Being an online retailer has never been so good. As we slowly but surely ease out of the recession towards the busiest time of the retail year, people are not strapped for cash, but are still on the look out cheap deals on-line. More and more people are gaining confidence to step in from the high street and look online for the best deals, particularly that once wary bracket of consumers aged 45 and over, who are putting more trust in the e-commerce way of life.
It would be easy to relax and watch the orders flood in, though, as we all know, being complacent in the world of online retail can be a dangerous path to take. Shopping cart abandonment has shown little sign of dropping from it's 2008 level of 75% (Core Metric(US) 2008 - also confirmed by merchants I speak with on a day to day basis), meaning that 3/4 customers with items in their basket aren't finishing the online shopping life cycle.
Watching from the other side, working in the payments industry, the reasons behind such high drop out levels is all too clear. There are multiple key reasons, one of which I shall focus on here, e-walets, and the others in subsequent posts, namely:
- E-wallets
- International vs Local payment methods
- Bank Transfers
- Security and Anti-Fraud
- M-payments (mobile payments)
E-Wallets:
Otherwise known as ''digital wallets', e-wallets are an electronic way of storing money that allows for quick, secure transfers and payments. Rather than fumbling around for a list of card details, users merely have to use an email address and password. This simplified payment method encourages higher customer conversion due to the benefit of not requiring a card to be present and the speed of being able to pay.
The major international e-Wallets:
e-wallet Account holders: Main Markets:
PayPal 140 million North America and Europe
AliPay 300 million China
Moneybookers 15 million Europe
DineroMail 2 million Latin America
Other main wallets:
Moneta, WebMoney and Yandex in Russia
Click & Buy in Germany
Depending on the geographical location of where a merchant sells their products, checkout pages need to offer options to their customers to pay to maximise conversion. If you discover that your checkout abandonment is high from international shoppers, perhaps in South America for example, consider that only 80% of credit cards issued in Latin America are accepted internationally (DineroMail, 2010) and that payment preference is e-wallet. This is the same story for many nations, and with e-wallet payments being by-far the world's fasted growing payment method, it could be costly not to factor in this payment option for customers.
Conclusion:
Consider where your customers and potential customers are based, and consider the question, 'is everyone able to use their preferred payment method on my site?'. If the answer to this question is 'no', applying the relevant e-wallet option to your checkout page could be the first step to increasing you customer conversion, staying ahead of the competition, and maximising those Christmas sales.
Dan Robertson
It would be easy to relax and watch the orders flood in, though, as we all know, being complacent in the world of online retail can be a dangerous path to take. Shopping cart abandonment has shown little sign of dropping from it's 2008 level of 75% (Core Metric(US) 2008 - also confirmed by merchants I speak with on a day to day basis), meaning that 3/4 customers with items in their basket aren't finishing the online shopping life cycle.
Watching from the other side, working in the payments industry, the reasons behind such high drop out levels is all too clear. There are multiple key reasons, one of which I shall focus on here, e-walets, and the others in subsequent posts, namely:
- E-wallets
- International vs Local payment methods
- Bank Transfers
- Security and Anti-Fraud
- M-payments (mobile payments)
E-Wallets:
Otherwise known as ''digital wallets', e-wallets are an electronic way of storing money that allows for quick, secure transfers and payments. Rather than fumbling around for a list of card details, users merely have to use an email address and password. This simplified payment method encourages higher customer conversion due to the benefit of not requiring a card to be present and the speed of being able to pay.
The major international e-Wallets:
e-wallet Account holders: Main Markets:
PayPal 140 million North America and Europe
AliPay 300 million China
Moneybookers 15 million Europe
DineroMail 2 million Latin America
Other main wallets:
Moneta, WebMoney and Yandex in Russia
Click & Buy in Germany
 |
| With nearly 500 million account holders between these 4 methods alone, e-wallets are the fastest growing payment method in the world |
Depending on the geographical location of where a merchant sells their products, checkout pages need to offer options to their customers to pay to maximise conversion. If you discover that your checkout abandonment is high from international shoppers, perhaps in South America for example, consider that only 80% of credit cards issued in Latin America are accepted internationally (DineroMail, 2010) and that payment preference is e-wallet. This is the same story for many nations, and with e-wallet payments being by-far the world's fasted growing payment method, it could be costly not to factor in this payment option for customers.
Conclusion:
Consider where your customers and potential customers are based, and consider the question, 'is everyone able to use their preferred payment method on my site?'. If the answer to this question is 'no', applying the relevant e-wallet option to your checkout page could be the first step to increasing you customer conversion, staying ahead of the competition, and maximising those Christmas sales.
Dan Robertson
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