Are You Offering Enough Payment Options?

How many different ways are you allowing your customers to pay on your eCommerce site?

Studies have shown that there is a direct correlation between the number of payment methods a site offers and the number of sales it closes. This makes sense when you think about it, especially in the age of identity theft and paranoia.

It will come as no surprise to you that many people do not feel comfortable sharing their credit card information with web sites. That can seem like a huge obstacle, but it doesn’t mean the death of your online sales. Just offer them as many ways to pay you as possible.

Mike Sachoff looked at some online payment option statistics in an end-of-the-year eCommerceTrends article.

"Providing more payment options increases online retailers sales, last year sales increased an average of 14 percent for retailers offering three or more payment methods," he says.

Ok, so what methods should you offer?

Credit Cards

This is the obvious one. But as I mentioned, not everyone is comfortable with this payment method. Still it should be offered as an option, because many people will still see it as the most convenient one.

PayPal

There are other services like PayPal such as Google Checkout and Xoom, but PayPal is the most popular one. People trust it. It is backed by eBay. You should accept PayPal payments at the very least, but look into accepting more of these types of services.

Bill-me-later

If you feel comfortable doing so, you can offer the option to bill the customer rather than charging up front.

Checks

You can choose to accept a check after giving your customer what they want and billing them, or wait to render your services until after you have received their check payment and it has cleared. I would advise the latter.

Money Orders

Not everyone has a credit card or a checking account, which can make buying things online very difficult for them. Anyone can get a money order however, so why not accept them? Like checks, it is up to you if you wish to provide them with what you are selling before you receive payment.

On a side note, you may want to consider setting up stores at places like Amazon or eBay. People tend to be more trusting when they can associate buying from you with a well-established brand.

Think about how you can open up your options for accepting online payments though. The customer will be happy that they can choose their payment method and you will be happy because more people will be buying. What other methods of accepting payments do you prefer?