A recent study by payments platform Paysafe has found 52% of customers worldwide are keen to see more payment options available for use at the checkout.
The study harvested opinion from 1,100 small-to-medium sized companies worldwide that operate both online and in-store regarding how their payment offerings have evolved over the past year.
Paysafe found in the study that the pandemic accelerated the majority of online businesses’ – 61% – plans to upgrade their checkout as a result of them seeing consumer payment preferences changing, which came to 65% of respondents.
However, the research found that respondents had identified key bottlenecks in the checkout process that were providing to be a hinderance. For example, 40% of those surveyed said they saw cart abandonment levels as more than a minor issue, while 41% recorded an increase in fraudulent transactions since the start of the pandemic.
This checkout problem has become so much of an issue for some respondents, that reliability has now overtaken cost and security as the most common priority for online firms when searching for a payments partner – with 42% backing reliability over 32% and 26% for cost and security respectively.
How are vendors tackling this? The research found that offering alternative payment methods is becoming increasingly key to online companies, with digital wallets and eCash among some of the favourites.
Paysafe found that up to 61% of online firms were now offering digital wallets and 67% had seen an increase in the percentage of sales completed via this method in the last year. Elsewhere, 29% are offering eCash and 35% plan to in the next 12 months.
Online companies are also turning their eyes to cryptocurrencies. Close to half – 48% of all businesses are aiming to offer cryptocurrencies in their checkout as soon as possible, while 59% believe this will help them expand into new countries.
Fraud is still a massive problem for many online companies and is in some cases growing bigger than ever before. A third of online firms said they are an easy target for fraudsters, while 34% said they were uncompetitive on fraud prevention. Despite 59% of respondents claiming they believe having more payment methods available is an effective strategy to cut fraud, 31% don’t feel they have the tools necessary to minimise fraudulent activity at their checkout.
Paysafe CEO of integrated and ecommerce solutions Paulette Rowe added, “Since the start of the pandemic, more and more online businesses have learnt the hard way that not having a frictionless or secure check-out experience will kill their sales. On top of that, shoppers are now demanding a wider choice of alternative payments methods than ever before – such as digital wallets and eCash – and our research indicates this is not likely to diminish.
“With the holiday season now upon us, reflecting the busiest online shopping time of the year, those who get it right will come out strong and avoid high rates of cart abandonment. For those who are still catching up, it’s actually easier to resolve than they might realise, but they should address this fast and work with a payments partner which can meet their specific needs, offering the broad range of payment methods that consumers demand today.”
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