International payments: where are we and where are we going in terms of ePayment systems?
BlogSeptember 21, 2021
Payments are one of the most important areas for any ecommerce company. Not only because it has to do with buyer confidence, but also because it is one of the areas that contributes substantially to the customer experience. This, especially in the case of online payments, must be secure (first and foremost), must cover the currency of the country in which the buyer is buying and offer several payment systems, at least the most popular in that particular country, so that the buyer can choose his or her favourite. Finally, for there to be a positive customer experience, payment must be made in as few clicks as possible. An international payment system tailored to the customer - be it French, Italian or Spanish - is one of the keys to more and more conversions.
Customer experience aside, however, it is also crucial to know where the ePayment world is heading: where we are at the moment and what the future trends are. But also what level of protection we can provide to acquirers. We spoke to Peter Keegan, Operations Manager at Go Global Ecommerce.
What are the most commonly used online payment methods?
In general, the most popular ecommerce payment methods are credit cards and PayPal. In fact, from our observation, we see that month after month these two methods combined account for 90% of sales, while individually they are worth 50% and 40% of all transactions respectively. With the increase in payment methods offering more local choices and instalment options, this split is slowly changing.
What are the new trends in online payment methods?
What is absolutely essential for those who decide to open a cross-border ecommerce site in terms of payments?
What are the main problems encountered when dealing with online payments?
What are the most common scams? How to avoid them?
Generally, eWallet providers are quite quick to spot these attacks, but some still get away with it. The key to avoiding these kinds of scams for online sellers is to monitor traffic: for example, a sudden increase in an area with the same user (usually with a guest checkout) using the same eWallet account but a different shipping address within the same platform should generate suspicion. Online fraudsters move fast, so after hacking the eWallet account, they generally don't change too much data (email address, username, etc.) because they have little time before the takeover is noticed. This should make the owner of an eCommerce shop suspicious: when it comes to having items sent to the destination/delivery point, there will in fact be a discrepancy in the user's data on the eWallet side compared to that of the online shop.