This white paper explores the buying behavior of online consumers and the impact of this behavior on merchant profitability. This document also explains how online banking can help merchants decrease transaction processing costs, capture new customers, and manage transaction risk more effectively.
Estimates show 84 million customers already use online banking. However, 80 million consumers who use the Internet do not buy online. The primary reasons include a perceived lack of security, an unwillingness to disclose personal information, and the absence of acceptable payment methods. Regardless of merchants’ best efforts to close sales online, many consumers abandon their shopping carts at the payment page. At first glance, the abundance of abandoned online shopping carts represents millions of dollars in lost sales; in reality, it ushers in a major business opportunity for merchants who are ready and willing to provide alternative payment options that appeal to millions of potential buyers.
When consumers buy products face-to-face, they have a choice of multiple payment options including credit cards, debit cards, cash, and checks. These options are a result of the need to meet customers’ diverse requirements. However, in the online world the same options do not exist for consumers. Credit cards dominate online payments and are generally the only payment method accepted by most merchants. In order to experience continued sales growth, merchants need to expand their payment options to address varied consumer preferences. Effective and user-friendly alternative payment options are a much-needed addition to the world of online shopping.
The addition of new payment options results in fewer dropouts at checkout and more completed sales. The right payment options generate incremental sales without increasing fraud, charge-backs, or overhead costs.
Several alternative payment options address these issues. One of the newest options, developed in response to the growing use of online banking, enables consumers to pay for Internet purchases directly and securely from their online banking accounts. Today, MODASolutions is the only company that offers this solution. Using eBillme™, shoppers have the option of paying with online bill payment for web-based purchases through the convenience, comfort and trust of their own banks.
Banks have spent billions of dollars building secure and reliable online banking systems that include services such as bill payment. 84 million customers already bank online—a number forecasted to reach 110 million by 2010. Expanding this existing infrastructure to support online purchases represents a major opportunity for merchants, as online banking becomes one of the most significant payment alternatives to credit cards.
Download the complete version in .PDF: Online Banking For eCommerce Checkout.
