Top 3 Online Payment Trends

With advancements in online payment technology and security, consumers are beginning to feel more and more comfortable giving payments online. Even if your eCommerce business had been accepting payments for a while now, it pays to stay up-to-date on trends and technologies in the space, as they are constantly changing.

eCommerce spend is skyrocketing. According to a Forrester Report, eCommerce sales are expected to reach $523 billion by 2020 – that is a 56% increase from 2015. In order to get your cut of the profits as an eCommerce business owner, it is important to stay in tune with trends in customer behavior and new technologies.

Keep these three payment trends in mind throughout the year to make your most profitable year yet!

1. Contactless Payments

If you haven’t heard of Apple Pay or Google Wallet and you own a business, I’m sorry to say you’re a little behind the times. Near Field Communication, or NFC, is the technology that allows Apple Pay users to tap their phones to certain in-store terminals for payment. This trend has grown in popularity in recent years for in-store purchases, with 18% of consumers claiming they use NFC payments on a regular, recurring basis.

This luxury has only been afforded to physical locations – until now. Apple Pay now supports online payments on any Mac or iPad. Authorize.net, one of the nation’s largest online shopping cart gateways, recently started supporting this new feature as well. As far as anyone can tell, it looks like NFC payments are slowly but surely making their way into the eCommerce payment landscape. Make sure your payment processor is aware of this, and offers technology solutions that support this increasingly popular form of payment.

2. Mobile Optimization

In today’s age, mobile is everything. People love to do everything on their phones – from checking email to staying in touch with friends to making purchases. Put very simply, if you want to have a successful online business, you have to cater to mobile users. With 62% of smartphone users having made purchases on their device in the last 6 months, it is incredibly important to make sure your payments page is mobile responsive. People are generally apprehensive about giving payments if they feel the page is not secure or easy to navigate. Having to pinch and move the screen around to access various fields in your payment process will discourage customers from finishing the process.

3. Simplified Payment Page

As a general rule in commerce, there should be as little friction as possible between the customer and the sale. In physical locations, this means reducing line times, placing checkout counters in convenient locations, and accepting the types of payment methods your customers want to use. Online, the strategy is very similar. One study found that customer purchases increase by as much as 45% when forced registration is removed from the payments page.

Reduce the amount of information you require to complete a purchase, don’t redirect to a separate payment website, and make sure you display the types of payment methods that are available to your customers. In today’s age, with so many options for consumers on the internet, it would be a waste to lose business because you do not accept all of the most popular payment types. Have a conversation with your processor, and make sure the system you are using to accept payments is up-to-date.

The Bottom Line

In order to prep for growth, take a look at your payment processor and make sure they are giving you and your customers the best value. Adopting new technologies like contactless payments, catering to mobile users, and embracing simplicity in your payment process are all great places to start in upgrading your eCommerce business.

Julia Olson is the Content Strategist at Fattmerchant, a flat-rate merchant services provider. She works to educate readers about the credit card processing industry, and loves spreading the word about Fattmerchant’s amazing technology solutions and honest processing.