Categories
Marketing

What Are Some Top Strategies for Conversion Optimization?

In any online business, one of the greatest indications of health is a good conversion rate. When people convert from being leads into clients, this is where the real revenue starts to come in for a company. Conversions are the goal of all advertising and digital marketing campaigns, and once people start converting from leads, this allows for better growth overall.

Digital marketing methods combined with e-commerce tools like payment page builders and hosted payment pages can create a powerful online business site. Digital marketing tools build websites and increase online visibility, which can be coupled with a hosted payment page for reduced checkout friction for best results. 

Optimizing Your Site For Conversion Rates

There is what is called a conversion rate optimization plan, or a CRO, which aims to improve the overall buyer’s experience of users and the performance of a website. This is a good mix of a multitude of tools that exist to create seamless websites that are tastefully done to fit the user experience. 

Your CRO plan should have the aim to reduce friction, which is the most important driving force in securing any sale online. Friction when it comes to finding your page, navigating it, and checking out will increase bounce rates, which won’t do your Google rankings any good. 

Here are some CRO strategies to boost your overall conversion rates:

Take Advantage Of The “Feeling Of Missing Out”

Many people are susceptible to this marketing tactic. Shoppers love to see items on sale, and when they see that there are timers for sales or specific dates, they are less likely to think twice about confirming their purchases. While many people hate being rushed into a sale, putting limited time offers out there for them to decide on their own will likely result in an urgency to buy. 

Make people feel like they’ll regret not taking up the offer you set out, which you can employ in your website through writing a call-to-action that states how limited the offer is. 

Make Sure Your Payment Page Has Fewer Steps

People hate loading through multiple pages especially when all they want to do is buy a product. Payment page builders are great at this, as sites can be customized to have a set number of pages they have to go through to complete a purchase. Stripe checkout is especially great at this, as it looks legitimate in user interface while offering maximum customizability. 

When your payment page has fewer steps to complete before making a sale, this reduces bounce rates that are bad for your website’s online visibility. One thing that gets people irritated more than anything is the mandatory creation of an account to make a purchase. By reducing the steps needed while keeping everything streamlined, you’ll see your conversion rates rise! 

Think Of How Your Site Is Optimized For The Best User Experience

One of the biggest sins in website design for conversions is not optimizing a site centered on the user’s experience. At the end of the day, the one who will be using your site to buy is the customer, so it makes sense to give the best-optimized experience for your site visitors. Remembering that customers mostly access sites on their mobile devices should make you prioritize the mobile experience of visitors to ensure they stick around long enough. 

Conclusion

The overall CRO plan has the idea of being seamless in all aspects of the browsing and shopping experience. With a nicely designed website and the help of a payment page builder, the entire shopping experience can generate better conversions over time. In any business venture, it pays to have a plan for all aspects of running one, and this now includes making moves online. 

Payment Page aims to assist international businesses of any scale craft easy-to-use and hassle-free checkout processes using apps like Stripe checkout. We believe that the biggest factor that hampers an e- commerce store’s ability to sell all over is the lack of proper payment page builders, which is why we are here to help. Sign up on our website now to be notified when we launch our services. 

Categories
Business

4 Pointers to Help Your SME Operate Amidst a Pandemic – Our Guide

The COVID-19 outbreak has impacted almost all businesses around the world. While some establishments have completely shut down, others have resorted to continuing to operate under various restrictions. 

Given the current situation, small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs) are dramatically affected, including brick-and-mortar stores, home service providers, restaurants, and many others. However, there are creative ways that you can serve your customers so that your business adapts and thrives during these hard times.

In this article, we will share four valuable pointers for SMEs on how to continue operations  despite the current COVID-19 outbreak:

1. Utilize video conferences for face-to-face interactions

Today, you can communicate and interact with people using video conferencing. SMEs can also take advantage of utilizing video conferences to interact with their customers or clients. 

There are a handful of video applications and software that can be used for this purpose. Even social media channels enable you to talk to and engage with your customers. A perfect example is Zoom, which is a free video conferencing platform, but where you need to pay a subscription fee if you want to communicate for extended periods with your customers. It’s best when using Zoom to set up a private call for all business interactions to ensure security and professionalism.

2. If you must pursue in-person interactions avoid shared surfaces

Some small businesses are still required to operate to cater to the needs of the general public. These include grocery stores, pharmacies, restaurants (for delivery or pickup), and other essential suppliers. The challenge, however, is in maintaining social distancing to avoid contact and to keep you, your staff, and customers healthy. 

The good thing is that you can set safety measures in place where you can pursue in-person interactions while avoiding shared surfaces. For instance, customers can have checkout in a supermarket using contactless cards without direct contact with the employees or the payment terminal. 

3. Use text messages to update and communicate

Seeing that communication remains to be the key for many businesses, you should have a variety of  processes for reaching out and maintaining contact with customers. You should make a conscious effort to reach out to your customers or clients via text messages or email. 

It can be a good practice to share real-time updates regularly, especially for updates regarding promotions or COVID-19 health updates. Furthermore, if customers have any questions, issues, and concerns, remember to be highly responsive in answering their queries, providing solutions to their problems, and addressing their concerns.

4. Take advantage of online payment methods

In today’s world, financial transactions do not have to be made in person. This is mainly because there’s a wide range of online payment methods that every business can utilize. 

Online payments can provide customers with various options to pay, such as credit cards, ACH, or other international payment options available in different regions of the world, like iDeal or WeChat Pay. 

Your business checkout process should be streamlined and user-friendly for the customer to avoid any potential errors. Most importantly, the payment form must remain secure for the protection of the customers’ confidential information.

Offering an online payment mechanism is a useful way to offer an easy solution for payments that normally might have been made in person, or through other more complicated means. 

Finding a solution

Overall, there will always be solutions in every challenging situation. As outlined above, you can utilize video conferences to facilitate face-to-face interactions, pursue in-person interactions by avoiding shared surfaces, use text messages and email to update and communicate, and take advantage of online payment methods. 

Despite the COVID-19 outbreak, the current situation doesn’t necessarily have to stop your business from operating and serving the needs of your customers. 

If you need a streamlined and beautifully designed payment form, we provide SMEs with a hosted payment page for accepting payments from across the globe. Get in touch with us today!

Categories
eCommerce

5 Payment Options Your SMB Should Integrate in 2021

As businesses continue to innovate and incorporate various forms of technology into their operations, there are now dozens of options by which customers can complete financial transactions with your business online. In this article, we’ll focus on 5 key methods for accepting payments in 2021.

Credit and Debit Cards

As of 2021, 80% of customers prefer to make transactions using a credit card and are, in fact, willing to spend 100% more on products and services when using one. How you go about accepting these types of payments will depend on what kind of business you operate. 

If you’re a brick-and-mortar business, you’ll need a merchant account and card reader to accept credit cards. Merchant accounts allow businesses to receive payments in various ways. 

If you run an ecommerce business, you’ll need a payment gateway to accept online credit and debit card transactions. This will encrypt all information submitted by customers on your payment page, ensuring that their details remain safe and confidential. You don’t want to take any chances with information security, so be sure you’re employing a payment gateway that is PCI (payment card industry) compliant. 

ACH Processing

Monitored by the Automated Clearing House (ACH) Association, this payment method allows customers to disclose their bank account details and routing numbers for online payments. ACH processing is a popular method of accepting subscription or recurring payments. 

It’s proven advantageous to many SMBs, as it comes with lower fees compared to those that accept credit or debit cards. It’s also far more secure than accepting monthly written checks. 

Finally, ACH processing can save your business a lot of time, as payments are automatically withdrawn once you enter the customer’s information into your system. Ultimately, this will improve your cash flow and create a more predictable revenue pattern. 

Stripe is a payment gateway that supports ACH payments of many kinds with a Plaid integration. 

Recurring Billing Subscriptions

To make the working relationship easier between you and your customers and facilitate payments for products and services of all kinds, you can provide your customers with the option to sign up for a subscription plan. Using their debit or credit card, they can make automatic monthly payments that are convenient for them and guarantee that your business is paid on time, providing you and your customers with peace of mind.

PayPal, Stripe, and Square

If you’re using PayPal, Stripe, or Square, you won’t need to set up a merchant account. However, which method you choose will depend on the type of business you run, so be sure to research features that best suit your operations. Of the three, PayPal is among the top 3 highest-ranking eWallets online

Contactless Payment Systems

A new trend in the U.S. is that you can now accept payments wirelessly by asking customers to wave their card or device over a POS system. Without the need to enter a PIN or even scan a card, contactless payment systems are becoming increasingly popular in places like the U.K. and Australia. 

As the U.S. has been slow to adopt the trend, your business can take advantage of how Visa and Mastercard are beginning to offer contactless cards to customers. Additionally, mobile wallet methods such as Android or Apple Pay are becoming increasingly popular with mobile users. 

Payment Solution

Implementing new payment methods onto your website can be complex and take up a valuable amount of time. If you’re a SMB and need to accept online payments, you can team up with us at Payment Page. With our payment page solution, you can start accepting online payments in just a few easy steps using any of the gateways or payment options mentioned above.

Categories
Business

3 Ways Your Business Can Quickly Adapt to Remote Selling

As the Coronavirus pandemic continues to unfold all over the world, businesses must now pivot and capitalize on the opportunity to adapt to changing consumer habits. 

Customers are evolving in more ways than business owners initially expected. This is an ongoing development that has seen the birth of new sales channels and innovations in ecommerce. Amid all the various developments taking place in the modern business landscape, there’s one specific update that your business should be aware of: remote selling.

Increase in adaptability

Even though it’s been around for quite some time, remote selling has seen an unprecedented increase due to consumers staying at home and following social distancing. As the population continues life from home, the “new normal” is now online shopping and shipping of goods to consumers’ homes.

Fortunately, the power of the Internet has made it possible for producers and consumers to get what they each need, effectively bridging the gap and eliminating physical contact. By using various digital tools and channels, you can keep the orders coming in and your cash flow running smoothly without worrying about laying off employees or struggling to keep your business afloat.

Get your business back on track with remote sales

Setting up an efficient online channel to receive payments doesn’t necessarily mean an excessive amount of work. In this article, we will share with you three ways your business can quickly adapt to remote selling: 

1. Use social media to your advantage

In the past few months, businesses across industries have seen a significant boost in sales activity by fine-tuning their digital marketing strategies and selling directly via their website, and by connecting with customers through email and chat.

Instead of a storefront, a chat box or contact window can help you maintain personalization in your transactions by getting in touch with your loyal customers via email or live chat. Using various social media platforms also makes it possible to reach out to customers and answer any questions that they may have before buying your product or service. This means that you can interact with your customers and meet your sales goals too. Just because you can’t interact face to face doesn’t mean your business has to forego all customer service interactions. This brings us to our next point. 

2. Set up a chatbot

One of the biggest challenges with adapting to the new form of transactions and the ins-and-outs of remote selling is that customers will always expect a reply, no matter what time of day they message. This is where a chatbot comes into the picture. 

It can help you avoid losing potential sales by having a system that automatically answers any questions or concerns that customers may have right away! For more complex inquiries, you can respond directly to the customer in a short amount of time.

3. Get started on your payment page.

Since more and more people have been conducting their transactions online, it should come as no surprise that the demand for online payments will grow exponentially in the coming months.

With the days of cash-only payments long gone, this is your opportunity to start offering online payments on your web shop, and the best way to do so is with a hosted checkout page! By using a checkout page building tool – such as Payment Page – you’ll be able to set up your online shop with a secure payment portal that allows your customers to purchase your products online quickly and securely. 

By combining payment gateway options into one payment page, it makes it far easier for customers to use any option from a targeted mix of payment methods. 

Make a change

Given the state of the world today, companies must innovate to keep business not only running, but thriving. By bringing operations online, businesses can connect and expand their customer base to offer their services in a way that is sensitive to the times. Following the three simple, yet practical, tips mentioned above, you can immediately see significant results and get your operations back on track in no time!

We offer a WordPress plugin and hosted payment page that provides all types of businesses with an easier way to take payments online. Customize your own payment page or let us host your page to accept online payments without all the hassle of setting up an entire website!

Categories
eCommerce

4 Ways Payment Processing Services Make Collection More Efficient

Small businesses should streamline the processes involved in receiving and disbursing funds.  The reason why many companies fail is simply because of unsustainable cash flow, therefore it is important that customers make their payments on time.

Late payments can prevent a company from carrying out a variety of actions, such as hiring new employees, paying salaries, investing in equipment, or providing a marketing budget for the month. Failure to pay any of these expenses can hinder the growth of a small company.

Fortunately, as a business owner, you can make the payment process more accessible to clients. Some clients are put off by convoluted systems, and it can help to make the process of paying easier for them. Finding the right payment system for your business is about knowing what options are available. Here are 4 things you should ask when considering payment processing services for your business.

1. Does it allow integration with existing platforms?

A number of payment processors team up with other companies to deliver their service. For example, Amazon Payments is a good option for small businesses. It integrates into your website and uses the payment information in customers’ Amazon.com accounts. This makes the process quicker from your customers’ point of view.

If your business uses Apple devices as a point-of-sale (POS) machine, you can use Apple Pay to accept payments from customers. This app uses touch ID confirmation, which makes transactions secure. It makes payments easier for people who use Apple devices to buy items online. Apple Pay also lets you transfer the funds to your bank account or make purchases for your business.

Google has its own payment service, Google Pay. It allows money transfers through a customer’s smartphone, through their browser or Gmail account. Google Pay does not share customer data with its partners; all information stays with Google and is protected with multiple layers of security. Considering a platform that already has existing integrations with other platforms can save you time, and it will make your customer’s buying experience much smoother and more convenient.

2. Does it offer customization options?

If you are after customizing the look and feel of your payment form, it’s important that a payment system can be designed so that it looks like a natural extension of your website. You should be able to customize things like checkout forms, confirmation emails, credit card statements, and other messages. Look for options like enabling in-app purchases, which will make mobile fulfillment services on your site effortless.

3. Does it need a merchant account?

For some business owners, especially those that are just starting, PayPal can be a safe option. It allows owners to accept payments without a merchant account, as well as generate and track invoices. Brick-and-mortar businesses can accept in-store payments and still have their transactions processed through PayPal. PayPal doesn’t require a business account, and you can accept payments as an individual.

4. Can it handle streamlined invoicing?

Beyond making payments more convenient, you can also generate invoices faster. Intuit partnered with QuickBooks, and allows you to get paid online from invoices generated through a number of ways.

Your customers can receive their billing through mail, e-mail, print-out, or fax, and pay through your merchant of choice. They can also view their billing history through a secure 24/7 Customer Account Center.

Key Takeaways

Making payments convenient will help you meet your internal financial deadlines while keeping your customers satisfied. Consider these service providers when deciding how to get payments for your goods and services. Even combining them into one Payment Page can be a great idea because you give your customers all the flexibility they need while organizing all your payment options into one website page.

For more information on how to build an efficient payment page, as well as insights on different online payment methods, visit Payment Page. All you need is one of the payment gateways or providers above and you can have a page set up for your business, giving you a seamless checkout experience for your customers.