If you’ve been in the ecommerce business for a while, then by now you are very aware that the right payment platform is an essential part of any online store’s success. It’s not just about receiving payments from your clients. A Payment Service Provider – or PSP – will add a number of benefits to your ecommerce, such as:
An enhanced checkout experience and reduced payment friction
A research carried out by MasterCard has shown that 16% of online customers leave items in their carts “all of the time” without completing the purchase due to checkout complexity; another 17% answered they abandon the cart “most of the time.” A direct checkout with simplified steps and a large payment offering helps encourage consumers to complete the purchase, thus increasing your conversion rates.
Reduced chargeback rates
Different from a payment gateway, a Payment Service Provider usually offers a comprehensive set of solutions, including an anti-fraud tool. This is also something to consider when choosing a payment processor, as this tool is an important element in reducing chargeback rates.
However, choosing the right PSP for your business is not an easy task. Trusting your business’s finances to a supplier is a tough call, and not finding the best fit for your online store may result in a number of complications from the very start – from a complex integration to lower conversion rates than expected. For that matter, we’ve listed below a few things to consider when choosing a PSP.
Five things to consider before choosing a PSP for your ecommerce
When choosing a partner, many businesses focus on mainly one thing: settlement and processing fees. However, reduced fees won’t necessarily mean increased revenue, because…
- Conversion rates matter more than fees
It’s simple math. If your store offers a simplified and direct checkout that provides an excellent experience, provides a wide range of payment methods and increases authorization rates, it is very likely your conversion rates will also rise.
Of course, fees aren’t to be completely ignored: taking all costs into consideration is a very wise procedure when choosing a PSP. However, not considering the quality of the service, as well as your customer’s checkout experience, will eventually harm your conversion rates.
- Payment methods and special features
One of the elements that accounts for increased conversion rates is offering a wide range of payment methods – especially when working with specific markets such as Brazil.
In a country with high cash reliance and where the boleto bancário represents 19% of all online sales, according to Webshoppers report, offering local payment methods is crucial for any ecommerce that wishes to succeed in Brazil.
In addition to providing the most popular payment methods, companies that offer solutions focused on innovation are also interesting partners for your ecommerce business. Presenting alternative payment methods that enable more customers to purchase online – such as PagBrasil’s PEC Flash® – are important drivers for increasing conversion rates.
Further, choosing a partner that offers features that reduce payment friction and encourage second conversion opportunities are also meaningful aspects to consider.
- Integration
Flexible integrations are important aspects to account for, as this allows quick and easy onboarding, enabling your business to start receiving online payments in a few steps.
Merchants working with ecommerce platforms should take into special consideration a PSP that offers extensions to the platform they are working with. This provides fast access to all of the payment methods provided, in addition to multiple features and services that help boost your sales.
- Customer support
Every business faces a few complications and dilemmas once in a while, and you want to make sure you will have a trusted partner by your side to guarantee your needs will be properly attended to. In addition, the ideal customer support will also assist you with the best services you might need, depending on your business model and your online store’s maturity level.
- Reliability
Recently, a concerning case in Brazil regarding a large payment platform for ecommerce businesses has brought to the market’s attention the importance of verifying the company’s history before closing on a partnership: global platform Rakuten sold its Brazilian operations to GenComm, which months later filed in a judicial recovery plan. Many merchants were significantly harmed and unable to receive the payments for their sales
Looking into a company’s history might be tough – and often misleading – as we may deduce from the scenario above. However, there are many ways to learn more about the company you are considering, such as reading articles on the media, verifying what partners the company works with, and looking into their main clients. These are a few measures to secure you will be working with a serious service provider.
When choosing a Payment Service Provider, merchants must take into careful consideration a number of elements. If you are looking for a partner to process payment in Brazil, be sure to contact us for further information!
