Payments fail for many reasons. Customers might have entered the wrong card number. There might be too many purchasing attempts in too short a time. Or the customer might have reached their limit on their card. Whatever the reason, it leads to 71,1% of carts being abandoned every year. By streamlining your checkout journey, you can increase sales by converting more shoppers into customers.
Choose the right payment partner
Different payment providers offer various versions of 3D Secure. The latest version of 3DS Version 2.2 offers significant benefits to businesses and consumers alike. Customers benefit from this technology because it’s much easier to purchase online via a mobile device or tablet. Retailers can limit friction and potential customer losses. It means fewer customers will abandon their carts, and more will complete the transaction.
Benefit from SCA
If you automatically route all transactions through 3DS, it could have a negative impact on customer satisfaction. It can also result in fever purchases. It might be advisable to only route high-risk transactions through 3DS and use an SCA strategy to handle the rest.
Merchants must work with their payment providers to take advantage of SCA-approved exemptions. A clear SCA strategy balances fraud prevention with the customer experience and the rate of successful transactions.
Incorrect flags
Merchants flag declined transactions in different ways. They use terminology like ‘recurring’, ‘card-on-file’, ‘merchant initiated’ etc. These inconsistencies can lead to declined transactions. Work with your payment provider to ensure your transactions are flagged properly and consistently to increase your approved transaction rates.
Provide payment options your customers prefer
Customers have more and more payment methods to choose from. The traditional Visa and Mastercard, PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay, AliPay and WeChat, to name a few. Access to these methods is different in regions where access to the Internet might be limited. Merchants should keep a close eye on which methods their customers prefer to ensure they provide them. Some might carry more risk than others making it crucial to work with your payments provider to mitigate security risks.
The devil is in the data
Data is more than numbers. It provides insight into buying patterns, when and why transactions are declined and which payment methods are most popular where. If you analyse your data, look for insights into the timing of declined transactions. It might be just before the 25th of each month when many employees are paid, and their funds clear in their accounts. It makes sense to process your transactions when it’s most likely to be successful. A matter of hours can make a massive difference.
Declined messages
Most ecommerce sites just display a ‘declined’ message when a transaction did not go through successfully. Customers don’t really know why the transaction was declined, and it’s not very encouraging for shoppers to try again either. Look at what and how you say it because it can lead to more conversions and higher sales. Consider using something like;
‘ Oops, there is a problem with your card number. Please re-enter your card number, and expiration date and ensure you’ve entered the security code correctly. If it still doesn’t work, consider using Apple Pay or PayPal’
It might seem obvious to provide an alternative payment method, but you don’t want shoppers to search on your site to find other payment methods. By doing this, you could increase conversion rates significantly.
It’s obvious that streamlining your checkout journey and payment processes can benefit your business and increase sales. Speak to Truevo about reducing friction and fraud, increasing cleared payments and ultimately driving up your sales figures. The world is searching for products online. You can’t afford not too.
