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Payment as a complete solution: So that the conversion rate does not suffer

Author: Kurt Schauer

All operators of online shops face the same question: How should the payment process at checkout – the so-called payment – be handled? After all, a difficult balancing act must be mastered: Customers want as many different payment options as possible. However, these cost money. And as a shop operator, you would much rather earn that money than spend it. But anyone who ignores customers‘ wishes will suffer in the conversion rate. Payment as a complete solution can be a way out of the dilemma.

Customers have vastly different payment preferences

In general, customers have vastly different preferences when it comes to payment options. The internet generation, for example, loves online payment methods like PayPal. Older buyers appreciate classics such as prepayment, invoice, and credit card. And as if that weren’t complicated enough: foreign customers have slightly different payment preferences.

Result: In Germany alone, there are now more than a dozen providers of online payment solutions. Some disappear as quickly and suddenly as they appeared. For every shop operator, this means a twofold problem: the integration and management of payment solutions is extremely costly. And the investment was simply wasted if the provider quickly had to cease operations.

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Some payment methods are even dangerous: The example of invoice payment

And the difficulties do not end here. Some payment methods are demonstrably dangerous. This applies, for example, to purchasing on account. The online clothing retailer „Zalando“ can tell its own story in this regard: In 2015, goods worth several hundred thousand euros were lost because the clothing was sent to a refugee home. It was only after a long time that it was noticed that the invoices were hardly ever paid.

Willing Customers Want to Pay Their Way

The problem is exacerbated by the fact that willing customers do not want to hear about such concerns. They want to pay in their preferred way. ECC Cologne determined in a study (published in: „Payment in E-Commerce“, Volume 19) that more than half of all customers have abandoned a payment process because the payment method they wanted to use was not offered. The missing payment option thus became a killer for the conversion rate – and that’s without even considering the marketing investments required to get the customer to that point in the first place.

Payment as a Complete Solution: A Way Out of the Dilemma

A possible way out of the dilemma is the concept of „Payment as a complete solution,“ such as offered by VersaCommerce Pay. With this, the shop can offer all popular payment methods through the external provider. The fees are sometimes lower than with the payment service providers themselves. There are also hardly any costs for the technical implementation and management of the payment methods. However, the external provider’s service does cost money. On balance, however, it is cheaper than integrating the payment solutions yourself. And you no longer run the risk of jeopardizing your own conversion rate just because a preferred payment option was not offered.

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Do you have questions?

Eliana Gramer

Head of Web/Digital