by You’ve finally set-up your incredibly stunning online store, advertised your products on different social media platforms and garnered hundreds and thousands of likes, comments and inquiries. But something’s missing. You’ve noticed that despite the steadily increasing number of visitors, your sales remain low. You also noticed that a lot of your customers have been abandoning the checkout.
Why is that so?
There could be different factors as to why your customers are abandoning checkout like expensive delivery fees, page errors, forced registrations, etc. But one of the most common culprits is that your website doesn’t over multiple payment options for your customers.
The availability of various payment methods for your customers can definitely affect your customer’s last minute purchasing decision.
For example, in the Philippines’ case, only about 7% of the total population owns credit cards so it’s important to offer multiple payment options so you won’t potentially miss out on the 93%.
To increase sales, you should always take into consideration your customer’s convenience and that includes availability of payment options.
For merchants and sellers in the Philippines, here are the best payment methods for your online store:
1. Bank transfers
Bank to bank transfer is one of the most popular modes of payment amongst Filipinos. From a customer’s point of view, offering your customers an option to transact bank-to-bank would help them verify your store’s legitimacy. Any malicious activity could be directly reported to the bank. From a customer’s point of view, they’ll view it as a less risky mode of transacting online.
It’s fairly easy as most banks have an option for online banking so your customers could use them whenever they want.
One of the advantages of a bank to bank transfer is that it is real time and you’ll be able to process your customer’s order immediately. After a customer has transferred the money to your account, simply ask them to take a photo or take a screenshot of the receipt for confirmation.
Some of the most commonly used options for online banking that I’ve seen amongst online sellers are BPI, BDO and Metrobank.
If your customer doesn’t have a bank account, another option is OTC Bank Transfers.
Over the Counter Bank Transfer
This would require more effort from the customer as they’d have to line up to a bank where they’d have to deposit money via a bank teller. Give them your account number and account name and have them send a pic of the receipt after the deposit is done.
One main disadvantage of this is the hassle and your customers might shy away from the inconvenience. The customer would have to shoulder the deposit fees too, depending on the bank they’re transacting with.
2. Cash on delivery
Cash on delivery (COD) is perhaps the most preferred payment method due to the fact that majority of Filipinos remain unbanked. Most online sellers have reported an increase in sales after offering a cash on delivery option. Not only does it encourage impulse spending, but it’s also hassle-free and you’ll be able to easily gain your customer’s trust because payment would only be required after the delivery of the product.
There are disadvantages to cash on delivery however. As an online seller, you’d have to carry risks outside of your control such as cases wherein the customer gave a wrong delivery address, or if the customer all of a sudden decided not to push through with the transaction, or if the customer is not at home during the delivery. In these cases, the online seller would have to carry the burden of paying the courier. With the sale not being completed plus the extra costs, this could be a problem especially if you are just starting out with no extra capital to spare.
Before offering a Cash on delivery option for your online business, make sure to weigh-in the potential gains vs the potential risks.
You could partner up with these reputable courier companies for the Cash on delivery or COD option:
- LBC
- 2Go Express
- MrSpeedy
- Lalamove
- Jam express
3. Paypal
Paypal is one of the most commonly used online payment systems used by freelancers and OFWS. If your customers have a Paypal account, they can just log-in without having to fill up your website’s checkout sign-up form. Paypal can easily process credit card and debit card purchases too!
With Paypal, you could easily streamline the payment process allowing your customers to checkout easily. If you created you e-commerce store with Shopify, you could integrate your website withe Paypal. Here’s how.
To withdraw your balance, simply link your local bank account, and verify it.
The seller fees for payments is at 4.4% + 15.00 pesos. For withdrawals, the fee is free if more than 7000 pesos is withdrawn. If less than 7000 pesos is withdrawn, on the other hand, the withdrawal fee is 50 pesos.
4. G-cash
G-cash is a mobile application that can turn your phone into an e-wallet. It’s powered by Globe telecom aka one of the largest telecommunication companies in the Philippines.
Gcash is known for its sleek and easy to use interface that would allow your customers to send money instantly! Sending money to another gcash account is FREE and that is a huge plus for your customers.
For online sellers, simply give your globe cellphone number (that you used to register your gcash account) to your customer and have them send the money via their Gcash wallets.
It’s important to have your Gcash account fully verified so you would be able to withdraw your balance. You could link your bank accounts and have your funds transferred there as well.
5. SmartMoney
SmartMoney is another e-wallet that is basically similar with Gcash, the difference is that you’d have to have a SMART Sim card to be able to use it.
With SmartMoney, your customers will be able to send money from their Smart or TNT sim card registered mobile wallets. It’s secure and trusted, and it requires a PIN for every transaction.
6. Paymaya
Paymaya is another e-wallet that is growing in popularity. With Paymaya, you’ll be able to accept money instantly from your customers anywhere in the Philippines.
The Paymaya app is available for android, Iphone and Huawei users. Just like the other e-wallets, it’s really easy to use.
It is highly recommended though to have your account verified and upgraded so you could unlock higher withdrawal limits of up to 100,000 pesos, and be able to withdraw your balance to any ATMs in the Philippines or Visa/mastercard ATM’s abroad.
7. Coins.ph
Coins.ph is a web and mobile platform where you’ll be able to send and receive money instantly even if you don’t have a bank account or a credit card!
What’s unique about coins.ph is that it allows to you to accept cryptocurrencies as a form of payment from your customers!
To receive cryptocurrencies like bitcoin or ethereum, simply give your wallet address to your customer and have them send the balance to that address. As soon as the transaction has been confirmed and completed in the blockchain, you’ll be able to see your balance in your coins.ph wallet.
