good way to prevent fraud because it will become harder for criminals to steal people’s credit cards by targeting one e-commerce site with a vulnerability. This is how payment card standards like EMV came to be. The Europay, Mastercard, and Visa is the name of a payment card standard created by several credit card issuers in Europe in 1993 to help fight fraudulent card-present transactions. Once the Europay Mastercard, and Visa liability shift went into effect, merchants who had upgraded their in-store equipment to accept these chip-cards were no longer responsible for any costs incurred by a fraudulent transaction using the card—instead, the card-issuing bank would be held responsible. Using alternative payment methods can even prevent chargeback fraud in eCommerce, as it’s harder to file a dispute with certain companies.
Access New Markets
In addition to all of the markets already available through traditional means, accepting multiple forms of payments allows you access to new markets – and an additional perk for expanding your business. For example, sites like PayPal and Amazon Payments offer lower transaction fees than credit cards. This is especially beneficial to merchants who are expanding internationally. These sites allow them to market their products or services to consumers in other countries without worrying about the additional cost of currency conversion.
Offer A More Personalized Purchase Experience
A consumer’s online shopping experience is now unique because they can create an account with multiple e-commerce sites. They can also select preferred payment methods, so they don’t have to keep entering their credit card details. By accepting all relevant payment types, you give consumers more choice about how they pay for products or services. This gives them a more personalized online purchase experience that makes them feel valued as a customer. On the other hand, not offering multiple payment options will drive away these valuable customers.
Increase Visibility
Possibly the biggest benefit of accepting multiple forms of payments is increased visibility on search engines such as Google with its Universal Search feature. If a user searches a product on Google and includes a keyword like “credit card”, the search engine will provide a list of relevant results, one of which can be your site. Similarly, if you accept PayPal as a payment method, your site will appear on the first page of results every time a user types “pay with PayPal”. In addition, Google rewards sites that use the latest technology offering the best customer experience. If you want to stand out from your competitors who do not offer multiple payment options, this might be the solution because it usually makes sites load faster and makes it easier for people to navigate your site.
Offer Alternative Turn-Around Times
In addition to being able to accept multiple payment methods, merchants can specify their preferred method when creating an order so that the consumer using their site does not have to select one themselves. This is especially beneficial for individuals who need something fast and would like to use their credit cards, but don’t want the hassle of going through checkout. By speeding up this process, you minimize the chances of losing a sale due to long waiting times in between submitting details and receiving the purchased item or service.
You should accept multiple forms of payment because doing so increases exposure for your business, gives consumers a more personalized shopping experience and offers shorter turn-around times. Moreover, multiple payment options make it easier for criminals to steal credit cards, and decrease the likelihood that you will be held financially responsible for fraudulent transactions. In addition, merchants can specify their preferred method when creating orders so that the consumer using their site does not have to select one themselves. This is especially beneficial for individuals who need something fast and would like to use their credit card but don’t want the hassle of going through checkout.