By Blair Williams, founder of the WordPress membership plugin MemberPress and affiliate program plugin Easy Affiliate.
Bringing a customer to the point of purchase is like a marathon runner making it to the finish line: They need to cross it, and a critical journey is complete. However, when it comes to e-commerce and online businesses, getting customers to finish buying something is delicate and complex.
One of the key ways to get customers to buy is to personalize the payment process.
The Importance Of Personalization
I learned about the value of personalizing payments in my journey going from a product builder to a marketer—a necessary transition when my business started growing. I realized that I could no longer focus on building every feature and it was best left to developers, but I could not afford to be hands-off with marketing. So I built my knowledge of marketing practices through support from a partner, online learning and slow experience.
I quickly learned that personalizing the sales process can be a game-changer. Personalization means making sure you tailor each customer’s experience with your business as much as possible. And you try to do this in every area possible, like product selections, marketing emails and, of course, payment methods.
You’ve likely already experienced personalization in some form or another. For example, when you get an email that says, “Hi, (your name),” or your favorite clothing retailer recommends products you might be interested in. You probably found such personalized approaches positive and built trust with the brand.
Now, let’s look at how you can apply personalization to drive more payments on your website. Here are a few strategies I use in my own business to get customers to commit and buy.
Tips For Personalizing Payment Methods
Offer to save payment information.
One of the best ways to personalize and optimize payment processes is to offer customers the option to save their payment information. This way, customers don’t have to enter every detail whenever they make a purchase.
However, you want to make this process secure by using reputable payment gateways. There are major payment gateway brands that are globally recognized and offer features where they can save and encrypt details such as a card number, name and CVV. By using such options and making the payment process easy, you can help ensure customers can buy quickly in the future.
Create localized payment experiences.
If you have a company and products that you sell around the globe, consider offering localized payment experiences for your customers.
I’ve found that currency can play a significant role in the buying decision, and customers tend to experience less stress when they can understand a product’s price in an instant. By showing your product’s prices in the local currency, you’re making it clear that your brand is focused on customers’ specific needs. You also eliminate the need for people to convert prices to their local currency and guess what they’ll be charged. This helps reduce friction and increases the likelihood of purchases. Also, you want to ensure local tax information appears, too.
Make personalized add-ons and upsells.
A helpful way to increase the final order value of a product is to recommend relevant add-ons and upsells. For example, if a customer bought an item of clothing, you could recommend the matching handbag or accessories. Or if they’re buying a laptop computer, you could offer them to purchase additional software or warranties with it. If you’re a software-as-a-service owner like myself, you might not suggest complementary products like accessories, but you can still offer add-ons. For example, my company will offer integrations with third-party tools.
This approach creates the impression that you’re trying to help your customers, and it makes it easy for them to get valuable items. This helps personalize the buying experience and could even increase sales as well. Keep in mind that to make upselling and cross-selling a success, it is important to not overwhelm the buyer and push them to buy more. And, of course, I believe in split testing and seeing what works. So over time, I’ll see if some add-ons work better than others or if making fewer recommendations leads to fewer cart abandonments.
Offer special personalized discounts.
It’s a good move to add special discounts, offers and promotional codes to your checkout page. You can make this even more interesting by creating coupon codes that reflect some aspect of your customer’s profile. For example, if your buyer is from a specific state like New York, you might offer a coupon code such as, “15OFFNYC.” You could also create discounts, codes and offers related to the holiday season or major events taking place at the moment. Some examples of such events are Valentine’s Day or the back-to-school season.
These small touches attract attention and appear to cater to customers in a personalized way. Such offers also help reduce any hesitation a customer might have when buying.
Making Your Customers Feel Seen
In the end, personalizing payment methods isn’t just a strategy; it can help propel your business to the next level. You not only have the potential to boost sales but also establish trust, lift up your brand image and build a bond with your customers, who will have you at the top of their minds. Be proactive and add these strategies to your e-commerce business.
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