As Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) has grown into a serious industry, Gabriel de Montessus, Vice President, Global Product & Marketing at Ingenico Retail, provides key steps to help companies improve their conversion rate and optimise payment pages.
Almost half of all cart abandonments occur at the payment stage and optimising the payment process steps would widen the funnel, boost conversion, and drive sales. There is a way to make impact at each payment step along the way.
1. Payment checkout
Trust is a key driver of conversion, and fear of fraud is one of the biggest obstacles to online success. If consumers feel they might be scammed, they will drop out. So, ask yourself – does the URL of your payment page include your company name? Is the page designed to match your overall look and feel? Does it show your logo? Your payment checkout should reflect your brand values, as well as project security.
Many checkout pages ask consumers to create an account, or ask for information that is not essential to the purchase. The more information you ask for, the more likely consumers are to drop out of the checkout process. This is particularly true for mobile consumers who need to enter data by touch on a small screen. An optimised, seamless checkout experience requires only the minimum necessary information and supports return purchases by applying tokenization to enable one-click payments.
Mobile traffic is quickly overtaking traditional desktop traffic, but many online businesses struggle to convert it at the same rate as they do for desktop traffic. In fact, conversion rates for mobile phones are up to 70% lower than for traditional devices. This is because many checkout pages are not optimised for mobile devices. The unique characteristics of a mobile device – small screen, touch interface etc. – mean that a ‘normal’ checkout page is just not very useable.
Localization is absolutely key to conversion. Up to 59% of users do not finalise their orders when they do not find their preferred payment methods. Cumulatively, credit cards still dominate global online e-payments, but in many international markets, local alternative payments options represent a greater share of the market. Identify where your customers are coming from and offer the payment methods they prefer.
Translation is key to offering a localised experience to consumers. But many online businesses forget or neglect to translate their checkout pages. This is particularly important when these pages are hosted by a third party, such as a Payment Service Provider. In that case, the redirection to a different page in a different language can cause confusion and doubt, leading to a higher drop-off
Making a sale is great, but building long lasting relationships and getting return business is where business success is made. New technologies such as tokenization enable you to offer simple, single-click payments once an initial token is created. The fact that tokenization also increases security and reduces your PCI compliance requirements is a nice added benefit!
2. Real Time Fraud Detection
Efficient real-time fraud detection is about your ability to differentiate good customers from bad customers in milliseconds. Finding the right technologies for your business is key for that, as fraudsters get more and more creative.
Blocking too many transactions often results in genuine customers being denied. Besides using advanced technologies to detect suspicious behaviour, have a special consideration for your loyal customers. This can be done by putting specific models in place to identify them, or by managing lists connected to your CRM system.
There are various verification and authentication tools out there. However, many of them add friction for the end customer. And friction is correlated with cart abandonment, which is what you want to avoid whenever possible. It is possible to mitigate the negative impact of authentication tools by using them the right way: when there is a risk to prevent. Implement smart logic to apply authentication only when it is really needed and beneficial. Instead of declining a transactions, you could use 3-D Secure to give the customer a chance to make his transactions while you’ll transfer the liability to the issuer.
3. Managing the payment request…and answer
Once a payment authorisation request is sent, the process leading to a positive or negative answer remains very blur for many. Leveraging data and conversion figures, we can identify which payment partner will be best suited depending on the transaction request and therefore root the transaction to the partner that will drive conversion up. This is invisible to the end customer, but can lead to significant conversion increase.
In case the payment partner denies the transactions, there are still options to successfully finalise the order. One way is to retry with another acquirer. In a multi-acquirer set-up, this happens behind the scenes and is totally invisible to the customer. Another option is to suggest a retry with a different payment method.
If you can already tick all the boxes above, well done! But if some of these are not yet implemented, I hope the above insights will help you drive up conversion and increase client satisfaction. By the way, CRO is not a ‘one off’ exercise but rather a continuous stream of optimisation that will also be fed by evolving client expectations.
About Gabriel de Montessus
Gabriel de Montessus is VP Global Product & Marketing for Ingenico Retail BU, covering In-store, Online and Omnichannel solutions. Before joining Ingenico, he was CEO of HiPay, a next gen / innovative global payment full service provider.
About Ingenico ePayments
Ingenico ePayments is the online and mobile commerce division of Ingenico Group. We connect merchants and consumers, enabling businesses everywhere to go further beyond today’s boundaries, creating the future of global commerce. We are the trusted partner of over 65,000 small and large merchants who rely on us to make payments easy and secure for their customers.
For similar stories, please check out our Online Payments and Ecommerce Market Guide 2016 to get access to an insightful outline of the global transaction banking, B2B payments, supply chain finance & e-invoicing market.
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