How You’re Letting Your Business Down When You Don’t Accept Payments Online
The idea of integrating online payments into your business can be undeniably daunting. You might assume that it’ll involve coding, complex IT management, and the ability to aim your services at a completely new market. And, if those things were true, then we’ve got to agree with you – online payments don’t seem worthwhile.
But what if we told you that you didn’t need to know a single piece of coding to perfect this new branch of payments? As if that weren’t surprising enough, you may also find that a lot of your existing audience base is desperate for you to make this switch.
Luckily, online payment integrations like the merchant services from North.com mean that it couldn’t be easier to get started and let your customers know about it. But if you still don’t believe that it’s an effort worth making, why not consider the following ways that you let your business down when you don’t accept payments online?
# 1 – Frustrating Customers
Remember how you were worried about finding a brand new audience to make online payments worthwhile? Well, it’s far more likely that your existing audience base is going elsewhere due to your oversight. Of course, this is a difficult thing to track – you can’t measure demand for a service you don’t offer, but it’ll become painfully clear as your profits start soaring when online payments finally go live.
The simple reality is that the vast majority of customers will now search for you online first (around 8 in 10 to be precise). If you don’t have a website, or if they can’t use it to buy from you, then you can bet they’ll end up frustrated and diving straight into your competitor’s arms.
# 2 – Limiting Sales Potential
The most obvious issue with a lack of online sales is this: you’ll significantly limit your sales potential. Not only will a lot of customers simply turn away from your services if online payments aren’t an option, but you’ll also miss out on crucial money-making benefits, like the increase in impulse buys that can happen when customers can simply click and pay in the moment.
You’ll also miss out on the ability to offer crucial services that many customers now expect and won’t pay without, like verified payments through PayPal and Google Pay, as well as additions like buy now pay later schemes. All of which could see your profit margins soaring to no small degree.
# 3 – Missing Out on Data Insights
A lack of online payments can also cost you significantly in terms of your data. Of course, you can glean some data from general card payments, but it’ll be nowhere near as revealing.
When you accept payment online, you can track everything from how paying customers found your website, to which products they clicked on, and even how quickly a sale happened. All of which can help you to tailor towards fast-fire, popular product sales that are a whole lot easier to scale.
