How Can Online Payment Platforms Influence The B2C Relationship

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Online Payment Platforms

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In many discussions about online commerce, marketing takes priority. Web layout, ease of use, and other factors are often talked about as well. While all of these elements of e-commerce have a heavy influence on your company’s relationship with consumers, there is another aspect that is often overlooked but is also essential: online payment platform.

Understanding how your choice of online payment platform affects your business to customer (B2C) relationship is an important part of ensuring your e-commerce runs smoothly and effectively. Consider the following ways the platform you choose for online payment influences B2C:

Online Payment Platforms are Regularly Used by Consumers

If your business is succeeding at e-commerce, consumers are making purchases using your online payment platform. That means that every day, your customer base will interact with the tool you choose. Every time your customers reach the end of the e-commerce sales funnels, they will make their purchase online.

As a result of this reality, your payment platform has a big responsibility. Don’t underestimate how important user experience is when it comes to paying online. Consumers can purchase most products on different websites if they think your payment platform is hard to navigate, unreliable, or insecure.

Money is at Stake with Online Payment Platforms

As the saying goes “money talks.” Consumers value their hard-earned dollars and won’t expose themselves to financial risks. Since making a transaction using an online payment platform requires people to give their financial information to your business, the platform you use needs to be trustworthy.

Factors that make a payment platform appear reliable to consumers who want to make purchases securely include:

  • The platforms’ reputation
  • If the platform requires captcha checking or other anti-fraud measures
  • Professional looking design

Choose a payment platform that positively boasts these features in order to show customers their transaction will be secure.

Customer Service Addresses Online Payment Platform Problems

Sometimes platforms and other web tools break or malfunction. Since money is at stake, payment platforms with issues can make customers upset easily. If problems cannot be resolved quickly, customer service can usually expect to have a problem on their hands.

Select a platform that offers built-in support and reasonable customer service availability. Many payment platforms online will provide consumer service directly to your customers if they have a problem processing a payment. Check reviews to be sure other businesses’ customers have positive experiences with the platform’s service assistance. Find out the kinds of customer service tools the platforms offer (email, live chat, phone support, etc.)

Convenience Affects Consumer Choice

Since consumers can usually easily find products and services offered on other websites by other businesses, it’s important to make your entire sales funnel as convenient as possible. Convenience is a primary factor in consumer decision making processes. When considering payment platform options, look at convenience factors such as:

  • How long it takes consumers to make a purchase using the platform
  • The forms of payment the platform can accept
  • Policies for disputes and refunds
  • Load time and integration into existing website
  • Available buttons pre-designed to make buying easy
  • One-click buying options
  • The countries the platform is available in

Forms of payment accepted, for example, can make or break a transaction. Consumers want to be able to use whatever payment form they want, including online cash or checking accounts, credit cards, and even electronic checks.

Take the time to compare these factors between multiple online payment platforms. For example, look at what the Stripe or Braintree platforms offer in terms of convenient design and features that will benefit both your business and your customers.

Fees Affect Prices Offered Online

Watch out for hidden fees when you are choosing between online payment platforms. Most platforms charge transaction fees, but the types of fees and rates vary widely. Obviously this affects your business costs, but in the long run, it can also affect your B2C relationship.

For example, if you have to charge higher prices for good online to make for transaction fee losses, consumers may not opt to support your e-commerce- or your business. Choose a platform you can afford to use without inflating your product costs enough to affect customers.

Retention Rates Can be Positively or Negatively Influenced

By the time your customers reach the end of the sales funnel, they are ready to make their purchase. Many customers spend considerable amounts of time browsing online, making comparisons, and finally choosing a product or service to purchase. After all the time they put in, once they’ve made a decision they just want to finish up and make their transaction.

If consumers reach the point of the transaction just to find an online payment platform they find frustrating or ineffective, they may not return to your business. As a result, your customer retention rate will suffer. On the other hand, a positive transaction experience that makes customers say “that was easy” can enhance customer loyalty. Keep customer experience in mind as you research, compare, and decide which platform to use for your online business.

Hassan Mansoor
Hassan Mansoor is the Founder and Director at Technical Minds Web. After completing Masters in Business Administration, he established a small digital marketing agency with the primary focus to help the small business owners to grow their online businesses. Being a small entrepreneur, he has learned from project management, and day to day staff management and staff productivity. He's a regular contributor on Business.com.

3 COMMENTS

  1. Yes, Online E-commerce businesses are rising.

    Online Shopping or way of payment is booming since 3-4 years.

    But one question comes into my mind, “are we secure while doing online payment?”

  2. Thanks Ketan for your comment!

    Yes, online payments are secure but the same time payment scams are also there. The main responsibility is still lying on the client to make sure the payment security before going for payment.

  3. Online bill paying is safe when you choose the right bill payment service. Typically, an online bill pay service that is backed by a bank or a company that provides online banking services will be safe and reliable. Online bill paying is much safer, for example, than handing a credit card to a waiter at a restaurant.

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