15/05/20236 min

Top 5 tips to optimise your payment page  

Mariam Nikolova
De Mariam Nikolova
Product Manager, emerchantpay

Offering a seamless checkout process is a vital component of any online business strategy. An optimised payment page can lead to higher sales, increased conversions, and more repeat customers. A well-designed checkout process can greatly reduce cart abandonment and improve conversion rates; according to the Baymard Institute, eCommerce websites with optimised checkout design could increase conversion rates by up to 35% through better checkout design. In this article, we'll share some tips to help you improve your checkout page and increase the likelihood of your customers completing their purchases once they reach your payment page.

Optimise your payment page design

The design of the payment page plays a crucial role in converting online visitors into customers. Clear and consistent labels and instructions can ensure a seamless payment experience. This includes using descriptive field labels, simple language, and a consistent layout, such as keeping the payment button in a prominent place on the checkout page, laying out the fields in one or two columns. It’s also important to ensure the payment amount and currency are clear for the end user.

Furthermore, as more people are using their smartphones to make online purchases, it's essential to optimise payment pages for mobile devices. Businesses can achieve this by using responsive design, making buttons easy to tap, and using large fonts. By optimising payment pages, businesses can improve the payment experience for their customers, leading to higher conversions and sales.

Reduce the number of required fields

Having too many required fields on a payment page can deter customers from completing their purchase. With minimal required fields, customers can complete the payment form more easily. For card payments, the required fields typically include the cardholder's name, card number, expiration date, CVV/CVC, and billing address if necessary.

To minimise the number of required fields, businesses can have one field for the customer's full name instead of separate fields for the first and last name. Additionally, adding an option for customers to indicate if their shipping address is the same as their billing address can reduce the number of required fields when these match. By reducing the number of required fields on the payment page, businesses can simplify the payment process, resulting in higher conversions and less abandoned carts.

Offer preferred payment methods

Offering a wide range of payment options can help businesses increase conversions. Customers prefer to have multiple options for paying for their purchases, including credit and debit cards, digital wallets, and local payment methods. Of course, these tend to vary based on the type of purchase, customer region and demographics.

A local payment method is a method of payment specific to a certain country or region, designed to cater to the needs and preferences of customers in that area. For example, accepting Bancontact for customers in Belgium or iDeal for customers in the Netherlands can be advantageous.

According to emerchantpay’s ‘The Global Payments Outlook 2023’ Europeans are exhibiting interest in a range of payment types. 52% of consumers in Norway paid by invoice and 34% of consumers in the Czech Republic used bank transfers. At the same time, several European countries are making promising strides towards digital payment adoption. BNPL is prominent in the UK, with 54% of Millennials in the UK selecting BNPL as their preferred payment method.

A recent study has shown that seven in ten online shoppers are willing to click 'Pay' when their payment method of choice is offered at checkout. By offering preferred payment methods, businesses can improve their customers' payment experience, leading to increased sales, higher conversions, and increased customer loyalty.

Offer customers peace of mind with payment security 

When making online purchases, customers want to feel secure in knowing their personal and financial information is safe. To offer peace of mind to customers, eCommerce businesses must take necessary steps to protect sensitive customer data. One way to generate trust is by displaying a security badge near the payment button to show the website has implemented security measures.

Partnering with a payment service provider that offers a secure payment gateway is crucial. Look for providers that are PCI level 1 compliant to help to minimise your PCI burden when using a hosted payment page on the provider’s server. By outsourcing cardholder data functions to your payment service provider, no storage, processing, or transmission of cardholder data is involved in your systems, providing an additional layer of protection for customer data.

Payment service providers can also offer integration options for security features such as 3D Secure 2 which is based on two-factor authentication. In turn, this can help further reduce payment fraud which could lead to lost revenue for merchants. Incorporating these features will not only provide customers with peace of mind but also increase their trust in your business.

Enable one-click payments

According to research, 17% of abandoned carts are due to a long or complicated checkout process, highlighting the importance of streamlining the payment process. One-click payments can significantly improve the checkout experience for customers, leading to higher conversions.

With one-click payments, customers can avoid having to re-enter their payment details, reducing the time and effort required to complete their purchase. By securely storing customer information on the provider’s servers and by using tokenisation, eCommerce sites can enable customers to make subsequent purchases with just a single click.

Tokenisation can help reduce friction in the checkout process and increases the likelihood of customers completing their follow-up purchases. Watch the video below to learn more about tokenisation, and how it can help increase conversions.

eCommerce businesses can work with their payment service provider to integrate one-click payments and simplify the checkout process for their repeat customers.

What are the key benefits with the emerchantpay module?

Payments are generally seen as the end of a sale, but arguably, they could also be the beginning of a relationship between a brand and its customers. By teaming up with emerchantpay and leveraging our PrestaShop payment module, businesses can accept multiple payment options preferred by their customers, while ensuring that their sensitive information is secure. With access to a dashboard with detailed reports for payment insights, they can stay on top of their payment performance 24/7. Merchants can also benefit from competitive pricing for their card processing, so they can improve their profitability. With the help of a dedicated Account Manager, the integration process becomes effortless.

Mariam Nikolova
De Mariam Nikolova
Product Manager, emerchantpay

emerchantpay is a leading global payment service provider for online, in-app and in-store payments. Mariam is passionate for product management and dedicated to delivering exceptional payment experiences.

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