Categories
Marketing

How to improve your online checkout process

Online shopping is a billion-dollar industry, and you likely use it often. There’s nothing more disappointing than to find out you’re only halfway done when you start entering your credit card information. Why? Simply put, many things can derail your checkout process and make it much less efficient.
To help you optimize your process and increase the likelihood of completing a purchase, we’ve created this handy guide on how to streamline your layout, reduce distractions on the page, and install a payment plugin.

1. Consider editing the layout of your checkout area

• Reduce text to improve load time.

• Use a separate button for each address.

• Make the order summary section short and sweet.

• Get rid of the order confirmation email and corresponding link inside your cart.

• Hide checkout buttons that don’t apply to your store and only display what you need.

2. Minimize distractions on your checkout page

These distractions can keep customers from paying attention to the one thing that matters most, the checkout screen.

• Get rid of anything that’s not on the checkout page. This includes other navigation options such as “about us” pages, help sections, shipping options, etc. Have only one checkout button that’s visible at all times.

• Get rid of anything that doesn’t apply to the checkout process in your store. This includes options for product customizations, sub-categories, and separate tabs for each product variation (for example, color). Display only one option as the default and hide all non-checkout options from view.

• Get rid of any unnecessary product variations or options. For example, don’t show individual items on your order page if you sell products in sets or bulk quantities. Do this by adding a unique “no items” option to the cart area, just like a regular product. This will make it easier for your customers to view and select the correct type of product they want without getting distracted by all your other options.

• Remove excessive text and use only images to explain the process. For example, instead of writing that shipping costs vary depending on the delivery type, place a picture of a map with the different zones marked “Free” or “Low Cost.”

3. Get a Payment Page Plugin from Payment Page

A payment page plugin is a great way to ensure your checkout process is as streamlined as possible. It allows you to do away with any page redirects and consolidate everything into one easy-to-use page. In addition, you can easily customize the payment page to include billing options such as PayPal, Stripe, and Google Checkout.

As you can see, ensuring your checkout process is as streamlined as possible will help you increase the likelihood of completing a sale. And that’s exactly what every online retailer strives to do to get customers to buy more products.

Payment Page is a fantastic way to start accepting payments on your WordPress site. Check out our pricing for details or download the free version.
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WordPress Accepting Online Payments PayPal

How To Integrate PayPal Into Your Website Using Payment Page WordPress Plugin

Wouldn’t it be great if your customers could make payments right on your website? It saves customers time and improves their overall experience.

To do that, you need to integrate an online payment gateway into your website.

PayPal is one of the most popular online payment gateways, trusted by 429 million users worldwide. PayPal’s available in 200 countries and supports 25 currencies.

Adding a PayPal-powered payment page to your WordPress website is simple. WordPress plugins, like Payment Page, make it possible.

Let’s go over how PayPal works and how to use Payment Page to integrate PayPal into your WordPress website:

How PayPal Works

Payment Page WordPress Plugin for PayPal

How To Integrate PayPal Into Your Website

Final Thoughts: Using Payment Page Plugin for WordPress PayPal Integration

How PayPal Works

PayPal acts as an intermediary between online merchants and customers. It enables customers to pay using methods like credit cards, debit cards, or their PayPal balance.

So, when a customer completes a payment, PayPal works with the customer’s bank to collect the money. Then, it transfers the money to the merchant’s account.

PayPal Payment Gateway Fees

You don’t need to pay recurring subscription fees to accept payments through PayPal. Instead, PayPal charges a fee whenever a merchant receives payment:

PayPal Checkout: 3.49% + a fixed fee based on currency received

Standard debit and credit payments: 2.99% + fixed fee

Pay with Venmo: 3.49% + fixed fee

Alternate payment methods (like Apple Pay or Google Pay): 2.59% + fixed fee

 

Note: PayPal charges an additional 1.5% fee on international transactions.

Using PayPal on WordPress To Accept Payments

You have multiple options to integrate PayPal into your WordPress website.

PayPal Payments Standard

PayPal payments standard lets you create simple payment buttons for your WordPress website. PayPal generates an HTML code for your payment button, and then you just need to embed the code on your website.

PayPal payment buttons are simple to create, but they’re only useful if your requirements are simple. They don’t support advanced customization options or multiple payment plans.

Payment Page WordPress Plugin for PayPal

If you want to go beyond the basic PayPal payment button, try Payment Page WordPress plugin. It empowers you to create beautiful payment forms powered by PayPal right on your website.

Payment Page offers advanced features for:

  • Creating fully-customized payment pages
  • Adding complex pricing plans — subscriptions and one-time payments
  • Accepting payments in 135+ currencies

Let’s see what Payment Page can do for your online business.

Multiple Payment Plans

Payment Page supports multiple payment plans suitable for any online business. For example:

  • Creators can set up subscription plans
  • Consultants can create multiple consultation forms
  • NGOs can accept custom amounts and recurring payments

Multiple Payment Methods

Payment Page gives your customers the flexibility to pay through different payment methods supported by PayPal:

  • Payment through their PayPal account
  • Payment using credit or debit card without a PayPal account

More payment methods are coming soon:

What’s Needed To Accept PayPal Payments Through Payment Page

To start, you need a PayPal business account to accept payments as a merchant. To integrate PayPal into your website, log into your PayPal developer account and create a new PayPal application to accept payments.

Once you create an application, you’ll get a Client ID and Secret code to enable PayPal payments on your WordPress website. 

Note: Payment Page offers a live and test mode for setting up PayPal. The test mode enables you to transfer money from your personal PayPal account to the business account for test purposes. The live mode lets you accept payments directly from your customers.

You can also use Webhooks.

How To Integrate PayPal Into Your Website

  1. Download Payment Page WordPress plugin
  2. Copy your PayPal application’s Client ID and Secret
  3. Connect your PayPal account using the Client ID and Secret
  4. Choose a payment page template, customize, and publish

Final Thoughts: Using Payment Page Plugin for WordPress PayPal Integration

Integrating PayPal into your WordPress website empowers you to offer easy payment options for your customers, improving their experience and boosting conversations. However, you might require more features than a standard PayPal payment button can offer.

Payment Page WordPress plugin solves that issue by offering versatile payment forms powered by PayPal. Ready to add a beautiful payment page to your website? Try Payment Page today.

Categories
Marketing

Three Ways to Achieve Effective Checkout Pages for Higher Conversions

No matter how far the modern business landscape has come, the common problem of shopping cart abandonment is one that continues to persist among all types of businesses.

Whether you’re selling car parts, food products, shoes, or clothing, customers will go through everything you have on sale, read all the available reviews, and put in their order, only to abandon their plan and not pay at all. This particular problem has become so common that almost 70 percent or shopping carts are left abandoned and eventually act as a pillar of potential profit that is never realized. 

As annoying as this issue may be, the truth is that it’s only a mere indicator of a bigger problem at hand: There are other details on your payment page that are causing lower conversion rates. 

A further explanation

While there may be many different ways to explain why shopping cart abandonment is at an all-time high, the main explanation that any e-commerce website owner should be aware of is the expectation of seamlessness.

Although most owners can argue that nothing could possibly be perfect when it comes to putting a checkout page together, the truth is that customers expect near-perfection in every purchase. Certain mistakes, such as long load times, hard-to-read texts, and fields that are inconvenient to deal with all pose the significant risk of having more abandoned carts, which can lead to compromised returns. 

On avoiding abandoned shopping carts

Fortunately, solving the problem of shopping cart abandonment isn’t an impossible feat as most claim it to be because any situation can be turned around with the help of a few simple, yet effective tips. If you want to reduce the occurrence of this issue, take the time to incorporate these key pointers into your next hosted payment page or Stripe checkout page update:

Tip #1: Streamline your checkout process by reducing the number of form fields

When people turn to the Internet to satisfy their wants and needs, they don’t want to end up typing into a long-winded essay form that’s no different from a credit card or mortgage application.

Once the customers make up their minds, it’s absolutely essential that you capitalize on the period of intended purchase before they change their minds by streamlining the whole process. A quick and easy way to do this is to use Payment Page’s customizable fields to get straight to the point and ask customers only for the exact pieces of information you need! By taking the time to cut down the number of fields needed for entry and eliminating unnecessary steps, you can shorten the fill-in period and streamline your way to profits!

Tip #2: Add guarantees to your checkout page

Among all the different motivating or driving factors that cause potential customers to drop their orders before paying, none are more pivotal than the security concerns that they have.

Customers now are inclined to watch out for their safety by double or triple-checking the legitimacy of checkout pages because of the sensitivity of their information. Fortunately, you can easily circumvent this problem and assure your customers that their information is stored securely by adding security badges and using Payment Page to make your checkout page look far more authoritative!

Tip #3: Outfit your checkout page with more payment options

Aside from security, one of the most pivotal reasons most customers end up leaving their shopping carts is the concept of payment options, or the lack thereof. With the help of Payment Page, however, you can easily avoid losing potential customers by adding more payment options for your customers to use so that you can easily accept customers worldwide!

Conclusion

As troubling as the experience of having high shopping cart abandonment may be, you can simply solve the problem at hand, and best prepare yourself for success by making a few tweaks to your checkout page. With the help of the three tips mentioned above, you’ll be able to start seeing an improvement in your results right away and prevent any problems from coming up in the long run!

If you’re looking to accept credit card payments worldwide or use ACH bank transfer with an appealing and effective form on your website, then Payment Page is for you. You can easily build a custom payment form to have a more profitable business with a user-friendly tool in an instant!  Get in touch with us today to see how we can help!

Categories
Stripe Tutorials

How to Accept Bancontact Payments through Stripe: A Guide

When running an eCommerce store, transaction options are one of the biggest factors determining whether or not a customer will go through with their purchase. While website design provides visitors the opportunity to experience your brand and the products they put out, a hosted payment page system will allow them to turn that into reality. 

Payment page builders are extremely important for a streamlined checkout process. However, their importance is not stressed nearly enough. Offering a variety of payment options on a clean and easy-to-use payment page ensures that customers aren’t given a reason to leave. In a world where hundreds of other options are available at their fingertips, you can’t afford to lose them.

Bancontact

Bancontact is Belgium’s leading online payment method, in which it is utilized in up to a third of their online transactions. Founded in 1979, they have since been able to expand their reach and create a network for payments that work for the Belgian people. It is estimated that only less than 20% of businesses in the country do not offer the hosted payment page technology and it is reported that 27 million payments were processed in 2015. 

Bancontact payment details are normally single use but can be programmed to allow businesses to retrieve the bank account details of customers for subsequent payments to be completed. This can be done with the appropriate mandate authorization and links to the SEPA Direct Debit system for easy access. 

Fast Facts About Bancontact

Bancontact is a Belgium-based company that accepts payments via an authenticated bank debit system. Thanks to its customer-authenticated system, this offers safety and security for transactions, providing users with peace of mind. Since it accepts Euro currency, this is best suited for European Union countries looking for a good way to integrate this program with a Stripe payment system. Additional features include an immediate payment confirmation, as well as the ability to handle both refunds and partial-refunds in case of any issues. 

One of our favorite Bancontact features is its ability to set up recurring payments through SEPA Direct Debit, making subscriptions incredibly easy!

How To Accept Bancontact Payments Through Stripe

If your e-commerce site has a hosted payment page, Bancontact can be chosen as an option for checkout. There are two potential next steps, the first being when the customer is redirected to Bancontact’s page for payment credentials to be entered, which will notify the customer once the payment process has been completed. After the completion of this process, the customer will be returned back to the business’ site for the order details and other information. 

The other potential next step occurs when someone already owns a Bancontact account. First, the option is selected at checkout, then is redirected to Bancontact’s site containing a QR code to be scanned. The user will then enter their pin code and will be given a notification that the payment has been completed and will redirect them back to the business’ website. 

These can be integrated into Stripe’s system through proper programming and customization. 

What About Disputed Payments?

Thanks to the requirement of bank authentication for payments, the risk of fraud, or other kinds of unrecognized payments is low. This means that there will be no disputes that turn into chargebacks with funds withdrawn from a hosted payment page system (e.g. Stripe).

How About Refunds?

Bancontact payments have a refund period of up to 180 days after the original payment date. 

Advantages Of Using Bancontact As A Hosted Payment Page System

The best feature of the application is real-time confirmation and the guarantee of payment. For Belgian residents, this system is familiar, secure, and is extremely easy to use for any kind of customer. Additionally, the mobile application is well-optimized and is well integrated with online and mobile banking. 

Advantages For Merchants

Similar to the advantages for customers, Bancontact provides real-time payments that are low to no-risk and is a trusted payment solution by all of Belgium’s major banks. Because of this trustworthy and well-optimized system, sales are a breeze! The automatic enrollment system that utilizes QR codes and the application on mobile to make payments further expedites the process of making a purchase.

Conclusion

Hosted payment pages are important in running an eCommerce business, which is why investing in a premium payment page is worthwhile. The general rule of thumb is that the more steps a customer needs to take to buy something online, the more likely they are to abandon their cart. By utilizing streamlined payment pages like Stripe or Bancontact, the transactions made are easier and will make people think less about buying things from your store. 


Payment Page is a premium payment page builder that aims to assist international businesses of any scale craft easy-to-use and hassle-free checkout processes using apps like Stripe. We believe that the biggest factor that hampers an eCommerce store’s ability to sell all over is the lack of proper payment page builders, which is why we are here to help.

Categories
Marketing

How an Optimized Payment Process Helps Prevent Cart Abandonment

Shopping cart abandonment: among all the different problems that e-commerce businesses suffer from today, this is one of the biggest concerns that come up more often.

Whether you’re selling food products or services, you may have continuously suffered losses of potential profit because of this same problem. The issue of shopping cart abandonment has become widespread that it continues to cause businesses more difficulty in forecasting growth, which hinders progress.

While it may seem like a hurdle that continues to grow, the truth about cart abandonment is that it doesn’t require drastic measures when remedying the problem. Even though many business owners lean towards exaggerating the issue and calling it a “regular aspect of e-commerce business,” it isn’t as inevitable as one may think long as the right tools are used.

Among all the different ways you can lessen or eliminate the possibility of having your customers leave, nothing gets the job done better than an optimized payment process. 

Beating cart abandonment with payment process optimization

As complicated as it may sound, optimizing your e-commerce website’s payment process is a straightforward effort that requires achieving a full integration by working in parts. When talking about “working in parts,” we’re alluding to tweaking various aspects of your payment page and injecting solutions one-by-one to achieve a more “holistic” effect.


The main reason many customers end up dropping off right before they check out is due to the presence of a sub-optimal payment process that’s complicated or slow. By taking the time to solve this problem, you can effectively overturn the situation and drastically reduce cart abandonment rates by optimizing your entire process!

If you’re looking for an answer to your shopping cart abandonment problem, here are three key factors that can help optimize your payment process: 

Factor #1: Enabling guest checkouts on your website

One of the most common reasons consumers are far more likely to leave their shopping carts right before checkout is the lack of a guest checkout option.

No matter how valuable it may seem to collect customer information and keep potential repeat customers in the loop, the truth is that many don’t have the patience to go through a separate process of creating an account. By cutting out the “account prerequisite” and improving the way that your website maintains consumer convenience, you can speed up the whole process and lower your bounce rates, which leads to less abandonment!

Factor #2: Having a more extensive range of payment options for customers to use    

If there’s anything that’s bound to help lower your cart abandonment rates, it’s bound to be offering a variety of payment options beyond the two or three that you had initially.

It may seem like a minor detail, yet preparing several payment options for your customers to use will significantly affect their final purchase decision as it improves their convenience. Aside from PayPal, Visa, MasterCard, and American Express, there are other payment options like Stripe that should be on your list of supported payments. Fortunately, Payment Page’s stripe-integrated checkout page builder makes it far easier to integrate various payments with a few clicks so that you can accept payments worldwide!

Factor #3: Incorporating security badges into the checkout page design

Another effective form of payment process optimization that can prevent your customers from abandoning their shopping carts is by using security badges to your advantage.

For most first-time customers, buying from an unfamiliar website can be a challenging effort because of the prevalence of credit card fraud, scamming, and phishing. Adding security badges to your checkout page’s design will provide more reasons for customers to trust your website enough to make a payment!

Conclusion

Dealing with shopping cart abandonment is never a pleasurable experience because of all the potential profit that ends up going down the drain. Nevertheless, optimizing your payment process in various ways can alleviate the problem. With the help of the three factors mentioned above, you’ll optimize your website’s payment process well enough to facilitate profits and minimize the presence of abandoned shopping carts!

Are you looking for an easier way to accept payments from all over the world while minimizing your website’s cart abandonment rates? Payment Page offers an easier payment process optimization experience by using our WordPress plugin to create a hosted payment page!

Categories
Marketing

How Optimizing Your Checkout Process Can Boost Your Sales

One of the most important aspects of online retail is the user experience. Your website must be designed in such a way that its users are naturally drawn to your offerings. Besides high-quality design and helpful information, it must also offer convenience to effectively make sales.

To illustrate this point, even a delay of one second in your website’s loading time can cause a drop in conversions of up to 7 percent. This is particularly problematic when you consider that 70 percent of website visitors will abandon their shopping cart before making a purchase.

As such, it is important to optimize your checkout process. There must be as few clicks as possible between your landing page and the payment page. Even then, your page must be perfectly designed to make that purchase all the easier. In this article, we will show you how to make that possible by going over a few important facts.

The underlying causes

Through a series of surveys and data gathering, most of the underlying causes of failed conversions have been determined. Marketers, designers, and business owners use this information to better understand customer behavior. Once that is understood, intelligent strategies could be employed to increase sales.

Here are some of the data points of interest:

  • 61% of customers were deterred by additional shipping and tax costs
  • 35% of customers did not want to make a customer account
  • 27% say that the checkout process was too long and complicated
  • 24% were put off by the fact that they didn’t know what the total cost was
  • 22% said that errors occurred on the e-commerce website
  • 18% were hesitant to put their bank account information on the website.

As you can see, the most important concerns apparent are related to transparency, security, and convenience. These are the things that must be addressed when thinking about optimizing your checkout process.

Pitfalls to avoid, and strategies to employ

Based on various studies, surveys, and statistics, different strategies can now increase the likelihood of turning a site visitor into a customer. Here are some of the tried-and-tested tactics you could employ for your online shop:

1. Don’t surprise customers with additional costs

The most annoying thing for nearly any buyer is finding that the price you intended to pay was less than the actual cost. While shipping is already a common thing people prepare for, other fees like taxes can turn off a customer from making a purchase. This is the most important thing to address, as it can account for up to 61 percent of people leaving before they buy.

If free shipping is not possible, make sure your customer is informed about the price even before they hit the checkout page. This way, they are more likely to make an informed decision. 

2. Allow different options

The most common payment methods are the following: PayPal, Stripe checkout, credit cards, debit cards, and cash. Online payment has become such a commonplace practice that having a robust set of options can raise your conversions by up to 200 percent

3. Allow guest checkouts

Many people are reluctant to provide their email addresses to other websites, especially with all the fears surrounding data privacy and security. As such, it is important to give them an option for guest checkouts. This can allow them to safely make a purchase and can push them to make more down the line as you prove to be a trustworthy website.

4. Reduce the number of clicks

There is a reason why many online shops have a “Buy now!” button right next to their “Add to cart!” It reduces the number of clicks towards a purchase. It allows the customer to buy a product before their hesitation sets in. Additionally, a website should be easy to navigate and understand, and that often entails reducing the number of clicks and designing intuitive payment buttons.

In conclusion

As we’ve mentioned before, convenience is the key to customer satisfaction. And by convenience, we mean that the customer has less to worry about—security, ease of access, and so on. Whatever product you might sell or service you might offer, keep in mind the user experience, and you can quite easily boost your sales.

If you are looking to optimize your payment page, send us at Payment Page a message. We can make the purchase process a smoother experience for both you and your customers. 

Categories
eCommerce

Everything You Need to Know About Transaction Fees

As a business owner, accepting the cost of payment processing fees is akin to that of ditching a bad habit. Losing $50 off a $1,000 sale may feel like a blow, yet it is the necessary evil of doing business. As fewer shoppers prefer cash payments over the versatility of a credit card, you’ll have to come to terms with the exorbitant fees attached. Here’s everything you need to know. 

Transaction Fees Will Vary

If you’re at a loss for why a $1,000 sale may set you back $40 with one supplier and $50 with another, know that not every payment processing company will adhere to the same fee structure. For instance, PayPal will charge higher fees than other payment processors. Fortunately, business owners have total freedom to shop for a diverse range of fee structures. 

You Can Negotiate Fees

Not satisfied with your current fees? You’re at complete liberty to negotiate them with your processor. The more you rely on a principal processor, the more room you have to discuss a drop in rates and fees. 

Hardware Doesn’t Come Cheap

To process payments, most sellers will use a terminal. Hardware will almost always come with a hefty price tag and long-term contract. However, to find a solution amid today’s primarily digital landscape is as easy as using e-cash, digital wallets, or cryptocurrency instead. 

Different Types of Processing Come With Different Fees

For a hosted payment form to thrive, it must accept various methods of payment. That in mind, one bank may charge higher fees than another. A single transaction might also charge additional costs, such as terminal fees, annual fees, gateway fees, non-compliance fees, and the like. Don’t settle for a low flat rate—you never know what other charges you might incur! 

More People Are Involved Than You Think

Payment processing doesn’t just involve you and your provider. Credit card providers, issuing banks, and processors also play the game. To process business transactions, you’ll need a merchant account and payment gateway. Yes, that’s at least five different entities processing a single transaction!

Payment Processing is Changing

Contrary to where it used to be, the payment industry is continually evolving. Nowadays, you’ll have more than your fair share of processors to select from and various Stripe checkout methods such as smartphone apps or digital currencies. 

Are you catering mostly to Bitcoin users? No problem—there’s undoubtedly a gateway for it. Not to mention, online and mobile point of sale systems make accepting payments more accessible than ever before. 

As the payment industry undergoes rapid change, there’s no denying an inevitable shift in fees and rates as well. 

Conclusion

Unfortunately, there’s no sneaking by payment transaction fees when you run an eCommerce business. The good news is that there are a plethora of options that may best suit your business model. The more thoroughly you learn to navigate a myriad of portals and gateways, the more the fees will pay off in the long run. 

Coming soon, you can launch your eCommerce website with Payment Page’s intuitive payment page builder! Along with the ability to accept various payments, you can supplement your form with a stunning design that gets customers checking out without a second thought.