An eCommerce site must always have multiple payment options. If you run a shopping site, and you only have one payment method, you may be leaving thousands of dollars on the table. So what are some of the must-have payment options?
Paypal.
Everyone knows about Paypal. If you are not using Paypal, you are isolating a huge group of people. Paypal is a payment solution that allows its members to make payment without having to use a credit card. The credit card info has already been stored in the Paypal account. All the member has to do, is to login to his or her paypal account when making payment. That means entering an email address and a password. That is far more convenient than having to take out the credit card and enter the credit card numbers into the payment form.
In the event that a customer does not have a Paypal account, he or she can still proceed with payment without having to sign up for an account. In this case, the check out process would be very similar to the usual check out process. The customer will have to enter the credit or debit card number.
In addition, you can easily integrate Paypal into your shopping site as most eCommerce software supports Paypal.
Google Checkout.
Google is becoming a highly competitive player in the payment solutions space. Like Paypal, it also has millions of members. You can easily add Google Checkout buttons to your site by copying and pasting some code snippets.
Google Checkout is especially important if you are promoting your eCommerce site using Google’s very own pay per click advertising system. When you create an add in the system, your ad appears on the right hand side of the search results. If your site supports Google checkout, a small little shopping cart will appear in your ad. Visitors will know that your site supports this payment method just by viewing the ad.
This increases conversion rates because payment by Google checkout is very fast and convenient. For customers who have used Google checkout before, all they have to do is to enter their email address and password (just like Paypal). There are no lengthy forms to fill up. If he or she is a first time user, a new account will be created.
Conversion rates tend to be higher when you offer Google Checkout as a payment option because of the trust factor. Some customers may be afraid to make a purchase because they are unwilling to share credit card information with merchants. With Google checkout, they won’t have to share private information.
2Checkout.
2CO has been around for many years now. This is a payment processor that allows you to accept payments by credit or debit cards. Unlike Paypal and Google Checkout, customers will have to fill in their credit card info when making a purchase. The payments will be sent to 2CO, who will then verify the payments. The revenues will then be sent to the merchants via direct bank transfer or check.
Worldpay.
This is a very popular payment processing solution that is used by many large corporations. You must have your own merchant account if you want to use Worldpay. The setup allows revenues to be sent directly into your bank account.