5 essential steps to a seamless online payment system

The world is innovating rapidly and payment technology is no different. For instance, mobile wallets are becoming increasingly popular as an alternative payment method.¹ As fraud detection and data security evolve, enterprises now possess the capability to take their e-payment systems to unprecedented new heights.

When it comes to online payment systems, your ideal business partner should be able to help you efficiently resolve payment platform problems. Similarly, they can provide you with the right tools to enhance payment processes with ease. They’ll assist you on the road to success with the best online payment system, instead of slowing you down, to help you drive conversions and boost your revenue through a global and streamlined experience.

Step 1: Optimise conversions with the right e-payment system
The first step to creating a seamless purchase experience is to optimise conversions. Think of a shopping cart as a lobby, one which welcomes potential customers to the buying phase. On reaching this lobby, they might turn back around if they find there’s no one at the front desk. Likewise, complicated checkout processes and outdated payment platforms can result in abandoned purchases and additional acquisition cost.

Consumers want more options in today’s connected world. In fact, 46 percent of smartphone users utilise peer-to-peer payment apps frequently.² Younger consumers are also leading the trend in the use of digital wallets across the globe.³ But only 29 percent of online merchants accept mobile wallets for transactions.⁴ Savvy business owners can use this as part of their merchant services to gain a competitive edge.

An optimal payment solution will also reduce the number of clicks throughout the purchase process. Consumers are less likely to waste time filling out tedious forms just as they are less likely to wait around the front desk. In other words, fewer clicks can lead to more conversions.

Take the first step with PayPal Complete Payments for Enterprise

• It’s not wise to make customers wait. Capture more conversions when you speed up transactions with PayPal Checkout.
• Adopt the latest payment methods. We are the only platform that offers credit and debit, PayPal as well as digital wallets such as Apple Pay and Google Pay.

Step 2: Enhance customer lifetime value (LTV)
After optimising the checkout experience, enterprises can capture new customers by taking their e-payment system to the next level. Just as important, enterprises need to ensure these customers keep coming back. As the common saying in business goes, it takes five times more money to gain a new customer than to retain an existing one. Features such as real-time updates, card-on-file and credit options help enterprises to secure repeat business, maximise LTV and increase purchase size.

Going back to our metaphor, repeat customers have moved past the lobby and are looking at the VIP lounge. Convenience affects brand loyalty, so if customers need to re-enter their payment information or repeatedly log in to make monthly payments, their LTV may decrease. To send customers to the “VIP lounge” where they may make more purchases, enterprises require a flexible payment platform which supports recurring payments, secure data storage and automatic updates on card information.

There’s more to the LTV equation than seamless repeat purchases. For example, the value of each purchase matters just as much as the number of purchases. Enterprises offering short-term financing choices which provide consumers with the confidence and flexibility to make a larger purchase give them an added edge.

Secure the second step with PayPal Complete Payments for Enterprise

• Automatically update card data at the time of purchase with PayPal’s real-time account updating feature.
• Store card information securely in our Customer Vault for card-on-file transactions as well as recurring payments and subscriptions.

Step 3: Secure your transactions
Unauthorised network access, fraud and chargebacks can affect customer trust. This, in turn, can hurt your revenue. As a result, enterprises need to minimise risk and maximise compliance. In merchant services, a payment platform which incorporates the latest security tools can help businesses safeguard against fraudsters and boost profits.

Fraud is a serious matter and it shouldn’t be overlooked. Excessive chargebacks may prompt card issuers to shut down transactions, thereby threatening your business’ viability. The fight against fraud is a never-ending struggle, and there’s nothing friendly about “friendly” fraud either. In 2020, 57 percent of businesses suffered increasing losses due to fraud compared to the year before.⁵ Those with sufficient resources mentioned they would rather spend on customer acquisition and retention than security enhancements.

Data breaches can also compromise customer information with serious consequences, such as the Equifax breach in 2017 which exposed the data of 147 million people. Two years later, 383 million Marriott guest records were hacked. These records included sensitive data such as passport numbers and card information. Such breaches, as you can imagine, pose a real danger to business reputations — 20 percent of consumers will refrain from providing data to a merchant who disclosed a hack.⁶

Progress to Step 3 with PayPal Complete Payments for Enterprise

• Leverage PayPal features such as 3D Secure and CVV checks to identify user behaviour patterns to lower fraud incidences and improve authentication rates.
• Manage customer data with the latest encryption, monitoring techniques and network tokenisation to help reduce reputational risk.
• Review transactions regularly for signs of fraud. Driven by Simility technology, PayPal Fraud Protection uses Adaptive Decisioning to make AI-informed decisions to assess fraud risk.

Step 4: Enhance your online e-payment system
Changing regulations, outdated technologies and chargeback disputes can add to the rising cost of doing business. By streamlining internal operations, including your online payment system, enterprises can reduce both wasted resources and avoidable expenditures.

Integrating different payment methods for various partners and vendors is a complicated and time-consuming task. Applying separate reporting (or no reporting) can leave companies clueless on how to resolve back-end issues such as system outages or high decline rates. Such issues and challenges not only consume precious time and resources, they may eventually affect sales conversions too.

To improve efficiency, enterprises require tools which enable them to maximise their capacity to accept payments while minimising the required resources. For example, a single e-payment system which handles multiple functions, and one that is agile and scalable to meet customers’ changing demands. An accurate dashboard can reveal what’s happening in the gateway, such that business owners can put an end to high decline rates to capture more sales. In addition, an online e-payment system which sustains a longer uptime also mitigates unforeseen outages, hence allowing enterprises to be there for consumers when they are ready to make a purchase.

Step up to Step 4 with PayPal Complete Payments for Enterprise

• PayPal Complete Payments for Enterprise is dependable, agile and ready to be deployed across nearly any market, including cross border ecommerce applications.
• Save time and reduce operational worries with our consolidated reporting and disputes API. Through comprehensive unified reporting, you can analyse decline rates, view transaction summaries, examine fees, run settlement batch summaries and prepare custom reports.

Step 5: Scale with cross border ecommerce
In any business, there are always new challenges to overcome and new global markets to penetrate. Enterprises must navigate different regulatory environments, manage risk and cut costs, while providing customers with the same seamless experience they have come to expect. Essentially, the right payment platform can help your business scale across markets with minimal fuss.

Major compliance standards — PCI, SOC2, PSD2 and 3DS1 — vary from market to market, however, a reputable worldwide payment system changes with them. Local partners, by offering on-the-ground insights, enable enterprises to stay ahead of regulatory shifts while helping them mitigate inherent risks in the global market.

Simply accepting local currencies alone is no longer enough for enterprises, even though they are still vital. To provision for new and seamless market entry, businesses need to offer relevant local payment options as well as globally-accepted digital wallets. And as a result, build relevance and increase customer LTV on a global level.

Complete Step 5 with PayPal Complete Payments for Enterprise

• Access a comprehensive network with over 400 million active users worldwide who use PayPal.⁷
• Offer customers a secure and trusted way to pay with PayPal, on top of their favoured local payment channels, all via a single e-payment system.
• Enjoy support from local teams with global knowledge to help you navigate evolving regulatory and compliance landscapes with ease.

PayPal Complete Payments for Enterprise. We do much more than process transactions and collect fees. We’ll help you examine your payment strategy to discover areas for improvement you never knew were there.