Things Nobody Told You About The Best Digital Payment Methods For Your Online Business

You can save millions of dollars by just adding multiple payment methods to your ecommerce store? This is legit. According to research, lack of payment methods and payment security are a prominent reason for customers abandoning their shopping cart. And apparently, e-retailers are losing money. 

Do you see how huge revenue earning potential suddenly disappeared, when it was just at the final stage ie checkout? But don't panic, trust me you can easily navigate this. Real question is ~ How? Simple, by integrating the most popular payment methods on your ecommerce site for your target audience.

With a powerful payment gateway, checkouts become frictionless and the revenue stream keeps flowing. Payment Gateways reduce the payment processing time, eliminate customer inconvenience, increase customer experience and make your company appear more attractive to customers.

Trending payment methods: What are they, their benefits and disadvantages

1. Payment wallets or mobile wallets

1 billion people are projected to use payment wallet apps worldwide by 2023. The global use of mobile payments will grow by 26.93% between 2020-2025 and overtake cash and credit cards. Many ecommerce retailers are integrating mobile payment applications, such as PayPal, Samsung Pay, AliPay, and Apple Pay, to accept payments.

Benefits for Customers & Businesses: 

• Cheaper transaction cost compared to cards

• Simplify interacting with mobile buyers to stimulate more purchases

• Payment Wallets can be converted into a POS (point of sale) device for offline transactions

Setbacks  

• Most people in the west (USA) consider it as a less secure payment method

• Bad mobile connection on the customer side may impede the transaction. Oftentimes, it may lead to purchase cancellation

2. UPI

In March 2021, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), reported a 3 times jump in UPI transactions volume and its value. The total volume stands at 2,732 million transactions amounting to ₹ 5,04,886 crore, in contrast to 999.6 million in April 2020 with a worth of ₹ 1,51,141 crore. The number of banks that support UPI transactions has gone up to 216 from 153 in April 2020. You see how demand and supply of UPI payment methods has been aligned. 

Benefits for Customers & Businesses: 

• Promote Quick transaction as customers can complete purchase by just adding a phone number or UPI ID

• No need to login, enter card details, account number or passwords

• Instant transfer to monyen to merchant account

• UPI does not attract high payment gateway charges

• UPI often rolls out cashbacks and coupons on using them, which elevates buyer's purchasing power

Disadvantages of UPI:

• Sometimes, due to the bank's server being down, the payment may take longer than usual, causing a change in mind (like cancelling the idea to purchase).

• Not a better option for a large transaction amount

3. Debit cards and Credit cards: about current demand

Debit and credit cards are one of the most frequently used payment methods for ecommerce shopping.

Benefits for customer and business: 

• May lead customers to make more frequent or larger purchases due to discounts, cashback, points, etc offered by credit card companies to increase card usage

• Safe option to make big purchases

• Can be quicker and more convenient for customers at checkout than cash or checks

• Allows foreign travelers to more easily make purchases

Disadvantages for customer and business: 

• You'll have to wait for a few days (1-3 days) for the payment to process and reflect into your bank account

• You may have to pay transaction fees, a small percentage of the transaction, which is specific to credit cards

• If a customer disputes a charge (ie, initiates a "chargeback"), the transaction may be reversed and you will not receive a payment.

4. Buy-now-and- pay-later services (BNPL)

Also known as installment payments, has seen major growth in two years. It is predicted that customers might spend nearly $ 100 billion in retail purchases in utilizing BNPL programs in 2021 from $ 24 billion in 2020. Percentage of Gen Z using BNPL has grown six-fold in 2 years ie from 6% in 2019 to 36% in 2021 Millennials' use of BNPL has gone up to 41%. Gen X consumers and Boomers have also shown great interest in the past few years.

Some great ecommerce companies using BNPL are - Amazon, Flipkart, Adidas, Nike, Walmart, Purple, MAC Cosmetics and more.

Benefits for Customers And Businesses: 

• Increased sales value

• Attract New customers who were hesitant to pay for expensive products in one go. 

• Expect more repeat purchases as customer loyalty increases 

• Receive their product before completing a full payment. 

• Customers have to pay zero interest on payments 

• Sign-up is faster than for credit cards.

Setbacks

• The terms and conditions from the BPNL payment providers can sound confusing during sign-up, leading to unexpected fees.

5. Electronic bank transfers

Net banking or bank transfer shares 18% of total ecommerce transactions done 2020. 

Benefits 

• Helps merchants to access funds faster

• Safer option for customers

• Free RTGS / IMPS / NEFT payment

Disadvantages

• Fees for using net banking can be higher for customers and retailers

• Subject to Technology disruptions like server issues, network issues, etc

6. Cash

Though cash on delivery was subsided by novel and advanced payment methods, especially during COVID-19 when the whole world unanimously called for contactless payment and safety for online and offline purchases. But consumers still need this option. Why? You know, because of personal choices or say lack of awareness and infrastructure (in some regions) to support online payments.

Benefits

•  No online payment frauds

•  Flexible payment options for the customer

• Best option when bank servers are down, when UPI, net banking and debit card fails

Disadvantages

• Turn sellers vulnerable to losses, especially when a customer returns an item with no payment

• Retailers have to pay an extra cost to delivery partners for COD payment options

Must have features in your payment gateways

To choose the best payment gateways you need to know specific things before integrating them with an ecommerce store. And fortunately, Storehippo's payment partners possess all of them. So here they are: 

1. One-click payments or tokenization

Instant payment completion without manually entering card / bank details on every transaction is what every customer wants. And why not, when it actually increases conversion rates, reduces cart abandonments , and boosts customers' shopping experience on any device.

How is this possible? It is done through On-click payment technology that automatically saves customer payment data during the first purchase after user consent. So when the same customer makes subsequent purchases, payment information will auto-populate at the time of checkout. 

How? Payment gateways convert the card details into tokens - aka buyer's card identifier. But neither you (the merchant), nor your payment solution have access to buyer customer data, except the acquiring bank. 

2. Easy integration process

A good payment gateway does not require any programming to start processing ecommerce transactions on your online store. This is true for payment solutions available under StoreHippo ecommerce platform . Another brain claiming fact is that StoreHippo payment gateways DO NOT CHARGE any maintenance fee and involve ZERO SET-UP FEES, during initial integration.

3. Merchant account offers

What is a merchant account? It's a depositary account in the name of an ecommerce store owner which is used to store customers money temporarily, when they make an online payment via payment solution. 

Merchant account is not your actual bank account. The purpose of a merchant account is to add an additional layer of security to funds deposited by customers and manage funds for both sellers and buyers. 

4. Must be PCI compliance

PCI Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) compliance is a security standard made for secure online card transactions.  

Why is it important? PCI DSS compliant payment protection prevents trespassers from stealing sensitive users' payment data. 

5. Flexible payment methods

Your payment partner should offer multiple online and offline payment methods so that you can meet the diverse payment choices of different buyers. This way you can pump your business cash flow and improve the overall checkout experience.

6. International currencies support

This allows you to accept payments from customers shopping from a foreign nation in their currencies. This feature actually increases your global customer experience and builds a reputation outside of your company birth nation. 

7. Automatic recurring billing

Recurring billing feature allows you to set up an automatic billing cycle for your customers, making it an absolute necessity for companies with monthly payment plans. The automatic withdrawals ensure consistent cash flow by putting late payment issues in the trash. For example: subscription-based services like Amazon Prime, Bombay shaving club, run on a recurring payment model.

8. Mobile payments

Payment gateway providers , with mobile payment wallet feature, promote easy transfer of funds from mobile, either through an app or with a mobile site. Think of Google Pay, Apple Pay, Paytm wallet, etc that lets you complete transactions straight from your smartphone. 

9. Payment dispute management

Online payment disputes cost merchants billions of dollars each year. To tackle this issue, dispute management is a necessary feature. 

Story Time: Suppose David's money was charged twice for the same transaction to buy headphones. He reported the concern to his bank (issuer). 

On request, his bank contacted the merchant bank (acquirer) to inform about this issue. After verification of the fact that money was deducted mistakenly, the merchant's bank issued a refund by debiting the merchant account, also called chargebacks.

A notification of deduction is sent to the merchant. The merchant will have to either approve or raise a dispute if he suspects a fraudulent deduction. In case he finds an invalid chargeback, he could disapprove it by raising a dispute and providing valid evidence. If evidence is found true, then the merchant is credited with the changed amount. This is what we call dispute management.

10. Advanced reporting

Reporting feature gives you rich insights into your transactions, customers, products, declines and more. By meticulously reading these reports you can optimize your checkout process and take necessary actions to rectify setbacks. 

11. Multilingual checkout page

Deliver a "localized" shopping and payments experience and reach out to all sections of consumers with a multilingual checkout page. This feature automatically translates your pages in the customer's local language, so that consumers can easily breeze through the checkout page. Also leading to successful rates of transactions everyday.

12. 24 × 7 Customer support

Oftentimes the best payment gateways might crash due to some technical bugs (which is normal if limited). Technical issues at their end might equally impact the transaction processing efficiency at your side. Hence, it is important to have live technical support and email support to negate the issues quickly.

Top payment gateways offered by StoreHippo 

When you partner with StoreHippo ecommerce solution, you get exposure to high performing payment gateways and payment wallets that are known worldwide. We offer 60+ integrated payment solutions that smoothly processes both national and international transactions. Here they are- 

• International payment gateways

2Checkout, Authorize.net, PayPal, PayU, Stripe, Checkout.com, Worldpay, Telr, Hyperpay, SenangPay, Paytm, ANZ

• Best Indian Payment solutions

CCAvenue, RazorPay, PayU Money, Udio payment wallet, EBS, Instamojo, etc

What are payment gateway charges?

Payment solutions impose multiple type of cost like-

• Maintenance fee: Annual maintenance charge is an amount or fee that is charged on a monthly or yearly basis to the payment gateway as a maintenance charge for software, operation, customer service, version up-gradation, etc

• Set up fee: Many of the payment gateways charge a non-recurring and one-time setup fee for setting up the merchant account. This fee is charged to cover expenses on onboarding a merchant (document verification, KYC of business) and infrastructure cost

• Integration fee: The integration fee is charged to integrate the payment gateway on the website or app. These charges depend on what platform the payment gateway is to be integrated

• Transaction discount rate (TDR): A TDR is the amount that the payment gateway levies out of the total amount of the item or service from the merchant while transferring into their merchant account. This amount is charged on a percentage basis and is fixed by the gateway itself

5 promising benefits of StoreHippo's integrated payment gateways 

1. Discounted rates: Get discounted rates for payment gateway processing charges from the partner payment channels.

2. ZERO set-up fees:  Add any number of payment solutions to your ecommerce website or mobile apps.

3. Secure and fraud prevention: All the payment methods are done on SSL certified online stores and are PCI DSS compliant. 

4. Create multichannel customer experiences: Connect and consolidate every payment, get a unified view of the customer data in one report. Get rich insights on your customer journey for different types of buyers. 

5. Reach international markets: Explore new markets and sell to global audiences in their preferred currency and languages. With multilingual and multi currency support, you can collect payment in more than 50+ foreign currencies and languages ​​with multi currency support in payment gateways.

Final Takeaways

Did you know researchers discovered that customers are more likely to buy from an online store that offers their preferred payment method ( PayPal ). 

So don't you want to push your conversion rate (CR), average order value (AOV) and downsize the cart abandonment rate? Yes? That's why adding multiple payment methods is important. 

StoreHippo integrated payment gateways come with a lot of benefits including ~ zero setup fee and quickest merchant onboarding and support for multiple payment options. 

You can sell goods and services to other lucrative economies by enabling any available payment gateways / wallets or your own custom payment gateway. 

Get started today! Sign up for 14 days free trial of StoreHippo ecommerce solution to experience it's advanced payment gateways integrations and other features.