Payment as a key step in the customer journey

Conversely, payment can also become a real growth vector for your store. But then, how to exploit its full potential?

Here is an overview of the features that will help boost your sales while offering your customers a memorable shopping experience.

1. Increase your average basket

Consumers are more and more fond of financing solutions such as payment in installments: it allows them to spread their expenses, a significant asset in this period of health and economic crisis. In fact, according to Opinion Way, one in four French people used split payments in 2020!

Proof that to meet buyers' expectations, it is now necessary to offer this payment facility. 

Moreover, by removing the last obstacles to purchase, payment in installments allows you to improve your conversion rate and increase your average basket. Indeed, an internet user will be more inclined to buy additional products or in a higher range if he knows he can spread his payment.

We particularly advise you to opt for the guaranteed split payment: this functionality (proposed by PayPlug) allows you to offer the payment in 3 or 4 installments to your customers without incurring the risk of fraud or unpaid bills. In other words, you receive the full amount from the first payment.

TheProject X Paris store integrated the guaranteed fractional payment on its website in 2020: its average basket went from 80€ with the cash payment to 200€with this payment facility. 

2. Accelerate your shopping journey

Checkout is the last step in the buying process, so it's important to identify and eliminate potential friction points. To start, you can use this free tool to evaluate the performance of your checkout page: you will receive personalized recommendations by email based on your results. 

Next, think about the features that can help you shorten your checkout process. For example, with one-click checkout, your customers can choose to save their credit card information, so they don't have to re-enter it the next time they check out. A timesaving feature that they will appreciate and that will encourage them to place other orders on your site! 

We also advise you to choose a payment solution that offers automatic detection of the type of bank card being used: a small detail, certainly, but one that will save your buyer a few precious seconds.

In the same spirit, you can also activate the numeric keypad to facilitate the entry of credit card data from a smartphone.

There are so many techniques to make your customer journey more fluid!

3. Improve your conversion rate

Conversion is the nerve of war in e-commerce. How can you counter cart abandonment at the very last step of the purchase process? How do you avoid payment failures?That's what we're going to see in this section!

A responsive and reassuring payment page

First of all, to increase your conversion rate, it is essential to have a simple and reassuring payment page. Some payment solutions allow you to customize your page by adding your logo, your colors, and the background image of your choice.This way, your buyers stay in the world of your brand until the moment of payment, which makes them feel confident. 

You can also opt for a "lightbox" page template, which is displayed directly on the order page and contains many reassuring elements (image of a padlock, "100% secure" mention, logos of accepted card types). 

We encourage you to test different templates to identify the one that will best convert your visitors.

A PSD2 compliant payment solution

The Payment Services Directive 2 (PSD2) aims to improve the security of online transactions. Since May 15, 2021, in France, all digital payments over €30 a reverified using at least two of the following three authentication elements: a password the user knows, a device the user owns (phone, computer), a personal characteristic of the user (fingerprint, facial recognition). This is called strong authentication. 

Eventually, payment solutions should be able to "request" strong or friction less authentication (in which case the user does not need to identify himself),depending on the estimated risk level of the transaction.

Since it adds an extra step in the purchase process, strong authentication can apriori negatively impact your conversion rate. How do you minimize this loss?

• Inform your visitors in advance about the consequences of the PSD2 to avoid payment failures due to a lack of knowledge of the steps to follow;
• Check that your payment solution is compliant with this new directive;
• Choose a solution that generally records little fraud because the issuing banks will have more confidence in the choices it will recommend. 

4. Close sales on all channels

So far, we have given you tips on how to optimize the payment stage on your e-commerce site. But did you know that some payment solutions allow you to cash out your customers directly in your WhatsApp, SMS, or phone exchanges? This is the principle of conversational commerce!

We've put together a complete guide on the subject: we invite you to read it to find out which contact channels to use first, how to configure your chatbot to boost your engagement rate, and what techniques to use to conclude each conversation with a sale.

In concrete terms, all you have to do is send a payment link to your customer during an exchange. All they have to do is click to be redirected to a secure payment page. This way, you offer a truly differentiating shopping experience while generating additional sales! 

As an example, the Laudate store now makes 14% of its sales by phone, thanks to payment links. When a customer calls into the store, especially to place a click & collect order, the salesperson can offer to pay directly by email or SMS. 

5. Conclusion

You now know which levers to activate to improve the payment stage on your site, but also which tools to implement to generate sales on any channel! 

Choose your payment solution carefully, and make sure that it offers features in line with your needs and your customers' expectations. Beyond a simple tool, it must be a real partner that will accompany the growth of your store in the longterm.