Technology has revolutionised the way we pay – almost all the pain has been taken out of payments. You no longer need to dig around in your pockets for change to buy a bottle of milk, wait in line to deposit a cheque, or ask the taxi driver to stop at the ATM on your way home. Now you can pay for your milk with your EFTPOS card, receive funds directly online, and your Uber driver is paid with the credit card you’ve already loaded into the app.
Because the change has been gradual, it’s not always easy to appreciate how massive it has been – but if you think hard about the time and effort we’re saving with payment technology, it’s making our lives substantially easier.
An ever-smoother shopping experience
Continuous improvements mean New Zealanders are having an ever-smoother shopping experience. Customer expectations are higher than ever: people want to be able to buy anything, at any time, and for the transaction to be user-friendly. Paymark’s own network – and our customer service – is switched on 24-7, 365 days a year. That means our clients get that always-switched-on experience, so they can offer it in turn to their own customers.
Online EFTPOS is giving a classic trusted payment system a new lease of life. It allows companies to offer their customers the option of paying by approving a request to their banking app. It’s a win-win for customers and merchants, with low fees and seamless customer experience.
Taking the pain out of payments
We know that complicated payment processes lead to lost sales. As a shopper, you know that a too-long checkout line will sometimes make you walk away from a purchase or put you off going into a store. And online it’s even more obvious – make the checkout and payment process too complex and your e-commerce store will be littered with abandoned carts.
Our best tips for Kiwi retailers to make payments less painful for shoppers:
- Have staffing levels balanced to meet demand – it’s obvious but not always easy. Using Paymark Insights allows you to predict your busiest hours and days, so try to staff accordingly to reduce long wait times at the checkout.
- Make sure your website and payments systems work well on all types of devices. Shopping via phone and other devices is on the rise. A consistent omnichannel experience will reduce customer friction and frustration.
- Review delivery costs. Free delivery, or free over a certain spend, encourages online shoppers to spend more across your site and reduces cart abandonment at checkout.
- Ensure your team understands how payments work so they can answer customer questions about security or fees, and easily switch payment methods if required.
You can’t have good customer experiences with clunky or slow payment systems. Your customers want their payments to be effortless yet still completely under their control, as Ingenico boss Michel Léger puts it: “The players who successfully manage to merge physical and online purchasing systems and create the best multi-channel experience will ultimately end up as the market leaders.”