Payments are an increasingly strategic area for companies, due to the "differentiation" factor, which is increasingly important for business.
The implementation of more efficient checkout processes e payment methods more in line with consumers' habits and needs are, according to the "Black & White" study by 451 Research, the strategies most used by retailers to offer a shopping experience that is not only more satisfying, but also simpler and more convenient.
As you can see from the data compiled by this study, for consumers, payments are an important factor in conversion and the shopping experience, leading them to "reward" retailers who offer a fast and efficient checkout process with their loyalty. New times, new demands.
It is undeniable that the level of demand on retailers has risen and will continue to rise as more and more consumers expect digital shopping experiences to have a logical continuity with their in-store shopping journey.
This is just one of the conclusions reached by the "Black & White" study carried out by 451 Research among 3257 retailers and consumers over the age of 18 with secondary education or higher living in the USA, Canada, Brazil, Ecuador, India, China, France and the UK.
Regionally, the respondents are divided as follows: 40% from North America, 23% from Europe, 24% from the Asia-Pacific area and 12% from Latin America.
Here's what the "Black & White" study by 451 Research found:
Retailers must prioritise multichannel and omnichannel experiences to improve their customers' shopping experience
According to the study by 451 Research, mobile applications for smartphones (43%) were ranked as consumers' favourite channel when shopping online.
Almost one in three (31%) consumers also said they prefer to access an online e-commerce site, while one in four (25%) said they prefer to use the smartphone apps provided by e-commerce platforms, among the latter are more digitally literate consumers (54%) and those who make digital payments (55%).
Despite the inclination towards apps, the study says that it is unrealistic to think that consumers will download an app from an e-commerce platform every time they want to buy a product, which highlights the need for businesses to offer multichannel and omnichannel experiences in order to gain and maintain consumer loyalty.
Replacing cash with online payment methods can lead to digital inclusion
The major obstacle to digital inclusion in the field of payments is still the high rate of use of physical cash.
More than half of those surveyed (55%) by 451 Research have used cash in the last 90 days, a rate that rises to 75% in Latin American countries such as Ecuador.
While in the United States, the United Kingdom or China, one in five respondents (21%) reported cash as their preferred method of payment in-store, in the case of countries such as Ecuador or Brazil, this ratio drops to one in four (28%).
The lack of access to banking institutions, obstructive regulations and the lack of infrastructures that allow for the acceptance of cashless payments are some of the barriers that emerging markets, such as Latin America, face in the digital inclusion of their consumers.
Fraud prevention education and the personalisation of purchasing and support processes: the path to growth for e-commerce platforms
As e-commerce grows globally, so does the need to introduce advanced fraud prevention technologies.
As well as keeping up to date with the latest fraudulent processes, retailers must also "educate" their customers on how best to protect themselves from them. By not doing so, the retailer could jeopardise its customer's trust and loyalty.
One in three consumers (33%) said they felt safer paying for a purchase in a physical shop than in an online shop, which emphasises the need for greater consumer awareness on the part of economic agents in relation to the purchase/ purchase process.online payments.
In addition to this, retailers should also endeavour to actively inform consumers about how their personal information is being used for authentication/verification purposes.
Interestingly, the "Black & White" study found that consumers are reasonably willing to go through additional steps at the checkout to increase the security of the transaction: 40% were "very willing" and 50% were "more or less willing".
On the retailers' side, while 70% said they viewed EMV 3D-Secure and payment tokenisation favourably, 14% said they viewed these payment technologies unfavourably, and another 15% and 17%, respectively, said they were not familiar with these technologies.
This once again underlines the role of education in informing economic agents about the benefits of EMV 3DS and tokenisation, especially among smaller retailers, who, according to the study, are more likely to be unfamiliar with these technologies or to view them unfavourably.
Similarly, the researchers at 451 Research have come to the conclusion that a window of opportunity could open up for training in Secure Remote Commerce (SRC) for small businesses and in markets where it is not yet available.
Among retailers in countries where CRS is not yet available, almost two thirds (62%) were very interested while another quarter (26%) were somewhat interested but wanted more information.
While training retailers and consumers in security is one vector that can help e-commerce platforms grow, the personalisation of purchasing processes and the support that online businesses provide to their customers are other points to take into consideration.
Almost one in five consumers (19%) surveyed by 451 Research said they prefer to shop in a physical shop because they can receive better advice on the product(s) they want to buy, while one in five (21%) said they prefer to receive assistance from a salesperson before buying a product.
This highlights the importance of introducing AI/ML (Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning) technologies not only into online sales platforms in order to provide their customers with more personalised recommendations, but also in taking advantage of the data left by consumers during transactions to strengthen product recommendations and create a history of purchases on various channels.
Diversifying payment methods is the priority for retailers with physical shops
When we move away from e-commerce and focus on physical shops, the priorities of the retailers surveyed for this study are clear: to diversify their products. payment methods that they make available to their customers.
Accepting more types of payment tops the list (52%), closely followed by reducing queuing times (49%).
These priorities are ultimately being driven by the demand for a better customer experience, yet retailers have identified some barriers that are preventing them from achieving this goal.
Security (41%), cost (40%) and the complexity of integrating payment methods into the shop structure (36%) are at the top of most retailers' concerns.
However, if we look at the size of the business, it turns out that smaller retailers (less than 250 employees) tend to worry less about security (30%) and more about cost (54%), while larger retailers (more than a thousand employees) said they had more problems with integration complexity (41%).
In the last three years, the majority of retailers (70%) have updated their payment terminals POS (Point of Sale), many of which have opted to deploy mPOS (mobile point of sale) and self-checkout kiosks in an effort to optimise the customer experience and cut costs.
Thus, three out of five retailers (60%) have deployed mPOS and more than a quarter (27%) are planning to do so in the next 12 months.
The trend also extends to self-checkout: more than half (57%) have implemented self-service kiosks and a quarter (24%) plan to do so in the next 12 months.
Contactless payments: greater efficiency and a better shopping experience
In the last two years, talk of modernising and diversifying the payment methods in a physical shop means Contactless.
In addition to speed, security and simplicity, the contactless payments are helping retailers not only to improve the in-store customer experience, but also to make operations management more efficient.
This was confirmed by 451 Research throughout the study.
The retailers surveyed indicated that the contactless payments is playing an important role in reducing queues and improving customer satisfaction: indicating that 84% of its customers are using online means of transport. contactless payment to pay for their purchases, more than four in five retailers agreed "strongly" that the contactless payments helped them shorten queues (86%) and improve satisfaction (85%).
With regard to consumers, the interviewees classified the contactless payments (45%) as one of the preferred payment methods in physical shops, second only to cash (55%).
Three out of four consumers (76%) agreed that the contactless technology was the most convenient way to pay, while roughly the same percentage said it improves the shopping experience (73%).
* Article adapted from Discover® Global Network.
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