How to make online payments easy for your customers

Are you looking to expand your online payment options? Here’s how you can make digital payments a seamless and smooth experience for your customers.

There has never been a greater need for businesses to be able to accommodate digital payments. Even before the pandemic, cash payments were on the decline with just 30% of in-person payments in 2019 being made with cash. In light of the COVID-19 crisis, that number has no doubt dropped even further.

 

Here we explore ways businesses of all types and sizes can make digital payments a seamless experience for their customers.

Operational benefits of using digital payments

There are many pros for business owners when it comes to offering digital payments instead of cash. 

 

These include:

• Efficiency: Going cashless means payments can be processed faster.
• Cost savings: You don't need to worry about the cost involved in transporting takings to the bank.
• Risk management: Automatic reconciliation is much quicker and reduces the chances of human error while counting cash.
• Managing payments: Managing bills is simpler. BPAY® makes it easy to stay on top of paying bills and Osko® lets you make and receive near real-time payments.

The benefits of digital payments for customers

There are many more benefits to going cashless:

 

• It's faster: Digital payments will almost always be quicker than paying with cash. This means shorter queues and less time spent waiting to be served.
• It's more convenient: Thanks to applications like tap and go and mobile wallets customers don’t need to carry cash around or make trips to the ATM - especially as some merchants are opting to go completely cashless.
• It's safer: A recent study by Australia's national science agency, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, revealed that COVID-19 can survive on surfaces such as bank notes for up to 28 days, significantly longer than thought previously. As a result, fears of contamination through handling cash are also fuelling the preference for cashless payment options.

Making digital payments easier for customers

Regardless of whether your business makes sales out of a bricks-and-mortar space or via an online store, it's important to eliminate as many barriers to purchase as possible. This means lowering minimums to pay on cards and offering your customers different options for paying digitally. 

If making a sale in person, offering the most common tap and go options should cover most bases. You could also consider lowering minimums to pay digitally and eliminating transaction fee charges to make paying cashless more appealing.

If your sales occur online, there are a few things to keep in mind:

• Allow your customers to check out as guests. Making them register takes time and can create a purchase barrier and cause frustration. 
• Try not to ask for too much information. Forcing customers to fill out lengthy forms can increase the risk of them dropping off and you losing the sale.
• Follow the three-click rule to purchase: After they land on your website or online store, it shouldn't take more than three clicks for them to make a purchase, which helps to ensure a streamlined and pleasant customer journey experience.
• Make your business trustworthy. Be sure to display security and trustworthy badges on your site. While an SSL Certification can help assure customers that your website is safe, it is still not 100% guaranteed.

 

Need help getting setting up digital payments for your business? Start by applying for a Westpac business transaction account.