Five Payment Strategies to Improve Conversion Rates and Increase Online Sales

There has been a payment revolution, with open banking solutions offering customers even more ways to pay from their bank account, often in real time. While many customers still choose to use direct debit transfers to pay from their bank account, digital payment options are now gaining popularity. The new ways to pay, such as Google Pay, Alipay, WeChat Pay and Apple Pay all provide convenience, security and speed.

Merchants that choose an independent payment gateway services provider can capitalise on these options. An independent gateway is not linked to an acquiring bank and so can connect to multiple acquirers, enabling merchants to use Alternative Payment Methods (ATMs) to give their end customers more choices to pay. An independent gateway can also provide the flexibility to select the most favourable rate, reducing overall transaction costs helping to provide a frictionless checkout experience.

While a payment gateway can connect to multiple acquirers, a payment orchestration layer takes this one step further. As a standalone platform (working independently of a chosen gateway payment provider) it ensures a resilient payment ecosystem that benefits merchants and customers. It can offer a broader choice of payment methods by allowing merchants to connect and manage multiple payment methods through a single integration.

This enables converged commerce to provide online, in-app, MOTO and Open Banking options via one system and gives even more choice with an enhanced customer experience. It dynamically selects the best payment option at the point of transacting based on multiple factors, to protect against failed transactions. Processing transactions across many different acquirers in this way increases conversion rates and delivers a smoother and more reliable customer experience.

Ensuring that transactions are processed efficiently, and ideally first time, reaps dividends on the bottom line. There will always be instances when a card is declined by the issuing bank, and for different reasons. The real problem for merchants is receiving the declined error message (declined code) and not knowing why – whether from insufficient funds or incorrect or out of date card details as just a few examples.

Choosing a payment gateway provider that offers the option of more declined codes means that more specific information is available for unsuccessful payments, which can be followed up and actioned. Reducing the number of declined payments can make the difference between success and failure in terms of profitability. With a PCI DSS compliant payment payments services provider, a merchant can also offer card storage and tokenization to make it easier for customers to return for a fast, easy and seamless checkout experience. The result? Increased revenue and a better customer experience.

Expanding reach to allow customers from different countries to purchase online can significantly increase revenue opportunities. Choosing an independent payment orchestration platform that offers one-to many integration makes it easy to connect with third-party payment service providers via different platforms or merchant accounts. This helps your business to grow without the need for significant infrastructure changes.

To offer the best consumer experience, e-commerce pages should reflect a company’s look and feel. When developing a website, it is important to choose a payment solution that gives your developers control of your e-commerce pages. Hosted Payment Fields ensure the necessary security protocols are in place to protect both the merchant and customer from fraud. Consistent branding when moving to the payment window gives the customer a seamless experience – and the confidence that they’re buying from a trusted business.