There is no denying that businesses today need to do everything they can to make the checkout process as convenient and easy as possible for everyone. Consult a professional such as East London Accountants to discuss what the most suitable option for your business is. One of the best ways to do this is by enabling customers to pay via the method that best suits them.
Statistics have shown that most global shoppers (36 percent) prefer to pay with eWallets online today. This is in comparison to the 12 percent that prefers to pay with debit cards and the 23 percent that prefers to use their credit card.
However, there are emerging options that are growing in popularity as well, such as cryptocurrency. With that being said, we are going to take a look at seven of the different types of customer payment options for modern businesses today.
1. Offer cryptocurrency payments
There is only one place to begin when it comes to the modern different types of payment options, and this is by allowing your customers to pay using cryptocurrency. This is something that is bound to make a big impact, as cryptocurrency is becoming more and more popular today.
You can easily buy BNB on Moonpay, as well as ETH, BTC, and other coins, and so forward-thinking businesses are using this as an opportunity to allow their customers to pay with this method.
There are a number of benefits you can experience by offering cryptocurrency as a payment option. This is a great way of positioning your brand as a leader in adopting disruptive technologies, as well as enabling a new group of consumers and accessing new revenue streams.
Cryptocurrency also gives you the ability to enhance operational efficiency by drastically lowering the expenses associated with payment processing fees.
2. ACH
ACH stands for automated clearing house payments, which connect a bank account with a billing account, meaning payments can made be automatic.
Typically, you will find that this sort of payment tends to be used when someone needs to make recurring payments for a service, for example, when you pay monthly payments for software via direct debit, this is an ACH payment.
If you work as a freelancer, requesting ACH payments from clients makes a lot of sense because it is more secure, faster, and it does not cost as much as other types of payments.
3. Cash
There is no denying that cash is going out of favor these days, but it is still an important payment option for customers today. After all, there are a lot of people who still prefer to pay with cash, and you do not want to alienate them.
The great thing about cash is that it does not cost anything to process. Instead, you simply collect the cash payments, and then you can make the deposit into your business bank account or simply keep a hold of the cash and spend it as needed.
Nevertheless, you do need to make sure that your cash payments are diligently documented because IRS auditors will pay very close attention to any cash transactions. Even if you miss out on a few dollars, you could find yourself being fined, so you do need to make sure that you have got all of your reporting in order when accepting cash payments.
4. eWallets
Of course, we cannot talk about the best payment options today without mentioning eWallets, with PayPal being the most popular and obvious one.
People prefer to checkout via the likes of PayPal because it is quick and easy. They do not need to enter their debit card details or hunt around in their wallet for their credit card.
However, the benefits do not end there when it comes to accepting eWallet payments, such as PayPal payments, at your business. The extra level of fraud and security protection that PayPal provides is something that benefits both the buyer and the seller.
Any credit card or bank information on PayPal will be encrypted, ensuring that data is kept safe.
Plus, when you consider the fact that there are more than 361 million active PayPal users around the world, it is not difficult to see how you could be missing out on a huge number of customers if you do not offer PayPal payments on your website.
5. Mobile Payments
In addition to the payment types that we have mentioned so far, another option to consider is mobile payments. Through Apple, Google, and other major technology empires, mobile payments are revolutionizing business.
There are a lot of different benefits that your business can experience by offering mobile payments. They are environmentally stable and a lot quicker when compared with other security methods.
Furthermore, because they make the most of the latest technology, you can be sure of much greater levels of security when using your mobile phone. You can use extra layers of security, such as biometrics, encryption, passwords, multi-factor authentication, and much more. This gives customers peace of mind when paying in this way.
Not only this, but we are likely to see mobile payments get more and more popular over the coming years, so your business could end up missing out on an opportunity if you don’t accept these payments soon.
Another benefit that a lot of businesses overlook is the fact that mobile payments make it a lot easier for you to track customer trends. You can look at how much customers are spending and what they are spending their money on so you can get a better understanding of business performance.
You can use this information to make improvements and changes where required.
6. Credit and debit card
Credit and debit cards have long been popular payment options, and this shows no signs of slowing down any time soon. Unfortunately, for businesses, this can be quite an expensive payment method, which is why it makes sense to offer a range of different options so you can tempt people to pay via different means.
Despite this, businesses simply cannot afford to not offer credit or debit card payments, as you would end up isolating a large part of your consumer base.
When it comes to credit card payments, it can cost businesses around three percent of the transaction, if not more. For debit card payments, it typically costs around 21 cents, and then there is a transaction percentage fee, which is often around the 0.05 percent mark.
However, when you consider the fact that there are over 500 million debit and credit cards in the United States alone, you see why this is such an important payment method.
The best thing to do is spend some time assessing all of the different merchant providers that are available so that you can get the best possible deal. Make sure you read the terms and conditions so that you know exactly what you are getting for your money.
7. Buy now, pay later, and installment payments
Last but not least, we have seen services like Laybuy and Klarna come onto the market in recent times, and they have become exceptionally popular.
These solutions provide the customer with a method of shopping online and paying less upfront while not needing to make any interest payments.
Klarna offers a buy now, pay later option. Customers can purchase products and then they will have 30 days to make the payment to Klarna, without interest. This works particularly well for online shopping because it means that people can essentially try before they buy.
There is then the option of paying weekly, monthly, or bi-weekly payments, without interest. This is something that Klarna offers, as do the likes of LayBuy and Clearpay.
With this solution, you will checkout and make your first payment, and then the following payments will be taken automatically from your card on the specified payment dates.
While there are no interest fees, if you do not make your payments on time, you could end up being charged a late payment fee, so do keep this in mind.
Final words on customer payment options for modern businesses
So there you have it: seven of the different payment options that modern businesses today should consider. We hope that this has helped you to get a better understanding of some of the different ways you can take payments today.
It is important to make sure you offer a number of different payment options to your customers. After all, the last thing you want to do is end up losing a customer because they are unable to complete their process because you only offer limited payment solutions.