Alternative Payment Methods Enable International Purchases

Summary: By understanding customers’ payment preferences and offering options that people are used to in their own country, sites can improve the checkout experience for international purchasers.

If you have an ecommerce site, when was the last time your team reevaluated the payment methods you offer your customers? Given how much effort goes into creating a good ecommerce experience (we have 13 volumes about it), it’s surprising to see that at the very moment when customers are ready to pay, some aren’t given a chance, because their preferred payment method isn’t an option. In particular, crossborder ecommerce sites that sell to international users must understand their customers’ expectations and preferences around payment methods in order to get their business.

In ecommerce, an alternative payment method refers to any form of payment other than a credit card. They’re called alternative methods, because on a global scale, they aren’t as popular or common as credit cards, which have been the default method in many countries, for many years. In this article, we’ll present some popular alternative payment methods and tips for how to improve the UX of selecting an alternative payment method.

The findings and recommendations here come from research we conducted for the fourth edition of our ecommerce report on international purchasers. That research included participants in China, Chile, Mexico, and Spain who were asked to use international and domestic websites.

In the United States, paying with credit card is so commonplace that it’s easy to take it for granted. Around the world, however, there are different social, financial, and convenience factors that contribute to people’s payment preferences. It’s a common refrain in our line of work: UX without users is not UX. If you want to grow your customer base, you’ve got to understand why some people choose alternative payment methods. Below are three common reasons why some people don’t use credit cards for online shopping:

Around the globe, there are scores of payment methods people use. In ecommerce, they generally can be grouped into a few main categories. Consider which, if any, of these may appeal to your customers.

If people from other countries already visit your site and make purchases, you might think it isn’t necessary to adjust your payment methods for them. But you’d be wrong. For each international customer that makes a purchase, there could be others who abandon checkout because they aren’t comfortable with any of the options available.

If your online sales are low in a particular country, conduct research and examine your analytics data to explore whether inadequate payment options could be the reason. Companies aiming to grow their international-customer base should start with the most-popular payment methods in those countries which already provide them with visitors and track the results after implementing the changes.

Source: Nngroup.com

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