If we have all seen videos showing customers rushing to buy a new TV or smartphone at a competitive price, what we don't see is that for the past few years, this has also been the case for e-commerce sites. A study by Deloitte, predicts that worldwide, e-commerce sales will increase by 11-15%, compared to 2020, during the holiday season 2021-2022, reaching 218 billion. This means that all merchants will be fighting for the biggest share of the market, which comes with increased pressure not to miss a SINGLE transaction.

Because they couldn't handle the unusual traffic, many sites lost a large percentage of their annual revenue, sometimes at the checkout. If a merchant was able to get a customer to the end of the purchase tunnel, it would be a shame if everything fell through at the checkout because the integrated payment solution didn't work or the customer simply decided to withdraw their payment because they couldn't find the payment method they often use.

Market Pay's positioning as a payment solution provider for retailers has allowed us to learn from common mistakes made by e-tailers. This has led to a series of best practices when choosing a payment solution. This list is intended to help you take a step back and analyze the situation:

PRACTICE #1: USE A RELIABLE, SECURE PSP THAT PROVIDES STABILITY DURING TRAFFIC SPIKES OR A PAYMENT ORCHESTRATOR.

  • The advantage of a payment orchestrator is that it provides continuous service in the event of a traffic disruption on a PSP. By implementing a viable routing strategy, you eliminate any possibility of churn or cart abandonment due to a technical issue or attack.

PRACTICE #2: OPTIMIZE YOUR PSD2 EXEMPTION REQUESTS WHILE CONTROLLING FRAUD LEVELS

  • Whether it's Black Friday or during the sales season, transaction volume increases, and so does the fraud rate. Customers are driven to make more purchases and for higher than average amounts. "In France, 77% of French people plan to make Christmas purchases during Black Friday, with 24% of French consumers planning to buy appliances, 17% smartphones, 15% computers and music devices, 10% tablets and 7% TVs during Black Friday," according to a 2021 Bonia study. It is therefore important to strike a balance between managing PSD2 exemptions to make the customer journey seamless (frictionless) while controlling the level of fraud. On the other hand, the merchant must re-evaluate the thresholds for triggering anti-fraud rules, depending on the purchase category, at the risk of letting a little more fraud through.

PRACTICE #3: OFFER A DYNAMIC PAYMENT PAGE WITH A RANGE OF PAYMENT METHODS RELEVANT TO YOUR BUSINESS.

  • A customer arriving on an e-commerce site and wishing to pay via a particular method will surely feel frustrated if he does not find this method. Indeed, he will be forced to use another method and will spend more time at the checkout. The goal for the e-tailer is to make this step as smooth and easy as possible for the buyer, in order to guarantee a pleasant experience that will help maximize the retention rate.
  • A page must therefore be adapted to the merchant's context but also to their business needs. A restaurant offering meal tickets is more likely to have more customers than one that does not. Similarly, in these times when shoppers are taking advantage of good deals to buy Christmas gifts, many employers offer gift cards to be used on multiple e-commerce sites. The more payment options available, the more likely the customer is to make the payment.

PRACTICE #4: ADOPT AN OMNICHANNEL STRATEGY AND CREATE A SEAMLESS CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE, REGARDLESS OF THE CHANNEL OF ENTRY.

  • Omnichannel is no longer just a buzzword, but a reality. Many retailers have realized the importance of providing a similar shopping experience across all channels to ensure brand loyalty.
  • Merchants who have adopted a 360-degree view and strategy of their customers have secured a very high level of incremental revenue, which has allowed them to innovate and acquire new customers.
  • When it comes to payment, one of the most common requests from customers is the ability to refund an item in-store following an online purchase in order to avoid paying additional shipping costs. Similarly, some customers who have purchased in physical stores and cannot go back to the store to return an item are looking for a simple way to be reimbursed remotely. The use cases are multiple but what is sure is that by responding to them, you generate great customer satisfaction and you lead some buyers to become brand ambassadors.

PRACTICE #5: SET UP AN ADDITIONAL DISTRIBUTION CHANNEL FOR REMOTE CUSTOMERS

  • During the COVID crisis, we noticed that many retailers were left with customers who couldn't make a purchase online or couldn't get to the store. This trend has continued to grow and is part of today's habits. This segment of customers was looking for a way to make purchases despite these constraints, and the only solution they had was ordering by phone. The way to retrieve banking information was not always secure and merchants needed a way to make the payment happen.
  • The payment by link has become the miracle solution for many merchants to overcome this problem and meet this need. Indeed, it is no longer necessary to ask for the bank details of a customer, it is enough to send a link by email, SMS, or WhatsApp, to finalize the purchase. Not only does this make the transaction easier and more secure for the customer, but it also offers the merchant a distribution channel that ensures additional sales.

PRACTICE #6: ENABLE FINANCING FOR CUSTOMERS REQUIRING SPLIT PAYMENTS.

  • According to a June 2020 OpinionWay/Oney study, 48% of French people want to use deferred payment (21%), installment payment (35%) or financing (21%) solutions more frequently to make their purchases. Split payments (called Buy Now Pay Later) are one of the fastest growing payment services in France and worldwide. In recent years, there has been an increase in the number of players offering different payment methods ranging from 2 times to over 36 times for some.
  • A Poulpeo study in 2020, reveals that the average budget per buyer is around 330€ (+91€ vs 2019). Merchants should allow their customers to benefit from a staggered payment in order to buy several items, to pay in all serenity their purchases, mainly made for Christmas. For the merchant, this service would allow him to acquire new customers, to increase the turnover and the share of cross-selling/up-selling, and finally to build customer loyalty. A satisfied customer is generally a loyal customer who will not hesitate to buy again.
  • The merchant must be able to count on a partner that allows him to propose the most appropriate modality to his customer's needs, to the value of the average basket while maintaining an optimal acceptance rate.
  • At Market Pay, we have decided to be agnostic of a fractional payment provider. Our desire is to adapt to the needs of the merchant and their customers and provide the most appropriate market solutions. On the other hand, we have decided to accept providers that fund the merchant 100%, freeing them from all the constraints of end customers and allowing them to better manage their cash flow and accounting.

We hope you enjoyed reading about our practices, and that you learned from our experience. We look forward to your feedback on this period. It is not usually the easiest time of the year, the pressure is high, the clients are demanding and impatient. In any case, the Market Pay teams are always available to collect your ideas, questions and requests. Our products have helped many merchants achieve their goals in terms of conversion rate, acceptance rate, decrease fraud rate, error rate and maintain high customer satisfaction.