Top 7 reasons why businesses choose a digital payment service

Originally posted 9/3/19

Customer obsession is at the heart of what we do at Amazon Pay, and providing our unseen customer a seat at the table in every meeting is of utmost importance. We are constantly seeking ways to understand customer needs.

We have two primary customer audiences: 1) Consumers who have an Amazon account 2) Businesses that offer payment options for customers to purchase products/services from their store/website (hereafter referred to as just site). In April 2019, we published a blog on the top reasons why consumers choose a digital payment service. In today’s blog, we turn our attention to the business audience and explore attributes that are important to them in choosing a digital payment service (such as Amazon Pay, PayPal, Apple Pay etc.)¹

The top attributes² in order of importance are:

1. Supports transactions through multiple channels

Since the advent of digital technologies in the 1990’s, consumers have incrementally adopted channels such as e-commerce and m-commerce (mobile) to complement (but not replace) physical stores. All these channels³ have grown since then. This incremental trend is set to continue with the addition of voice commerce. In a survey conducted by Amazon Pay, we found that consumers are ready to embrace a multi-channel shopping experience with 42% likely to be involved in one that spans multiple channels in three years. In fact, 39% are quite comfortable with starting their journey in one channel and ending it in another today.⁴ With consumers seeking a seamless shopping experience in multiple channels and a connected experience across channels, businesses prefer a digital payment service that can support such multi-channel connected commerce experiences.

2. Enables easy integration with your website/your website’s e-commerce platform

Businesses have many competing Information Technology (IT) priorities. They are constantly trading off scarce IT resources across multiple projects. Integrating with a digital payment service and offering it as a payment option on their site is an intensive IT project for many businesses. Hence, they seek a digital payment service that can offer a seamless integration experience. If a business has built its website on an e-commerce solution provider platform (such as Magento, BigCommerce etc.), they like the digital payment service to integrate seamlessly with that solution provider so that adopting the payment service becomes plug-and-play. If a business has a custom-built website, it relies on the digital payment service to offer the technology and expertise to facilitate a seamless custom integration.

3. Offers best-in-class fraud detection technology and reduces your risk of bad debt

Every $1 of fraud costs e-commerce businesses $5 to identify, manage, and address.⁵ Businesses seek to collaborate with digital payment service providers to combat fraud. Small and medium businesses with fewer resources are more reliant on the digital payment service’s fraud detection capabilities. These businesses also believe that customers that use these digital payment services are more reliable than those who use credit or debit cards.

4. Offers 24X7 support to you and to your customers

By offering a digital payment service on their site, businesses seek to offer a seamless checkout experience. They also want their customers’ post-transaction experience to be equally seamless. It is inevitable that some customers might contact the digital payment service provider rather than the business about issues/questions about their order. A less than satisfactory customer experience in such interactions with the digital payment service’s support reflects badly on the business. Hence, businesses seek to engage digital payment service providers that treats its customers as their own customers. Separately, businesses also seek round the clock support from the digital payment service provider if they have any issues/questions.

5. Offered by a recognized and trusted company

Businesses understand that customer trust is hard to earn but easy to lose. They carefully choose their association with external brands. This careful curation extends to their choice of digital payment services they offer on their site. They seek to engage with digital payment brands that they trust, and more importantly, they believe their customers trust. Trust and recognition of the digital payment service is more important to small and medium businesses. If the website/store is less well known, customers’ trust in it increases if a recognized and trusted digital payment service is offered as a payment option.

6. Improves purchase conversion rate

Research from the Baymard Institute finds that 70% of online shoppers who add a product to their shopping cart never complete the purchase.⁶ Two of the top three reasons are: the website requires the customer to create an account and the checkout process being too long/complicated. Cart abandonment has a direct negative impact on purchase conversion rate. Hence, businesses seek a digital payment service that frees customers from the need to create an account or populate a lengthy form that requests personal and payment information. Customers can checkout seamlessly using their familiar login and the payment information stored in their digital payment service account. This lower customer friction leads to a larger proportion of customers completing their purchase.

7. Attract customers who spend more than the average online shopper

Businesses seek differentiation and value beyond the above six attributes in choosing a digital payment service in a crowded space. Growth is top priority for any business. They seek a digital payment service that not only drives new customers to their site; they seek one that can drive customers who spend more on their site.

At Amazon Pay, we do not stop with just understanding customer needs. We incorporate that information into the evolution of our products and features, to best address those needs, and offer a delightful customer experience.

We hear your business needs loud and clear and we have solutions to address them. Please learn more about how we can help your business by visiting this link - https://pay.amazon.com/secure-checkout. To sign up and start offering Amazon Pay as a payment option for your customers follow this link - https://pay.amazon.com/us/signup.