September 5, 2022
5 min
Did you know that every business has at least 50 customer touchpoints? It’s a marketing term for areas where the customer directly interacts with the business: website, office, social media pages, product packaging, phone calls, and more. As with any company seeking to thrive, your main goal is to ensure your customers are happy at every step of the way with your product.
Among all the touchpoints, your customers’ payment journey is the one that deserves special attention. Today's tech-savvy people, more than ever, appreciate the convenience, speed, and security of payments. It’s essential for merchants to give customers the desired shopping experience at every stage, from the moment the "Pay" button is pressed to the notification of a successful transaction.
Let's find out what the perfect payment experience actually looks like from a customer’s point of view and what ways to improve it exist.
4 signs of a successful payment experience
Frictionless checkout
Fast and hassle-free payments are a new reality that everyone loves. Capricious shoppers no longer put up with switching between multiple screens or constantly re-entering payment information to make a transaction. Contrariwise, they appreciate an intuitive checkout interface and minimal efforts to complete a purchase.
Regardless of the payment type, keeping the user experience as simple as possible is essential. So, your main concern here is to minimise the number of actions a customer takes to make online payments on your site. Here are the must-have features for your checkout page:
- “Remember me” feature to eliminate the need for repeated payment data entry.
- Abandoned cart recovery to take care of the customers who forgot to finalise their purchases.
- Localisation to switch to the right language and display your customers’ local payment methods first.
- Customisable UI to adjust the checkout page to the overall visual concept of your site.
This minimal set of features can greatly boost your conversion and create a positive customer experience.
Preferred payment methods available
A lack of payment methods is one of the main reasons why customers abandon their shopping carts. This further confirms that buyers want a personalised shopping experience, including the freedom to choose how they want to pay. To meet customer expectations and provide them with the desired payment experience, you need to support different payment methods, including one-click payments, digital wallets, or mobile payment options.
Whether your business is local or covers multiple countries, customer payment preferences may vary greatly. However, it should be specified that a top-notch payment experience isn’t about offering as many payment methods as possible. It’s about offering the right payment methods. We encourage you to review the latest payment reports or send a short survey to your customer base. These simple steps will help you make an informed choice regarding what payment experience they expect and which payment options are worth integrating.
Absolute payment security
In addition to the checkout convenience and availability of the preferred payment options, e-commerce customers always prioritise protecting their sensitive payment data. The slightest doubt about digital payment processing security can keep them from making payments on your site. Plus, any security breach may cost you money and a carefully crafted reputation.
The four pillars of solid payment data protection are:
- Thorough security checks
- Safe data storage
- Staff control
- Compliance with all applicable regulations
Don’t forget to check out our 5-step payment risk mitigation guide.
The quality and data security level of electronic payments directly depends on the payment solution you choose. Ensure that your payment intermediary takes all the necessary measures to protect your sensitive payment information, including risk assessment, independent testing, and monitoring. Security is the basis for a good payment experience.
Always up-to-date technologies
The rapidly evolving fintech environment sets a high bar for industry players and merchants accepting payments on their sites. If you have an outdated payment system with limited flexibility, you won’t be able to give what customers want from the payment process. Thus, forward-thinking businesses must innovate to keep up with customer expectations.
While many businesses still believe that having whichever payment platform is enough, up-to-date processing with rich functionality will be your trump card in building the perfect payment experience. By integrating Corefy’s payment orchestration platform, you can be sure your customers will always have cutting-edge technologies and refined payment tools at their fingertips. We help merchants keep up with the financial landscape changes, including accepting payments across multiple providers, expanding functionality, and delivering new features for efficient payment management and processing.
As we see, quality products and top-notch customer service aren’t enough to achieve customer satisfaction. The online payment experience you provide is the cornerstone of your business's success. Partner with us to get all set for centralised, standardised, and streamlined payment acceptance.
