When you sell products/services online, it becomes imperative that your business website or mobile application makes it easier for your customers to pay for their purchases. This is why the payment process designed for your online business is critical.
From the checkout page to the final order success page, every segment is quite crucial for the business. It is where your customers hand over their information and finally buy from you. More particularly, it is where window shoppers actually become paying customers.
In many cases, business owners blame the chosen payment gateway provider for difficulties faced by potential customers during checkout. But if you really want to simplify the payment process for your customers and increase sales/profits, it’s time to work on getting complete control over the checkout.
Given below are six ways you can follow to improve the payment process and let more customers enjoy buying from your online shops:
Allow them to pay through various payment methods
It may sound obvious, but many online stores only offer one or some specific payment methods. They choose the one having the least or zero Merchant Discount Rate (MDR). However, it would be fair to assume that customers expect a variety of payment methods during the checkout process.
To fulfil their expectations, you should research the most preferred payment methods in your targeted region or country. For instance, a complete list of payment methods should include debit cards, debit cards, UPI, payment wallets, and net banking. It lastly depends on the specific audience you are targeting and their payment preferences.
If the current payment gateway does not support all the preferred payment options, you can switch to Paytm Payment Gateway.
You May Also Like to Read: A Complete Guide to Payment Gateway Charges in India
Simplify the signup process
Many individuals refrain from buying from an online store or app that has a complicated signup process. Asking for unnecessary details or making them follow several steps to register is like putting up a wall that prevents the potential buyers from even thinking about buying from you.
Forcing people to follow a complicated process is considered too intrusive and can kill major conversions. The more fields you have in the signup process, the higher the risk of user dropouts during registration.
Hence, you should work on making the life of potential buyers easier by letting them sign up with minimal effort. Particularly, mobile users should be allowed to sign up with their linked Gmail accounts or social platforms.
Another way you can go about it is to give the signup option at the end of the checkout process like many big brands do.
Customize the checkout page from the branding perspective
Checkout customization and design often seem like a big thing to many business owners. They want to keep everything as consistent as possible in terms of color, fonts, and design, as on the website/app to raise brand recognition.
To a certain extent, it is reasonable to be skeptical about a checkout page that looks different than the website of a brand. However, it does not mean you need to complicate things at the design end. Simply choose a payment gateway that allows you to customize the checkout page as per the brand’s color scheme.
Paytm JavaScript Checkout is one such solution with which you can ensure customer’s trust and satisfaction by choosing a color scheme they are most familiar with.
You can read more about Paytm JavaScript Checkout here.
Avoid intermediate page redirections
When you work hard to attract people to your online store, you need not send them to another page or website to pay. This is one of the disadvantages of using payment services that redirects the buyers away from the website to a payment page.
Since you do not have much control over the design of these intermediate payment pages, some customers may feel as if they are making payments to a business other than yours.
Hence, it is quite crucial for you to ensure a redirection-free payment experience for your customers. This is possible by selecting the right payment gateway for your online business.
Make checkout errors easy to fix
While entering the payment information, people often make mistakes. Sometimes, they enter a wrong digit in the card number field or forget to add an ‘@’ in the email address. Letting them move ahead with these mistakes can cause problems for your business.
In any case, it is important that you point out the error and let the users correct it. Besides this, displaying the error message at the right spot is the next task for you. Some payment pages display the error message near the page header, which makes it difficult for people to scroll up to find out what it is about.
Ideally, you should display the error message in or below the field where it has occurred. You can also make it easier for customers to pay you by saving the information they enter.
After all, losing customers due to information submission errors can be one reason behind the low conversion rate during the checkout process.
Reassure your customers on the payment security front
You might be surprised to know that many customers drop out of the checkout process because of payment security concerns. Whenever personal or payment information is involved, buyers want to know if they are sharing the details with the right seller, which is where building trust with them is essential.
You need to reassure the buyers that their data will be safe with you. This can be done by showcasing the security measures in place. Whether it is the SSL certificate on your website or PCI-DSS compliance of the payment gateway installed, everything matters.
The bottom line
These six ways can help reduce the cart abandonment rate and ensure that your customers can easily pay you online. Still, it is always a good idea to assess what can work best for your business. Follow these ways to make the customer experience on your online shop easier and hassle-free.
