Practical ways businesses can improve customer experiences online

The way we make payments has fundamentally shifted. Only around 13% of Australian payments were made with cash in 2022 — and we’re more comfortable making purchases online than ever before. In 2022, 18% of retail payments were online, up from 12% in 2019 and just 4% in 2007 — and that figure jumps again in categories like leisure, holidays and bills. 

For businesses looking to capture more consumers online, the payment experience should be frictionless and intuitive. From meeting consumer demand for certain payment types to protecting against fraud, here are four easy ways to give customers a great online payment experience:

Offer the right digital wallets

There’s no shortage of digital wallets — think Apple Pay, PayPal, Google Pay, Alipay+ and WeChat Pay to name just a few. 

When integrating digital wallets into the payment experience, Richard Falconer, Senior Sales Executive with ANZ Worldline Payment Solutions suggests keeping two points in mind. First, understand the customer — who they are and where they’re from. “If you’re a university, for example, and you know you’ve got a lot of international students coming back to Australia to resume their university programs, you may want to consider digital wallets that are popular in the students’ home countries — for students from Asian countries, that could include digital wallets such as Alipay+ or WeChat Pay,” he says.

And, while it’s important to offer a range of payment methods online, too much choice can become overwhelming. To get the right balance, Falconer suggests talking to the specialists. “Knowing your customers is the first step and then talk to a payments provider who may be able to provide insight to help you get the mix right.” 

Take advantage of automation and tokenisation

Tokenisation substitutes sensitive data like a credit card number with a digital ‘token’ for increased online security. Besides safety, though, tokenisation could help businesses remove friction from subscription or other recurring payments — for everything from video streaming to monthly hairdresser appointments.

Through tokenisation, changes in card details are managed by the issuer updating the token provider, so the card holder doesn’t have to manually update their card details on file when their card expires for example. This could help to avoid potential churn events.

“Anecdotally, we know that when a customer has to manually update their credit card details when their card expires, it’s not only inconvenient but could actually result in a lost customer if they take the opportunity to re-evaluate their relationship with your business. Remove that moment and you may be more likely to protect that ongoing sale.“

Reduce cart abandonment with frictionless payments

Shopping online can be very simple, but common kinks in the customer experience still cause customers to abandon their purchase. “Consumers often abandon their purchase at the very last step because they don’t want to or can’t manually enter their card details,” Falconer says. 

Accepting digital wallets like Apple Pay or WeChat Pay, or partnering with sophisticated ecommerce payment platforms, could remove some of the friction that causes cart abandonment. Shopify, for instance, can pre-fill data like a customer’s home address or phone number, or even allow adjustments to items or order quantity in the shopping cart. “Being able to make changes to your shopping cart from within, without having to go back into the website, reduces that annoyance factor — you want to make it as simple as you can for your customers to get to the end and complete the transaction in as few “clicks” as possible,” Falconer says. 

Protect against fraud

Fraud can be potentially costly to a business, with financial losses and reputational damage enough to deter customers. Falconer suggests finding a fraud prevention solution that defends against fraud without disrupting the customer experience — something like 3D Secure 2.0 which is a security protocol used to authenticate cardholders in transactions where the card isn’t being presented in person. 

“There are many touchpoints 3D Secure 2.0 will look at when you do a transaction, and that includes simple things like checking the card name and date but also behavioural history and device information, or extending further to validate if, for example, that’s the same phone number that’s always used to make a payment on that card,” Falconer says.

Whatever your business uses to combat fraud, Falconer suggests working with a trusted partner to find a simple and intuitive solution.

For more information about online payment solutions visit ANZ Worldline for more information. 

This article is sponsored by ANZ Worldline Payment Solutions. It is provided for information only and is not a representation that a product or service is suitable or appropriate for the reader’s individual circumstances.  Please seek your own financial, legal credit, tax and other relevant advice where relevant.

ANZ Worldline Payment Solutions means Worldline Australia Pty Ltd ACN 645 073 034 (“Worldline”), a provider of merchant solutions. Worldline is not an authorised deposit taking institution (ADI) and entry into any agreement with Worldline is neither a deposit nor liability of Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited ACN 005 357 522 (“ANZ”) or any of its related bodies corporate (together “ANZ Group”). Neither ANZ nor any other member of the ANZ Group stands behind or guarantees Worldline.