The volume of online payment has increased significantly. Online payment goes hand in hand with online shopping, which again is experiencing a dramatic rise among shoppers. Thus, online shopping sites and vendors need to have a well-functional online payment gateway.
If you are a small or a large business looking to kick start your digital journey, you are at the right place. Read on to find how you can make online payment easy for customers and help your business grow.
Tips to Make Online Payment Process Easier for Customers
- 1. Provide various payment options
Shoppers today possess many different tools for making digital payments. In addition to the classic credit and debit cards, customers also prefer to pay using United Payment Interface (UPI), various digital wallets, or even coupons.
As a vendor, you should allow your patrons to choose any of their preferred payment modes to turn a potential window shopper into a customer.
- 2. Keep redirects to a minimum
Some online payment gateways redirect customers to other pages to finalize the payment. As you have no control over the checkout page, customers might feel they are shelling out their money to another business.
To avoid this, choose a payment gateway like Zaakpay, ensuring customers do not get redirected and are comfortable with the payment process.
- 3. Permit payment without setting up accounts
A study found that users do not prefer setting up an account because they do not like to be spammed with emails. Asking people to sign up might reduce the conversion rates, especially with first-time customers who are just testing waters.
In addition, it lengthens the payment process as customers need to fill out additional fields. It is best to avoid this and provide users the option to check out as a guest.
- 4. Ask only for crucial information
Asking for extra information deters a customer from making a purchase. Moreover, a customer ends up wasting a lot of time filling in the information that is not needed, which reduces the conversion rate.
A lot of payment gateways in India, like Zaakpay, are ideal, as they necessitate only essential information and declutter the rest. This also reassures users about security, as they do not have to worry about their information falling into the wrong hands.
- 5. Provide easy resolution of errors
While making a payment, a user may end up with a misspelled word or an incorrect email address. While correction is necessary, many online payment gateways display errors at the top of the page, which means the user has to scroll to find out what went wrong.
The ideal thing is to display the error in the exact field in which it occurred in order to make the whole process smooth for customers.
- 6. Reassure the customer’s security and privacy
As stated above, customers are very particular about their personal information and financial data. In the age of digital transactions, hacking is not uncommon; hence it makes sense for customers to be wary of lapses in security.
As a vendor, you will want to have a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate to provide a secure connection and encrypt payment information. Additionally, comply with the PCI Security Standards Council (PCI SSC) standards, which manages security standards for card-based transactions. These certifications are quite common with payment gateways in India. Obtain these credentials and display them on your website to reassure the user of safety.
- 7. Incorporate a user-friendly design
The design needs to be as user-friendly as possible. If it is too complicated, users may feel they might make a payment error and lose their money in the process.
It is also important that the payment page be as much similar to the rest of the website. Consistency will invoke safe feelings in the user and provide him/her with the reassurance that payment is being made to the same site.
- 8. Have a clear call to action
Avoid generic terms like ‘Continue’ or ‘Apply’ at the checkout page. Make it crystal clear that they can ‘Checkout’ or ‘Continue Shopping.’ It is a bad idea to leave customers guessing, as it kills the conversion rate. Prefer an online payment gateway with a clear call to action, like Zaakpay.
- 9. Educate the customers
It is natural for the customer to be skeptical of digital payments or to have doubts about the process involved. As a digital business owner, solving the customer’s queries could go a long way in roping in permanent customers. You can consider using various marketing techniques to make customers understand the digital payment process better.
- 10. Create a loyalty program
Rewarding customers for making an online payment is one sure shot way to get more patrons on board. As a vendor, you might want to introduce a loyalty program that rewards customers for using electronic payments. These may include cashbacks or discounts for regular users. As customers change spending behaviors often, a loyalty program is a good way to keep them using a particular online payment method.
- 11. Use mobile-compatible payment software
Shoppers now prefer to shop on the go. Whether you are on a commute back home or killing time in a queue, using a mobile phone is very convenient for shopping. Hence, developing a robust payment that also works on a mobile phone is preferred. Such a platform will also store a user’s card details to make the payment process faster.
Conclusion
Getting users to adapt to digital payments can be tricky, but using the tricks mentioned above will ease the process for business owners as well as customers. Online payments have a plethora of benefits, and it makes no sense to neglect that aspect of running a business. There are a lot of functional online payment gateways, among which is Zaakpay. It is always a good idea to check out different designs to find out what suits you best. After all, the checkout page is where window shoppers are converted to paying customers.