Optimising your checkout process
Optimising your checkout process
Payment processing is a make-or-break aspect for any business, and payment optimisation is a key part of that. It is the process of enhancing a business' payment infrastructure and operations to maximise efficiency, security, customer experience, and profitability.
A seamless, streamlined system for customers to complete purchases should be a key focus for all businesses, as without it, there is a risk of declining revenue. Optimising the checkout experience is essential as research has found that 57% of shoppers will abandon their transaction if they have to wait longer than three seconds for the payments page to load.
Smart payment optimisation strategies can fuel business growth by removing friction during checkout. But how can you determine which strategies are right for your business? To help with this, we discuss our recommended best practices for optimising the checkout process below.
General Best Practices:
Certain optimisation strategies work for all businesses. These include:
• Use a clean, uncluttered checkout interface with clear instructions: This simplifies the process for customers as the payment page will be intuitive to use, ensuring the checkout experience is quick and stress-free.
• Use data analytics to monitor transaction trends and patterns: This enables businesses to identify any anomalies that occur or potential issues that may arise. This includes observing declined transactions, disputes and chargebacks to minimise issues like friendly fraud, duplicate chargers and refund delays. By actively monitoring these problem areas, businesses can act swiftly on any reoccurring issues that may be slowing down the checkout process and, in turn, stopping customers completing their transactions.
• Provide customers with a variety of payment methods to accommodate preferences: Different countries and regions have their own preferred, localised payment methods, so this is particularly important for companies selling globally. By offering a variety of payment methods, businesses are more likely to appeal to a wider range of consumers therefore increasing revenue by reducing the number of people abandoning transactions due to their preferred option not being available.
• Configure your fraud detection tools and services: The first step is to implement strong fraud detection tools to identify and prevent fraudulent transactions. However, businesses should also make sure to highlight how secure the payment gateway is to customers. Consider displaying security badges, SSL encryption and data privacy policies to reassure customers that your checkout processes are seamless, robust and safe.
Best practices for specific industries:
While there are general optimisation strategies that all businesses can put into place, there are different ways verticalised businesses can specifically optimise their payment rates. Below, we take a deep dive into two industries – e-commerce and travel and tourism – to explore best practices across these sectors.
Simple, speedy payment processes are vital for e-commerce merchants.
As an industry driven by online purchases, mobile optimisation across e-commerce is king. With 69% of people using smartphones to make online purchases in 2023, ensuring a smooth payment experience across mobile apps and mobile web browsers is important. Failure to do so risks deterring customers from completing transactions and decreasing their likelihood of returning for further purchases.
Furthermore, as consumers have come to expect instantaneous, seamless interactions, e-commerce businesses need to ensure they offer guest checkout. This is because forcing account creation can act as a barrier and may reduce the number of customers who proceed with their transactions. E-commerce businesses must also ensure that they are transparent with pricing. Clearly displaying all costs, including taxes, shipping fees and any additional charges upfront fosters trust and prevents surprises that could lead to abandoned carts at the final checkout stage.
These strategies enable e-commerce retailers to create frictionless payment experiences that meet the demands of today's consumers. Seamless mobile optimisation, guest checkout and transparency pricing contribute to a positive purchasing journey, foster customer loyalty and drive repeat business in a highly competitive online marketplace.
"With 69% of people using smartphones to make online purchases in 2023, ensuring a smooth payment experience across mobile apps and mobile web browsers is important.”
Travel and tourism merchants must prioritise convenient and user-friendly checkout processes.
Travel companies should also consider offering a live chat or customer support pop-up. Many questions and concerns can arise when checking out, so having readily available assistance to promptly resolve any issues that arise will prevent booking abandonment. With over one-third of shoppers wanting more personalisation, travel and tourism businesses should leverage customer payments data to offer relevant deals, packages and add-ons that can be seamlessly included in the current transaction. This approach both facilitates convenient travel planning for the consumer and optimises the checkout process, therefore driving higher conversion rates.
At its core, payment optimisation achieves three critical outcomes: boosting acceptance rates, reducing fraud and improving customer satisfaction. Collectively these improvements drive high conversation rates and increase revenue. Not only this, but, payments optimisation also helps merchants cultivate loyal customer relationships through seamless and secure payment interactions, therefore encouraging repeat business. Ultimately, payment optimisation enables businesses to extract maximum value from their checkout processes for the best business results and those who put these practices into motion will reap the rewards.
