Three Reasons Why Customers Love Online Payments

The jury of public opinion has spoken: Customers love online payments. Here are three reasons why:

Customers are impatient

Waiting in line is a society norm, but there’s plenty of scientific evidence to prove that it’s highly undesirable to customers — and to the businesses who want their patronage. Online payments can solve many of these wait-time dilemmas, giving customers the option to skip the store visit (and its line) altogether.

With that said, a business’s online payment experience should proactively eliminate the unnecessary steps that extend “wait time” as well. For example, experts at ConversionXL recommend that e-commerce merchants allow customers to purchase as a “guest” (without forcing a registration or login), and prefill form fields like city and state when the customer enters his/her billing/shipping zip code(s).

They’re free and instant

Before online payments were an option, paying bills was a laborious process that cost customers time and money. With the popularity of online payments, customers no longer need to invest in paper checks, stamps or envelopes. Further, the “snail mail” method of paying bills with a paper check can take seven to 10 days. Online payments take seconds to initiate, and the process is complete in a matter of hours.

It provides peace of mind

Online payments give customers instant access to their money, including information on how much of it they have and to whom it’s paid. If a vendor fails to honor a purchase and a customer has paid for it with a credit card using online payment, for example, he/she can dispute the transaction with the creditor.

For small-business owners, online payments also provide peace of mind. Because online payments offer customers payment flexibility to pay for goods or services rendered using their debit or credit card, it may be less likely that merchant invoices go unpaid. When customers do make online payments, funds owed to merchants are often transferred electronically to a business account in a few business days.

Ultimately, online payments are a win-win for customers and the merchants who accept them.

Kristen Gramigna is the Chief Marketing Officer at BluePay