Online payments: more than a tick in the checkout
Online payments are a necessary evil for many entrepreneurs: just like in the garden centre, it is a small step in the purchase process and, let's be honest, what's exciting about making an online payment? However, if you consider that 6% of visitors leave your webshop because they miss a payment method, you immediately know that a lot of improvement is possible.
In this blog, we explain how a good payment strategy ensures more sales in your webshop.
The standard: credit cards & PayPal
Every webshop should at least offer credit card payments & PayPal as methods. Credit- or debit cards are still the default for most online shoppers in English-speaking countries.
While accepting credit cards is the default, you also need to keep in mind customers may have various brands of cards. Make sure your webshop accepts the most popular cards based on market shares:
- Visa, 59%
- Mastercard, 39%
- American Express, 1%
- Others including Diners, 1%
As you can see Visa and Mastercard are by far the most popular credit card brands in Europe. We also understand the popularity of credit cards: the actual payment with a credit card is pushed forward: the customer enjoys an online purchase, the pain of the payment only follows a few weeks (or months) later.
For customers who don’t have a credit card, PayPal is a good option.
The mobile webshop: Apple Pay & Google Pay
More than 60% of webshop visitors come from a smartphone, so it is important to offer this group a simple payment process. Both Apple and Google have developed a good solution for this so that the customer can pay with one tap on the screen. You probably noticed the popularity of using a smartphone in your garden centre already: you have to be sure you accept these methods on your webshop as well!
As far as we are concerned, every webshop in 2022 must therefore offer Apple Pay and Google Pay. The growth of these payment options (called eWallet) is clearly visible in these figures from the UK:
Apple Pay or Google Play is not a traditional bank account or credit card: the consumer links his existing bank account or credit card to his smartphone and can use it from that moment on. In the store via wireless payment, but also online. Because it is very easy to make the payment, this significantly lowers the barrier to finalising an online order.
Customer-friendly: pay afterwards & in instalments
Paying afterwards is attractive for many consumers and credit cards offer an opportunity to do so. But a credit card is not necessary: you can offer to make payments through a party such as Klarna or Afterpay.
Is that necessary? Klarna has a market share of 2% and has grown by no less than 51% in 2021. A market share of 2% sounds modest, but that means that 1 in 50 orders is settled via Klarna!
The risk of non-payment does not lie with you as the business owner, but with Klarna. While completing the payment, Klarna does an automated online check and then determines whether the payment can be made or not. If Klarna estimates the risk too high, this payment method cannot be used by the consumer and they have to pick another method.
After the order has been completed, Klarna will keep in touch with the customer and ask him to pay: you are not involved anymore in that process.
As an extra option, you can also have payments made in instalments via Klarna or parties such as IN3. Instead of a one-off payment in advance or afterwards, the customer can then pay in three or more parts.
Adding the option to pay afterwards and/or in instalments can give a significant boost to the turnover in your webshop, especially if you sell more expensive products such as barbecues and garden furniture.
Smart: digital gift cards
With a market share of only 2%, digital gift cards are not very high on the list of most popular payment methods. But we still think it is smart to offer one or more digital gift cards as a payment method in your garden centre webshop. You can accept the HTA National Garden Gift Voucher on your webshop or team up with generic gift cards like One4All.
With gift card payments, 41% of transactions people buy more than the value of the card itself, so there is definitely potential.
Of course, it is also possible to sell a digital gift card yourself via your webshop, but in this blog, we focus on gift cards from external parties.
More options = more orders!
You now know which payment methods are available and why you should offer them. In general, more payment methods lead to more orders. In addition, for most payment methods you only pay a small fee if it is used rather than monthly subscriptions, so there is no reason not to take a critical look at the payment options in your webshop.
Want to learn more about optimising your webshop checkout? Contact us to schedule a call.
