How International Payment Gateways Optimise Their Online Checkout to Increase eCommerce Conversion

The eCommerce market is on the rise and is projected to keep growing for the foreseeable future as digital literacy across the world continues its upward trend. In countries with high rates of internet penetration and financial inclusion such as Singapore, digital payment methods are quickly overtaking cash as the preferred means of payment. However, this market growth is not without its own set of challenges. One of the challenges that stymie the growth of the eCommerce market are the inconveniences that can be found in the buyer’s journey, especially the checkout experience.

On the topic of the checkout experience, there are a couple of fixes that can be implemented by the average merchant as payment gateway providers race towards providing optimised checkout solutions. Given the current growth trend of the eCommerce market, acquiring a payment provider that addresses eCommerce behaviour in both B2C and B2B spaces helps.

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Why is the Online Checkout Experience More Important than Ever?

The checkout experience is an important part of the eCommerce market as it greatly influences the conversion rate. Having a poor checkout experience generally leads to cart abandonment, which is not preferable to any merchant. Nowadays, the checkout experience has become more important than ever due to the following eCommerce trends:

• Low Brand Loyalty: As of last year, consumer packaged goods (CPGs) have been faced with declined customer loyalty due to global stocking issues and rising prices, seeing more than 80% of consumers switching to different brands due to either price or availability factors stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic¹. As bleak as this may seem, this does not mean that your particular brand will be affected as badly nor will it affect loyalty with your brand, especially if you have taken measures to localise your business.
• Consumers Seek Out Personalised Shopping Experiences: With the ever-growing competition in the realm of eCommerce, personalised shopping experiences appear to be one of the most reliable ways of attracting customers. According to the 2019 report by the Boston Consulting Group, retailers that provide a personalised shopping experience saw a 25% increase in revenue and received a 20% rise in net promoter scores². This means that any efforts made to create a personalised experience will greatly increase the odds in your favour since these findings point towards an undeniable demand for such shopping experiences.
• Expectation of Ever-Growing Subscription Models: In the US, it is estimated that 3% of their retail consumer sales in 2021 came from subscriptions, specifically those that concern replenishment items such as CPGs and personal care products³. This move towards subscription models is also trending globally as companies such as SeesanTV, a Thailand-based streaming platform have also implemented annual subscriptions since it helps with their licensing planning because of their need to broadcast more content.

How Do Payment Gateways Optimise Online Checkout for the eCommerce Buyer?

Given the growing demand for personalised shopping experiences amongst buyers, here are some ways that payment gateways help to optimise the online checkout experience for eCommerce buyers:

• No Login Required
  One of the biggest points of contention that inconvenience buyers from across B2C and B2B is the incessant need to sign up for several different payment gateways or even different eCommerce stores just to have their login, and payment and shipping information stored⁴.
  Therefore, it is crucial to ensure that the customers’ first purchase is as frictionless as possible. Some ways to accomplish this is by making sign-ins to be optional rather than mandatory, capturing only the data necessary to conduct the transaction such as their shipping address.
  Alternatively, if the payment gateway offers bank-related payment methods, it would be best if it either directed the user to bank redirect methods such as QR codes (Paynow & UPI), or display the necessary bank account details and asynchronously process the payment. This will relieve the shopper of the need to key in any other payment information, thereby making the checkout experience smoother.
• Preferred Payment Methods Listed Depending on Location
  This usually happens when buyers select their location & currency, but one way to reduce this friction is to have the eCommerce platform have dynamic geolocation available to redirect users to the localised currency & country. Of course, it would be best and more convenient if the payment gateway already has localised options for payment methods.
  This can be seen in some payment gateways that are available out there such as Tazapay, which automatically detects this upfront and offers both localised payment methods and payments in USD.
• Fees Calculated and Displayed Upfront
  Surprise birthdays are fun. Surprise fees? Not so much, and no one likes them more than consumers especially when they find that they’re slapped by platform fees, FX charges, and the like only after their purchase is made. Payment gateways that are upfront about these costs have a better chance of keeping the customer well-informed throughout the buying process.
  eCommerce stores can also opt to absorb these costs when integrating with payment gateways so that it improves the customer journey, but these costs would need to be factored in when pricing items for sale.

Now that you are more informed about how payment gateways optimise the checkout experience to increase eCommerce conversion, you can be confident in your own ability to choose a payment gateway that best suits your online business needs. If you haven’t already, give Tazapay a try. With Tazapay gain access to lucrative marketplaces the world over with a single account. Integrate a seamless checkout for your buyers across the globe, and turn the world into your oyster with multiple localised payment options in more than 56 countries in one easy integration.

Sources

1. CPG brand loyalty is suffering under supply chain woes - Insider Intelligence Trends, Forecasts & Statistics (emarketer.com)
2. The Next Level of Personalization in Retail (bcg.com)
3. Subscription services and online touchpoints increasingly influence shoppers - Insider Intelligence Trends, Forecasts & Statistics (emarketer.com)
4. How the Online Shopping Checkout Process is Becoming More Efficient (entrepreneur.com)
5. whats-next-in-ecommerce-1.pdf (nielsen.com)
6. Trends and opportunities in the subscription e-commerce market | McKinsey