When it is about growing a startup idea from scratch, what do you need? An innovative solution to a mass-centric problem, passion, and determination? Yes, they are definitely a part of the list but it goes on. In a period where thousands of new startups have come up to the horizon in different industries, you need more than a set of products or services for your targeted consumers.
Whether you want to sell online or offline, competition, as a natural order in business, stays there. It makes customers feel overwhelmed with options. Surprisingly, they also want to quickly understand what makes one product or service better than others before making the purchase decision.
Wondering what can help you rise above the noise to reach more customers? In business terms, it is known as a Unique Value Proposition or USP.
Your brand’s USP is the one thing that makes your brand better than the competitors. It is a to-the-point, clear benefit that makes customers select your brand over your peers. A well-defined USP influences prospective customers and quickly answers the most important questions they have in mind.
At this stage, you might want to ask –
- If lower price can be the USP – No, because competitors can drop their price the very same day you launch your products
- If easy returns can be a USP – that’s also easy to steal
A better way to look at identifying the right USP is to find what you can promise to your customers better than any existing competitor in your niche. Free returns, social cause support for every purchase, impeccable customer support service, is it all your customers expect?
What about payments? Can streamlined payments be considered a secondary USP related to the products/services you sell under your startup along with its core USPs?
Since it sounds intriguing, let’s uncover various sides of making a payment-related product USP.
Payments as a product USP – a unique perspective
Let’s think like your customers for a minute to understand what matters for them when they pay you online –
- Why would I buy this product when the payment process is so long?
- Why would I avail of this service when I cannot ask for payment refunds if needed?
- Why would I buy from this online startup knowing that the payment often fails to proceed in the middle?
- Why would I buy from this startup if it does not accept payments via my preferred payment options?
- Why should I continue to make online payments when the checkout page and other steps look suspicious?
Many of these questions are quite common and people think about them before buying from a newly-launched startup. Even if every side of your products and their delivery – from production to quality checks, packaging, and shipping, is perfect, a distorted payment process can make a dent in the entire customer experience, thereby losing sales.
Therefore, your startup’s USP can also be centered around how you deal with the payment-related problems your target customers face while buying products like yours. For example, if you sell men’s shoes online that are premium in quality and are made from solid waste items, many of the customers may feel the product is no different than what the market is already filled with. However, if you associate instant payment refunds in case the delivered product is not the same as expected, the chances are you can sell more shoes from the very start.
The reason – you give your customers more confidence in continuing with the purchase process.
In many cases, the refunds are processed within the next three-five days after the product is picked for return. If the product lies in the high-price category, many of them wouldn’t have sufficient money to reorder the product unless the refunds are processed.
As you can see here, there are several payment challenges startups face that can be turned into a USP for improved brand recall.
Recommended Read: Perks of Supporting Multiple Payment Methods to Receive Online Payments
Common payment-related challenges faced by startups
Suspicious payment process or page
With the rise in payment fraud in India, many customers avoid sharing their card or bank details on sites where the post-checkout or payment page looks distrustful. If this happens on your startup website, it would simply mean a loss of potential customers.
Payment method integration issues
You want to launch your startup’s Minimum Viable Product on Jan 1, 2023. But because of the technical challenges related to integrating a payment system, the launch gets postponed.
This can happen to just any business in the start but is avoidable provided you make the right selection of payment systems.
Bank or brand offers extension
These days, it is quite easy to hear about different brands or bank offers on popular e-commerce portals. For example – 20% off on using XYZ bank credit cards on a minimum order value of Rs. 2,000.
Savings on purchases is a big attraction for customers. However, extending these offers to your customers will require you to make alliances with different banks and brands.
Also Read: Simplest Way to Offer Bank or Brand Offers to Your Customers with an EDC Machine
International payment support
You want to sell products or services to potential customers living in foreign countries but may not have the required infrastructure for international payments. Ultimately, it will impact the reach of your startup’s offerings among the target customers.
Lack of instant refunds
Your customer bought something from your online/offline store but then wished to return the same for some valid reason. On checking the return policy, it was found that the returns will be processed within a week, which made him avoid buying from you again and abandon the cart.
This highlights cart abandonment as a significant challenge to be addressed carefully for startup growth.
Unavailability of BNPL payment options
Buy Now Pay Later, commonly known as the BNPL payment option, has become a necessity for businesses selling both small and big-ticket items. If your startup website or app does not support this facility, you may lose a good chunk of customers who focus on buying such items but can only pay later in small EMIs.
Simplified payments imply easy product adoption
Overcome each of these challenges in a unique way and you can create more USPs for your startup offerings. With the right payment solution by your side, you can resolve several customer-related payment challenges more easily. Here’s what can happen with simplified payments:
- Your customers will start to trust your brand because of every glitch-free payment experience
- They will buy more from your store and even recommend it to their peers because of extended bank and brand offers
- You can get international payments converted to Indian currency without hassles
- You can promote instant refunds as a USP related to your offerings
- You can easily offer BNPL payment option to your customers
Paytm for Business – one brand, many payment solutions for your startup
If you agree that payment hiccups can affect the growth of your startup in the long term, it’s time to get the foundations in order with Paytm for Business. Being a pioneer in digital payments in the country, Paytm for Business caters to different sides of your business with its innovative payment solutions.
Paytm Payment Gateway for payment acceptance via website or app, Paytm Payment Links for remote payment collection, or Paytm All-In-One QR for offline payment support – we provide all-inclusive payment products for your business.
