If you sell products online but don’t have a payment software integration solution, you could be leaving money on the table. Customers tend to shop more with websites that allow them to pay without a third party payment processor.
Here are five reasons you should consider getting payment software integration.
1. It Makes Customers Trust Your Site.
Sure, you can use Paypal or another third party ecommerce credit card processing program, but people may be a little leery of giving you money. After all, anyone can sign up to use a third party service, and there’s no guarantee the company will ever send the product a customer pays for. On the other hand, if you use a secure payment platform to make it easy for customers to make an online payment through credit card, they’ll be more inclined to shop with you.
2. It’ll Streamline Your Sales and Marketing Processes.
Selling through a third party processor means it’s harder to access the contact list of people who have bought from you. But having payment software integration means you can tie it to your existing CRM or marketing database so that you can easily view customer behavior and market to them effectively.
3. You’ll Save Money in the Long Run.
With third party processors, you pay a fee every time you use the service for an online transaction. If you have payment software integration, you eliminate much of that overhead. While there are costs associated with integrating up front, you’ll quickly make your money back.
4. You Make the Buying Process Simple.
Not having to log into Paypal or re-enter credit card information makes it easier for customers to click a button and make a purchase on your site. You can store repeat customers’ payment info to make it easier to buy from you on future visits to your ecommerce site. The fewer clicks a customer has to make, the more buying he’ll do.
5. You Eliminate Headaches.
The more systems you have to manage, the more effort you have to put into the management of them. By integrating your payment software with everything else you’re using to sell online, you have fewer things to bother with.
Options to Consider
The payment software integration platform you choose should offer you a high level of customization so that you can tailor it to fit what your customers need. You can opt to accept credit, debit or echeck payments online, as well as let customers set up automatic or recurring payments.
A good ecommerce credit card processing platform will allow you to automatically email a receipt to customers as well as set them up to receive future promotional emails in coming weeks.
You should be able to easily reconcile your sales to your bank account, as many payment platforms integrate with Quickbooks and other accounting programs. You want access to reports on sales that you can customize at any time and share with your coworkers.
Look for online reviews of the company, and ask to speak to current customers so that you can get a real sense of how reliable the service is, how available the company is when you need customer support and what value you’ll get out of the service.
Many companies offer free trials, which provide you with the opportunity to see how easy it is to use the platform. If it’s too complicated, you’ll have trouble getting adoption within your company. Find one that is simple to use and that provides immediate benefit to your customers and to your business.
