There are various options for online payment which can be useful for you as an online entrepreneur, you must provide as many options as you can for your e-commerce website.
As per the research conducted by Cyber Source Corp, it was observed that websites which provide 4 or more options for payment apart from credit cards have made sales conversion rate of twelve percent greater than those which offer just 1 option for online payment apart from credit cards.
If you have more online payment options in your website, then there will be more transactions in your website and you can make more money. There are various options for online payment that can be provided in your website,
1) Payments through Credit cards
If you provide only one mode of online payment in your website to customers, then credit card payment is the best one to prefer. Credit cards are most famous method for purchase of services and goods online.
In order to allow credit card payments in your website, (Discover, American Express, Visa, MasterCard), you must have Internet Merchant account.
You must get an Internet merchant account with help of your local banks. In order to allow processing of all major credit card types in your website, you should obtain the Internet merchant account from 2 separate banks since most banks deal only few of credit cards. Alternatively, you could get an Internet merchant account with 3 rd party account providers like PSiGate, Moneris, InternetSecure and Beanstream.
The benefits of obtaining an Internet merchant account with help of 3 rd party merchant account providers is that you will not need to pay security deposits, which is required in case of banks. Furthermore, these accounts are set up very quickly and usually provided with a lot of e-commerce service packages, which is inclusive of shopping cart and (Web point of sale) Internet gateway that is required for online processing of credit cards.
But one drawback is that they charge very high fees and the discount fees will especially be higher if you have created the internet merchant account through local banks.
You will definitely require buying an Internet gateway service is you wish to get an Internet merchant account. The Internet gateway shall verify the customer information and authorize credit card information in real time and transfer the requests. Most of e-commerce websites will have credit card payment option apart from Pay pal and other online payment mode.
2) PayPal
PayPal is considered to be best online payment solution and their payments standard program accept MasterCard, American Express, Visa and Discover credit card payments and also payments through bank transfer apart from money exchange through Paypal account without any registration fees, cancellation fees or monthly fees. PayPal will charge a free ranging from 1.9%-2.9% of transactions apart from 30 cents for every order, based on the sales volume of the company.
PayPal also provides upgraded version of Website payments standard which is known as Website Payment Pro, in which customers can check out through your website rather than through the Paypal website and this option is available currently only in United states.
They also provide a PayPal Express Checkout option and PayFlow gateway for business which have internet merchant account already.
3) Payment through Debit Cards
Debit card payments are most preferred by Canadians and as per Interac Association, there are more than 35 million debit cards in usage in Canada. There have been more than 3 billion Interac direct payment transactions which is worth an amount of 140 billion dollars in 2006 and number of payments through debit cards is increasing around 5 percent each year in Canada.
With such increasing number, you should definitely provide debit card payment option in your online shopping website if you want to reach more customers.
Interac Online is a method of payment which permits customers to pay directly for services and goods online from their bank accounts. It is very secure and comfortable for customers since they need have to provide any of their debit card of financial information during purchase, payment will be made directly through their own banks.
In order to provide Interac online in your website, you should go through their online payment service providers like Internet Secure, Psigate, iCongo, Moneris or Beanstream or through their certified acquirers.
UseMyBank is a reputed Canadian concern which offers debit payment services online. Similar to Interac Online, the transactions will be made through their own banks and payments will be debited from their chosen bank account. The fees will be evaluated depending on account activation as per their website. And the minimum fee for a transaction will be 1.5$ and discount rate will be from 1.5-5 percent of the transaction as per the website. Also, they charge an account maintenance fee. In order to make use of this payment mode in your website, you can apply for the account in the UseMyBank website.
4) Also provide options for Offline payment
Some of the potential customers might not find it comfortable to use any online payment methods and might prefer talking to live person. If you want to make more money and reach more number of customers, it is very important that you provide an option for such type of people also. You must provide an order form in customers can enter the details and email or snail mail if they wish and you should also have a toll-free number which allows customers to contact easily.
More Number of options for Online Payment is better:
The amount of sales you make determines the success of your online business. So, you must provide more options for customers to buy and have various online payment options. If you limit the number of payment modes, you are limiting the transactions made by your potential customers which can decrease your overall sales. You must try to make as much sales as possible by providing all types of online payment to your prospective customers.
