Why Accepting Credit Cards Is So Important
62% of online shoppers have been so frustrated they have aborted a transaction
(Zona Research)
Time to roll up our sleeves and jump straight in -- the issues that you must both know and understand:
Convenience -- Convenience is what makes or breaks sales. I cannot emphasize this enough. Examine this statistic carefully:
"Not surprisingly, convenience, which has long been cited as the biggest driver of e-commerce, continues to drive shoppers online. Almost 60 percent of respondents said convenience was why they chose the Internet as a retail channel. Less than one-quarter (23 percent) cited price." -- WSL Strategic Retail
Impulse Purchases - Convenience leads to impulse purchases, which consist of the majority of internet based transactions. Most internet shoppers come online to research and not to buy. You must use the impulsive nature of internet shoppers to your advantage by giving them what they want at the click of a button.
This is VITAL because you will have your customer's attention once and only once. When you have your customer's attention you must close the sale -- immediately!
You have to get it right the first time. In a simplified form, you MUST:
1) Capture your website visitors attention
2) Generate an interest for your product and create desire
3) Close the sale -- Immediately!!
The Problem -- without credit card acceptance you can't close the sale immediately! The customer must do one of the following:
• Record exactly what it is that they want to purchase
• Type this out in a detailed email
• Call you to order the desired goods or services over the phone
• Worst case scenario: Write a check, find an envelope & stamp, and walk to the mailbox.
Although it doesn't sound like much work on your customer's behalf, they are VERY unlikely to do that unless they are ready to bend over backwards to get your product. You are certainly losing all your potential impulse purchases, and even some otherwise dedicated customers who simply become too frustrated to complete the purchase process.
You must be able to speed your customer through the entire payment process before they even have time to reconsider purchasing your product.
The INSTANT your customer decides they want your product, you must be able to collect their money and complete the sale. I absolutely cannot stress this enough.
Every additional step, every extra bit of work, and every extra minute it takes for your customer to complete the transaction, is one more chance for them to change their mind. This can translate to literally thousands of dollars in lost sales.
What's worse, is that your customers will likely end up buying a similar product from a competitor, simply because your competitor has a more convenient payment method -- and once you lose a customer to a competitor it is very difficult to win them back.