Payments are an important but frequently disregarded step in any eCommerce process. The effectiveness of this component of the user experience can mean the difference between a sale and a cart abandonment.
Just over a quarter of UK consumers are affected by flexible payment alternatives when choosing to make an online purchase, according to research conducted by BigCommerce and Klarna.
Jim Herbert, who formerly founded Sceneric and served as managing partner at DigitasLBi UK, is vice president and general manager of EMEA at BigCommerce. He has over ten years of expertise in the eCommerce industry. Herbert offers the following commentary on the subject of digital payments and the value of payment innovation for the success of eCommerce:
Payments’ Function in eCommerce
Paytech, commonly referred to as payment technology, has contributed significantly to the expansion of eCommerce in recent years. Payment technology offers convenience and choice from the consumer’s point of view. The potential customer may leave if you don’t accept their preferred method of payment.
By enabling retailers to tailor the user experience with the appropriate currencies and local payment choices, paytech can both speed up the shopping process and aid a business’ expansion across many areas and jurisdictions.
Consumer expectations for eCommerce technology consistently revolve around convenience. According to research by Linnworks, 75% of consumers in the US and the UK said that convenience was the top reason they shopped online.
Digital wallets like Apple Pay and Amazon Pay have become increasingly popular in light of this. These systems allow customers to rapidly and securely make purchases without entering card information since they store card details behind many levels of encryption.
Mobile and digital wallet sales made up 44.5% of all eCommerce sales last year globally. Digital wallets are predicted to represent more than 50% of all eCommerce payment volumes by 2024.
Customer Behavior Changing
The manner in which consumers are making purchases has changed significantly during the past year. eCommerce has accelerated on mobile devices as technology advances and becomes more widely available, particularly through social commerce. By the end of this year, mobile commerce is anticipated to represent 53.9% of all eCommerce retail transactions, according to data from Statista. Over the same time period, social commerce is predicted by eMarketer to increase to 4.3% of US eCommerce retail sales.
As time goes on, it also appears that we’re growing more dependent on and addicted to convenience. According to research, 26% of customers will give up on a transaction if they are unable to recall or are disturbed to look up payment information. To convert the sale, you must capture the buyer right away. Momentary hiccups in the website’s performance or a break in the experience may be sufficient to divert their attention.
The epidemic and the ensuing acceleration of the move to eCommerce has really highlighted how important convenience is as a factor in the decision-making process for customers. The correct payment technology, which gathers and saves customer details across devices and is accessible at their fingertips, is essential to delivering this. I anticipate that this will further improve the smoothness of the purchasing process and provide them with the convenience they so much want.
Everything Relies On The Journey
eCommerce’s capabilities and, inevitably, consumer expectations have expanded and prospered along with it. Consumers today need a simple, frictionless experience.
According to research, nine out of ten consumers make decisions more quickly and even wind up spending more when flexible and easy payment choices are available. Similar to this, customers are quickly turned off when a checkout does not provide this.
According to research by Klarna and BigCommerce, 38% of UK consumers admit to leaving shopping carts unattended at least once per week, and 24% said they would cancel orders if a retailer didn’t recall them. On the other hand, 28% of Gen Z consumers, who collectively spend an estimated $150 billion annually in the US, view an easy online checkout process as a purchasing motivator.
Payment technologies can and ought to be used to improve checkout and customer experience in general. Choice, quickness, trust, and convenience must all be present in payment alternatives. Retailers can put in all the effort to lure customers to their online store and help them find what they’re looking for, but if the checkout and payment processes fall short of expectations, their hard work will be for none.
The Way Forward
Consumers want eCommerce to be as speedy and adaptable as possible, and anything less than a seamless experience increases the likelihood that customers will abandon their purchases. The main way that Paytech has contributed to expanding eCommerce capabilities is by making the user experience better. Using paytech to create a seamless, smooth consumer trip will be a critical component of succeeding in the rat race of online retail as its capability continues to develop.
Source: ecommerce payment solution , ecommerce payment gateway
