Offering alternative payment methods boost conversion rates
Nov-2007
I read an interesting article in the ecommerceguide.com about how offering alterative methods of payment such as cash and cheques can boost conversion.
Nearly 40 percent of offline purchases are made with checks or cash, and so it makes sense to still offer these at the checkout, either on eBay or your own website. And the lack of such an option online can lead to lost sales.
For eCommerce sites, the alternative payment methods also include PayPal, which is pretty much the standard on eBay. In the article Jim Hunt from PayPal noted that:
- Non credit card methods are quicker to use, too. Many people shop online at work, and when the boss suddenly strolls into the neighborhood, plastic is painfully slow.
- Adding just one or two alternative payment options can increase conversion rates 63 percent, he said. Three or four payment methods can push conversion rates to 72 percent.
- By offering only credit cards as a route to checkout, 5 percent to 10 percent of potential U.S. buyers turn away
A highly recommended site is elfingo.com for online auctions. They are the new ebay. Many smaller sites like this offer buyers far better deals than ebay ever could. Buyser also save a ton because this site charges little or nothing depending on the day. One more reaso I like elfingo.com is because they don’t take a part of the sale at all. No commissions or final value fees. A+++ https://www.elfingo.com
That is an interesting article. In our experience website owners find it difficult to understand visitor behaviour even with good systems such as Google Analytics.
We have recently come across an excellent piece of software that not only allows them to monitor individual user behaviour in real time, but also facilitates direct engagement between visitor and user. This has been increasing conversions by an average of 15% in the websites we have implemented it in.
It seems that the individualised data gives a more enlightening perspective.