Increasing Sales with Alternate Payment Methods

Any mode of payment that does not involve direct cash exchange or transactions via credit/debit cards is considered an APM. APMs are quickly taking over conventional payment methods and will soon be dominating transactional volume in the e-commerce sector worldwide, according to Statista.  

If you run an online business and still do not offer APMs to your customers, this article is going to change that by telling you all the plus points of APMs that play a significant role in increasing your sales.

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APMs are characterized by features that conventional payment methods are unable to offer, making them highly preferred by customers and therefore, almost an absolute necessity to offer on your e-commerce platform. Here is what APMs offer to induce a significant increase in sales:

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Greater Options

APMs make more options available to choose from when making the payment at checkout, beyond the conventional card payment or cash on delivery options, catering to personal requirements and preferences of more customers. This also empowers more buyers with the purchasing power, even the ones who do not possess a credit/debit card or may not have cash at hand at the time of delivery, due to which they cannot indulge in online shopping. Accommodating customers’ payment preferences results in reduced cart abandonment and equipping more customers to shop online by providing them alternate means to pay naturally increases sales, making it a win-win situation.

Faster Processing

Card systems sometimes tend to make the payment process lengthy, with multiple stages of verification required at times for bigger purchases, more time needed for sanctioning a payment, and complex digital forms to fill out for every purchase at checkout. This friction discourages customers from shopping online, to avoid the complications of the payment process. APMs, on the other hand, make payment and checkout a lot faster and more frictionless by offering quick verification, eliminating lengthy steps to acquire approval for a payment, and bypassing long forms to fill at checkout. The ease and speed of the payment process offered by APMs attracts more customers to shop online conveniently, notably boosting sales.

Increased Flexibility

Conventional payment methods like cash or card payments can be limiting sometimes, requiring full payment on the spot or charging a fee in other cases. However, APMs are introducing innovative ways to pay, which offer a lot more flexibility. A prime example is that of ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’ service. BNPL platforms like QisstPay allow buyers to split their payments in equal monthly installments and that too with no interest, in case of most platforms. The installment plans are flexible and easy to pay off, with automatic deductions on a monthly basis. This level of flexibility in payments enables more customers to shop online, resulting in increased sales.    

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Higher Security

A lot of customers do not prefer paying with their cards while shopping online since it requires them to share sensitive data which they are not comfortable filling out on digital platforms because of how big of an issue cybersecurity is and the frequency of e-commerce fraud cases. However, with digital authentication like face identification or biometric verification that instantly validate a buyer’s credibility, customers tend to be more comfortable with APMs offering this added security feature. This sense of security is a motivating factor for more customers to shop online, who would otherwise not want to because of card or cash payment limitations that come with security concerns, thereby increasing sales.

Apart from increased sales, APMs have something more to offer for your business that would totally convince you to opt for it, if you are not sold already.

No Processing Fee – A Bonus!

Credit cards charge businesses with 1.5% to 3.5% of the total purchase as processing fee for every transaction conducted when a customer pays via card online. The percentage may seem minor on its own, but when it adds up for every purchase, it can be a hefty sum annually. This added cost reduces the profit margin, which can be easily avoided by offering APMs at checkout. When customers have more payment options to choose from, including APMs that they prefer over credit card, less customers are likely to still opt for paying via credit card, which reduces the total annual processing cost that your business has to bear and increase the margin for profit.