Wherever you find digital shopping, you will also find different regional requirements for succeeding in those markets. To accommodate those local customs across the global market, your customer experience needs to be flexible. Flexibility in this area does not mean your customer experience needs to touch its nose to its toes. A flexible global customer experience means that your business technology gives the best customer experience to anyone who visits your site, no matter where they come from.

Localization is one technique you should use for creating the good customer experiences. It is important for maximizing recurring revenue, because it provides more acquisitions up front and more renewals later on, thus reducing your churn rates and increasing your customer lifetime value.

To help you take your business to this next level of safe and secure customer experiences optimized for global customers, we put together this analysis of the seven most important aspects for creating the best customer experience to grow your global subscriber base:

• Languages
• Currencies
• Prices
• Payment methods
• Page elements
• Taxes
• Risk management

Localize Languages

Avoid making assumptions about which language to display to your customers based solely on their geolocation. Instead, rely on the preferences customers select in the browser. Then use those preferences to deliver the right customer experience for sign-up pages, marketing emails, customer account sections and in-app messages.

Localize Currencies

If you want to raise conversion rates and maximize renewal rates, you must let subscribers pay in their local currency. Depending on your base currency, a fluctuating exchange rate may be a problem for CLV, or it may be an opportunity for unexpected cash. Research your competition and test different pricing methods to see which prices work best for specific regional markets.

Localize Prices

You can price your service in a local currency but still not offer a competitive price. When you set prices in local currencies, don’t use a floating exchange rate to convert the prices of your product, and make sure the prices display in clean, round numbers. You also have to consider the purchasing power of the average customer in your target market.

Localize Payment Methods

Localizing payment methods makes the user experience of paying for subscriptions as simple as possible for the customer. Many subscribers in different regions of the world prefer to use payment methods other than credit card. You must offer those payment methods to reduce friction in the customer experience and increase recurring revenue rates.

Localize Page Elements

Page elements are easy to overlook, but they are essential to providing exceptional customer experiences to your global subscribers. The way you display dates, prices, and form fields must all comply with local conventions, which vary widely.

Localize Taxes

If you are the merchant of record for your online transactions, you need a system in place to correctly calculate, collect and remit taxes to the proper tax authorities. Displaying taxes the right way raises conversion rates and maximizes renewals. And complying with regional tax law mitigates the risk to your business. But the number of taxing jurisdictions across the world makes achieving compliance with all global tax requirements on your own a difficult challenge.

Localize Risk Management

More and more, companies are starting to realize just how important it is to both comply with regional privacy standards and secure crucial business data from hackers and breaches. The more you know about your obligations in the areas of data privacy and information security, the safer your customers will feel and the safer your business will be.

Keystone

Localization is crucial for creating better customer experiences and earning more recurring revenue. When you implement great customer experiences, you make it easier for people around the world to subscribe to your service, and that means more recurring revenue for you.

Download the full ebook to learn all about localizing your subscription business for international markets.

The post Seven Tips for Growing Your Global Subscriber Base appeared first on cleverbridge.

As a digital merchant, you know your product is valuable to customers around the world. But you can’t just set up shop in a new market and expect overnight success.

To increase your global revenue, you must have an in-depth understanding of exactly how customer preferences vary from place to place. Then use that understanding to design unique shopping experiences for your customers across the globe.

Now, localization entails more than just translation. A true localized shopping experience depends on things like:

• Speaking your customer’s language
• Letting them pay how they want
• Setting the right price
• Designing for usability
• Displaying tax for optimal conversions

Let’s dive into each one, shall we?

Speaking your customer’s language

Truly localize your content by using words that make sense to your readers and puts them at ease when making a purchase. For example, in your U.S. store, the word for where a shopper’s products are kept is called the cart. The preferred nomenclature in Great Britain, however, is bag.

From a tactical perspective, avoid making assumptions about which language to display to your customers based solely on their geolocation. Instead, rely on the preferences customers select in the browser. Use those preferences to deliver the right customer experience for sign-up pages, marketing emails, customer account sections and in-app messages.

Letting your customers pay how they want

Letting your customers pay how they want involves two elements: currency and payment method.

Localizing currencies

If someone in the U.S. were to walk into a brick-and-mortar store and see items marked for sale in euros or Japanese yen, there is a good chance they would walk right out of the store without buying a thing—it’s too confusing and not worth the hassle.

The situation is the same when shopping online. Consumers do not want to see product prices displayed in an unfamiliar currency. Show pricing in currencies that are relevant for the customers in that country.

Localizing payment methods

Know which payment methods are the most popular and make sure you offer them. Always keep an eye on the latest trends in the markets you serve, and add payment methods accordingly.

Do your research, because what is typical to you as a consumer in your home country may be a barrier to conversion for someone buying online on the other side of the world.

For example, most Americans use credit cards for ecommerce purchases. However, the situation is very different across European countries. In Germany, customers tend to use PayPal, wire transfers and direct debit payments more than they use credit cards. In the Netherlands, the vast majority of shoppers avoid using credit cards and prefer to use the local iDEAL system. Your carts must support your shoppers’ payment preferences in order to convert them effectively.

Setting the right price

Dig deep into fluctuating exchange rates and local purchasing power to determine how to price your products.

Just because U.S. customers will purchase your product for $50 does not mean that someone from India or China will too. A $50 product (converted to local currencies, of course) is probably unreasonable in these areas considering that the average income per person is well below what it is in the U.S.

If you are a merchant located in a market with a strong currency you might have to drop your prices in other markets just to stay competitive. It may result in lower revenue than you would like, but it goes a long way in improving conversion rates and decreasing piracy for your products in countries that cannot afford to pay your typical asking price.

Conversely, if you are a merchant located in a country with a weak currency, you might consider raising your prices for markets that can bear to pay a little more. If you don’t do this, you may be perceived as offering a lower quality product that consumers won’t trust.

The key is to determine the purchasing power equivalence of your global visitors to help you understand the relative value of a currency. Don’t forget to research how your competitors price their products in your target markets.

Designing for usability

Know what successful design looks like in the countries you are trying to reach.

For example, in English language homepages, you’ll often notice a heavy emphasis on the search field, few featured images and a minimal amount of text.

In other regions like Japan, one sees many more links, a lot of text and less emphasis on the search options.

To ensure that you’re assuring customers with proper presentation, research the most popular websites in the countries you are interested in, and have native industry experts help design your site if possible.

Displaying Tax for Optimal Conversions

Although ecommerce removes many barriers to global selling, there are challenges that occur no matter how you sell your product. One of the most important issues is calculating, collecting and remitting sales and/or consumption taxes when required by the laws of the countries you are selling in. Compliance is achieved by consulting your own legal advisors, so don’t take this as legal advice.

However, we do know a thing about optimizing conversion rates by localizing the way you display the tax on the sale.

In the U.S., sales tax is added to the advertised price. Customers who go to a brick-and-mortar store and see a price of $79 know they will ultimately pay more than that. In Chicago, Illinois, the sales tax is 10.25 percent, which means that the tax on a $79 product is $8.20 So, on a website, the product would be advertised for a price of $79. However, once the customer enters the shopping cart, the tax is displayed and added to the price, resulting in $88.19. This is how U.S. customers are used to seeing prices, so this is how they expect it will be displayed in the cart.

In the European Union, however, Value Added Tax (VAT) is a tax on the perceived value of a product and is marketed as a component of the final price. European customers who see an advertised price of €79 expect to pay exactly €79 at checkout. Usually, an additional note on the marketed price indicates how much of that price is actually the VAT.

As you can see, it is important to be aware of not only what the tax rate is for a country when selling globally, but also how to present it to customers. Make sure your store supports these important details and are easy to implement. They make a huge difference in conversion rates.

Keystone

Once you’ve successfully localized your ecommerce, you’ve got to stay on top of it. You should continue to monitor your regional traffic and conversion rates, test different layouts for conversion rate optimization, and always research new payment methods. Localization never ends.

For a deeper dive into localization, check out our 7 Tips for Growing Your Global Subscriber Base.

The post Localization 101 — Five Elements to Optimize Conversion Rates appeared first on cleverbridge.

To learn more about increasing revenue and reducing risk in the global marketplace, download our Six Guides on Ecommerce Essentials today.

EMV Chip Card Implementation

Feud Heats Up Over Chip Cards, FBI Warning | Computerworld

As we noted earlier in the month, new EMV Chip Cards are now in consumers hands, with implications for brick-and-mortar and online merchants alike. The security feature devised in Europe is meant to reduce the risk of fraudulent card transactions. The EMV cards generate a unique code associated with each transaction and are designed to work with a PIN. Whether or not to require consumers to use a PIN with their new cards has been causing some friction between banks and retailers, as detailed in this article from Computerworld.

The crux of the disagreement centers on how retailers and card issuers balance security and convenience. “The banks and card companies have come out against PINs in the U.S., saying that other technologies, such as encryption and tokenization, along with using a microchip-embedded card with signatures, would be more effective in fighting fraud than PINs. Retailers favor PINs, arguing that PINs will reduce fraud not only for lost and stolen chip cards, but also for online and telephone transactions.”

The difference between the two industries came to the fore over their disagreement with an FBI advisory statement about how to use the cards. Their original message contained several references to PINs, angering card issuers. The FBI quickly revised their statement.

Singles Day

What It’s Like To Watch Alibaba’s Singles Day Spectacle | Fortune Magazine

As American and other Western retailers dive headlong into the Black Friday and Cyber Monday kickoff to the holiday shopping season, we are weeks behind China and their instant holiday, Singles Day. The big player behind making Singles Day into an ecommerce phenomenon is Alibaba, headed by their eccentric and intriguing chairman, Jack Ma. While not every CEO may wish to emulate his style, Ma’s uncanny ability to raise revenue makes him a global role model.

When he wasn’t being interviewed by the President of the United States of America at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Manila, Ma could be found at Alibaba’s extravagant Singles Day Gala. Fortune Magazine sent reporter Scott Cendrowski to experience the day, which he describes as feeling, “similar to China’s campy Spring festival program, which commands higher ratings than the Super Bowl, but with a more commercial feel.”  The night included performances by none other than Adam Lambert, game show style contests between Chinese celebrities dressed in red or black, and a New Years Eve style countdown to midnight: the start of Singles Day.

Over the next few hours, it became clear that Alibaba won too, smashing previous sales and analyst predictions. As Cendrowski notes, “A communications person from Alibaba’s Alipay affiliate explains that in the first minute of selling, the payment system handled 85,900 transactions per second. Alipay was hoping to break Mastercard’s previous record of 60,000 transactions a second. Singles Day is shaping up to be the record day Alibaba hoped.”

By the end of Singles Day, Alibaba boasted $14.32 billion in sales in one day. The scale of business is a bit mind numbing. Econsultancy shares these 10 eye-watering stats, including the fact that “71% of Alibaba’s Singles Day sales came from mobile devices.”

If done right, there is no reason why Singles Day need remain solely a Chinese affair. eMarketer interviewed  Melissa O’Malley, director of global merchant and cross-border trade initiatives at PayPal, to explore opportunities and best practices for cross-border ecommerce with China. She admits that, “When I started at PayPal 18 months ago, nobody had heard of Singles’ Day.” The rapid rise of the holiday and its ecommerce trappings may inspire companies to try to get into the game, but O’Malley cautions reminds retailers how peculiar online marketing is in China. “Understanding the dynamics of the Chinese social media landscape is very important. It is so different from what Western retailers are used to doing. It’s just night and day. There’s no YouTube. You can’t just buy everything on Pinterest.”

Global Compliance

Life After Death (of Safe Harbor) – EU Data Protection in the Wake of Schrems | Cyber Law Monitor

Any business with operations, customers or data within the European Union or European Economic Area is grappling with the fallout from the European Court of Justice’s recent ruling that effectively ended the US-EU Safe Harbor agreement. In short, Safe Harbor was a framework agreement that allowed US companies to comply with customer data protection laws in the EU. Owing to recent government surveillance scandals in the US, the ECJ ruled in the Schrems case that Safe Harbor was not sufficient to protect EU citizens’ data. This change may expose companies to major compliance risks with hefty penalties.

The post above from Cyber Law Monitor examines temporary recommendations from the European Commission, which “offers alternative methods for compliance with EU data protection laws, while also highlighting the efforts the Commission is taking to develop a renewed and sound framework for personal data transfer to the U.S.”

Moving froward, no business has a clear idea yet of how the future of trans-border data will work. BNA shares this interview with expert James H. Koenig, who was a panelist on a recent Bloomberg Law webinar on the demise of the Safe Harbor Program. He recommended a keep calm and carry on approach.

“Despite the uncertainty, all companies are doing something on a risk basis in light of the ECJ’s decision. Some are moving ahead to devise a global solution without awaiting or depending on the promised Safe Harbor 2.0. Others are taking interim measures. The appropriate approach varies, depending on the type of company and the sensitivity of the data at issue.”

Keeping up with constantly changing rules and regulations can be a drain on a company’s resources, but the risks of non-compliance are high. UK authorities recently slapped publisher Trinity Mirror with a fine totaling over £70,000 for a VAT payment that was sent only one day late.

This decision could be a sign that regulators are taking a closer look at businesses, and expert Meera Rajah says, “It is really important that businesses recognize and understand the potential impact of either late submission or late payment…To avoid such a mishap, it is imperative that you understand the solutions available and keep on top of your VAT returns.”

To learn more about increasing revenue and reducing risk in the global marketplace, download our Six Guides on Ecommerce Essentials today.

The post November Ecommerce Digest appeared first on cleverbridge.

For the September Ecommerce Digest, we’re going to dig into localization, Klarna’s debut in the U.S., the role of shopping carts in subscription commerce, omnichannel shopping challenges, and the impact of chip-and-PIN cards on ecommerce fraud prevention.

Global Ecommerce and Localization

Website Localization Must-Haves For Global Ecommerce | Forrester Research

In this blog post from Forrester Research, Lily Varon writes about what you need to succeed in global ecommerce. This is a topic that is dear to us, and we are happy to see a report detailing global expansion issues like domain names, global gateways, global user interfaces, language elements on a web page, multilingual SEO, customer support best practices, and localized currencies and payment methods.

Alternative Payment Methods

Klarna Launches in the U.S. | Re/code
Speaking of localization … payments! Klarna is a popular payment provider for online Swedish shoppers. Klarna is a compelling payment option because it assumes all the risks of fraud instead of the merchant. If you are looking to gain customers in Sweden, one of the best things you can do is add Klarna to your checkout process. But now Klarna is looking to expand its operations into the U.S. Which merchants will start offering this type of payment for customers outside of Sweden? Will it make a significant impact on conversion rates? It will be interesting to see if Klarna’s attempt at global expansion will disrupt the ecommerce market.

Shopping Carts and Subscription Commerce

Why the Shopping Basket Is the Next Big Thing in Digital Commerce | Demandware
This blog post from Demandware advocates that merchants should “persist that basket,” that is, they should not neglect the great power of the online shopping cart to drive sales and retarget bouncing visitors. We do not disagree that the cart is a crucial element of ecommerce success. But just as conversion rates are less relevant in today’s subscription dominated market, so is a narrow focus on shopping carts. The real question is, “How are you messaging customers before and after they create a cart?” Today’s subscription dominated market demands attention to the entire customer lifecycle — not just the cart.

Content Marketing

Primer by Google Is Here to Make You a Better Marketer | NewsCred
Looking to learn more about marketing automation or creating relevant search ads? This interview with Hope Friedland, Content Lead at Primer, showcases a new educational app from Google. It is a handy library of content that helps people learn the ins and outs of digital marketing. It is designed to be consumed by mobile device users on the go, and it is highly interactive. Aside from the educational content, this app also serves as a source of inspiration to marketers thinking about alternative ways of educating their audiences and communicating brand value.

Omnichannel Shopping

MasterCard Busts Myths of the Omnichannel Consumer | PYMNTS
We love the image offered in this post of today’s digital shopper as “a patient, skilled, value-seeking missile.” Based on MasterCard’s The Retail CMO’s Guide to the Omnishopper, PYMNTS explains that customers research their purchases piecemeal: over time, in both physical and online spaces. Even in the digital world, they search across different devices and through different channels. The main point here is to consider where your customers are viewing your messages, and to make sure those messages are consistent.

Fraud Prevention

How Chip-and-PIN Credit Cards Protect Consumers From Fraud | NPR
This interview with security expert Brian Krebs discusses the  impact of this switch and notes the difference in the European and American cultures of using credit cards at physical stores. Many countries adopted chip-and-PIN credit cards a while back, and the U.S. is slowly catching up on this important security improvement. However, as we explained a year and a half ago, blocking one avenue of fraud is sure to send the fraudsters looking for another way to steal your customers’ personal information and money. Krebs notes that it is not just online shopping carts that are affected by a new surge in fraud activity: New account fraud and account takeovers are going to occur too.

Please share your thoughts in the comment section below.

The post September Ecommerce Digest appeared first on cleverbridge.

1. Hold their feet to the fire. While some customers are slow to pay for innocent reasons, others may not have a valid excuse. Regardless of the customer, every late payment has a story. You owe it to your business to pick up the phone and figure out what it is soon after the customer’s invoice becomes past due (according to stats reported by Bloomberg Businessweek via the Commercial Collection Agency Association, the longer an invoice goes unpaid, the less likely you are to collect on it). Once you understand the “why” behind missing payments, you may be able to determine a mutually beneficial solution with the customer based on his or her unique need, including improving or adapting your billing processes and expanding payment acceptance methods.

2. Determine if the late payment is worth the headache. Put your personal feelings about late-paying customers aside and look at the big picture business implications. For example, you’ve likely invested time, energy and marketing dollars in establishing the customer relationship. Consider those financial implications, the profit margin you realize from the customer (once they do pay), along with intangible benefits like referrals, visibility to a broader customer base, and the nature of the work you perform for the customer. If you’ve had past conversations about timeliness of payments and the problem persists, assume it will be ongoing — and consider the cost such disrespect represents. Though you can hire a collections agency and/or take debtors to small claims court for amounts owed that are less than $5,000, both efforts will result in a loss of your valuable time — at the very least. Accounting for all those factors, determine if the relationship is worth the headache, or if your long-term needs are better served by ending the relationship and pursuing new, more financially reliable customers.

3. Establish clear payment policies. As a business owner, you have the power to change the rules as you go — provided you inform customers of your new policy. Establish written payment policies including: when you will issue invoices (and by what method), the forms of payment you accept, when payment is due relative to the customers receiving the invoice, and the penalties that exist for late payments. Specify exactly what happens when a payment is past due in various increments. For example, you might assess an additional 2.5 percent charge for the amount due if the invoice is past due by 10 days, increasing that amount to five percent for past due by 20 days. Distribute the policy to all of your customers and post it on your website. Most importantly, enforce the policies you set.

4. Make it tough to not pay on time. Leverage electronic invoicing tools that help you track the life cycle of a customer’s billing experience, from receiving your email containing the invoice to when they opened it. Choose an electronic invoicing system that allows the customer to pay immediately with a credit card when it’s top of mind. Additionally, equip your website with a secure payment gateway that allows customers to manage their account themselves and pay using a debit or credit card at their convenience. Include the direct web link to the payment page on all invoice-related communications. When you call late-paying customers with collection reminders, direct them to the site where they can make their payment. Establish an account with a reputable payment provider so you can process customer payments over the phone using their credit card.

Keystone

Determining whether a customer relationship is still serving the needs of your small business isn’t personal; it’s smart business. Examine your payment policies for efficiencies, and work with your customers to arrange mutually beneficial solutions whenever possible — but don’t be afraid to move on when a customer doesn’t value your business enough to pay for it.

Kristen Gramigna is Chief Marketing Officer for BluePay, a credit card processing firm, and has a vast amount of experience in the payment field. She has more than 15 years experience in the bankcard industry in direct sales, sales management and marketing.

The post Are Your Customers Missing Payments? appeared first on cleverbridge.

We spend a lot of time around this blog looking at, writing about and sharing ecommerce related infographics. Sometimes we make our own infographics and sometimes we share other companies’ infographics. By expressing ideas and data through images and small amounts of text, infographics often make it easier for people to process information. Almost every company with a content marketing strategy has created infographics in an effort to improve the way they communicate; or, at least, to try and offer something new to their audience. Here, for your review, are five of our most popular Ecommerce Eye Candies of 2014.

B2B

B2B Ecommerce Evolution [Infographic] – This original infographic by cleverbridge tells a story about a wonderful land of opportunity: The B2B software ecommerce market. Make no mistake; it is big – bigger even than its more famous sibling, the B2C market, and independent software vendors stand to make big bucks selling to business and organizations of all kinds.

Affiliate Marketing

How Affiliate Marketing Compares to Referral Marketing – This infographic from The Ambassador Blog makes the case for independent software vendors to consider the costs and benefits of investing in affiliate marketing or referral marketing programs. In the end, it’s all about offering a great product that people, both professional affiliate publishers and close family networks, are proud to offer their audience.

Localizing Payment Methods

Alternative Payment Methods – This infographic provides a comprehensive perspective on how international ecommerce relies on alternative payment options, and the benefits of implementing them in your shopping cart.

Customer Service

25 Skills for Excellent Customer Service – This infographic from Visual.ly goes beyond simple metrics by exploring the skills your customer service team requires in order to achieve your KPIs. If you manage a customer service team it’s worth your while to review these skills and make sure your representatives are trained in all of them.

Personalization

Ecommerce Personalization – This infographic from BrainSINS explains that most ecommerce companies consider personalization a sophisticated marketing tactic that increases conversion rates and results in higher average order values through product recommendations and cart abandonment emails.

The post Ecommerce Eye Candies: Our Year in Review [Infographics] appeared first on cleverbridge.

For the July Ecommerce Digest, we explore how to test for SEO efforts, Visa’s attempt to facilitate mobile ecommerce, and Microsoft’s approach to subscription billing.

How to Test SEO

How Do I Successfully Run SEO Tests On My Website? | Moz Blog
Everyone knows that a successful sales cycle, or buyer’s journey, or whatever you want to call the process that converts curious humans into paying customers, relies heavily on search engine optimization. But SEO efforts are notoriously hard to measure and, therefore, to test. This degree of difficulty is compounded by the fact that other marketing channels like email and paid search are much easier to measure and test. So how do you gauge whether your SEO efforts are effective? This post examines the process for monitoring attempts to positively affect SEO.

Cart Conversion and Data Security

Visa Makes Big Move to Boost Online Spending | All Tech Considered
This engaging piece from National Public Radio addresses one of ecommerce’s biggest fears – cart abandonment. It notes that Visa, a company with a strong interest in lowering abandonment rates, is implementing a new way to faciliate cart conversions, especially for mobile transactions. Now, with Visa Checkout, online shoppers can more easily complete the checkout process. This service links billing information to a simple authentication process in the shopping cart, thus reducing the need to complete the usual number of form fields. This service also improves data security through a tokenization process. However, as one critic notes, this enhanced security could actually make protesting fraudulent charges more onerous for consumers.

Alternative Payment Methods

Cards Still Rule, But Alternative Payments are Catching Up | PaymentEye
The U.S. tends to generate the most ecommerce revenue out of any other country in the world, and U.S. customers tend to use credit cards to pay for online orders. But, as we have said many times in this blog, the beauty of ecommerce is the relative ease it brings when scaling operations into other countries. As you scale your online presence into new territories, make sure that your localization efforts involve an expanding pack of regionally preferred payment options for various European and APAC regions.

Subscription Billing Model

Microsoft slashes SMB Office 365 prices | Computerworld
Software and subscriptions – what a wonderful idea. And yet, earning predictable recurring revenue is not so easily pulled off. Not only do you have to convince customers to sign up initially for time or usage based billing, but you also have to consistently convert your customers over and over again. This article examines recent pricing and feature changes that Microsoft is implementing for its Office365 cloud product. My hunch is that Microsoft is being challenged by customer churn and competition from Google, and so Microsoft is updating its playbook to keep customers in their ecosystem.

Have you made the switch to subscription billing? What are the challenges you’ve encountered in reducing churn?

The post July Ecommerce Digest appeared first on cleverbridge.

Customers around the world have their favorite ways to pay, whether it’s Konbini in Japan, real-time banking in Europe or credit card installments in Brazil. “Payment preference is always based on culture,” says Robin Blume, product manager of payments at cleverbridge. “You have to recognize payment customs to know which methods your customers are comfortable with, and then make sure you include them in your checkout process.”

Payment Trends

Here’s a rundown of some of the most popular alternative payment methods around the globe.

Europe

Europe is a very heterogeneous payment market. While credit card penetration is rising, an increasing amount of customers in Europe are using real-time banking options where they are redirected to their online bank accounts to submit payment. During the checkout process, customers can choose real-time bank transfer as a payment option. Then they are given the option to choose their bank, after which they are forwarded to their online bank account to finalize payment. Customers instantly receive the product after the payment is initiated in their online banking interface.

“People feel comfortable with online banking,” says Blume. “They are able to use familiar systems without being forced to create any new user names or passwords.”

In Finland and Sweden, real-time bank transactions account for up to 35 percent of the market share. Each bank, however, has their individual real-time banking solution. In Finland up to 10 bank brands provide a real-time banking solution, and in Sweden, four banks offer the service.

In the Netherlands, iDeal real-time banking accounts for more than 60 percent of payments conducted online.

Europe’s Sofortüberweisung enables customers to key in online banking credentials (login, password and transaction number) via a secure technical gateway that automatically initiates the wire transfer in their bank accounts and confirms the transaction to merchants in real-time. Sofortüberweisung is most popular in Germany, but has extended its reach to Belgium, Spain, Switzerland, the Netherlands, United Kingdom, France, Italy, Austria and Poland.

SEPA (Single Euro Payments Area) Direct Debit allows a creditor to collect funds from a debtor’s account provided that a signed mandate has been granted by the payer to the biller. This “signed paper mandate” currently makes it difficult for ecommerce merchants to use SEPA Direct Debit, but hopefully a new European Payments Counsel rule modification due in November will alleviate the process of signature mandate handling for ecommerce.

“SEPA Direct Debits could be an interesting opportunity, especially if you are managing subscription payments,” says Blume. “It allows you to create long-term billing relationships if you can handle the associated risks.”

United States

With 80 percent of online purchases made with credit cards, the United States is a rough environment for alternative payments methods. However, one-click checkout options like PayPal and Amazon Payments are definitely not the only alternative options.

Bitcoin, a digital currency with a mysterious origin, is appealing to a growing number of digital merchants in the U.S. Bitcoin is an extremely volatile, decentralized digital currency that uses cryptography to control the creation and transfer of money. It allows people to make one-to-one transactions, buy goods and services and exchange money across borders without banks, credit card issuers or other third parties – and their fees.

With low transaction fees, instant payment processing, hassle-free international exchange and no chargebacks, Bitcoin is appealing to large and small retailers across the globe. The list of retailers that accept the digital currency as a payment option is growing. Overstock.com was one of the first large retailers to accept the currency. Now shoppers can use Bitcoins at major retailers like Amazon, CVS, Target, Victoria’s Secret, Zappos and Whole Foods by purchasing gift cards through Gyft, a digital gift card platform that lets you manage your gift cards via their mobile app.

Brazil

“Cross-border acquisition along with the complexity of the Brazilian taxation system makes selling in Brazil a challenge,” says Blume. “Brazilians typically have fairly low credit card limits, so it’s smart to offer credit card installment plans and Boleto Bancario because they allow customers to increase their spending power.”

Up to 50 percent of online purchases in Brazil are made with credit card installments called parcelas. With credit card installments, customers can split a bill in up to 12 monthly increments depending on the merchant’s set-up.

Boleto Bancario is another very popular payment method in Brazil. The payment process for Boleto Bancarios is similar to wire transfer and cash payment methods. Customers receive a prefilled Boleto Bancário bank slip. They can either pay online, pay with cash at any bank branch or authorized processors such as drugstores, supermarkets or post offices, or pay at a regular banking point.

The Brazilian bank system confirms paid Boleto Bancários once per day, and automatically provides a payment confirmation 3-5 days later via API.

Japan

Because of their cash-oriented culture, many Japanese consumers prefer to pay for online goods with cash at convenience stores called Konbinis. With up to 25 percent of the market, Konbini payments are the second most common after credit cards. Konbini is a must-have payment method to serve your Japanese customers.

China

Alipay is one of the most important ecommerce payment options in China. Just like PayPal, it provides a wallet functionality and enables instant gratification once the payment is confirmed. Processing almost half of China’s online payments, Alipay is another method you should definitely have in your payment arsenal.

UnionPay, the Chinese credit card organization, is slowly picking up speed as well. While the last two years it has had only had a fairly small market share (approximately eight percent), the Chinese credit card is becoming more and more relevant in ecommerce.

Russia

“Approximately 48 percent of Russian consumers do not have bank accounts,” says Blume. This makes the ability to pay with cash extremely important for ecommerce vendors.”

Online wallets like WebMoney ,Yandex and QIWI Wallet that enable online payments are growing in Russia. QIWI Wallet also facilitates cash payments by allowing consumers to purchase online and pay with cash at terminals across the country, which helps target consumers without bank accounts.

Keystone

To stay in sync with potential customers in markets across the globe, look beyond credit cards to trending local payment methods and offer what you can.

The post Beyond Credit Cards: Payment Trends Across the Globe appeared first on cleverbridge.

With access to a vast database of customer information, I developed a comprehensive knowledge of the elements involved in an online transaction. I understood the negative consequences that occurred when customers found it difficult to submit payment. I found that one way to decrease customer friction in the shopping cart is to make sure that the cart is fully localized for visitors from around the world. There are many parts to localization, but one crucial component is offering alternative payment methods.

Alternative Payment Methods

Did you know that the European Union represents the second largest ecommerce market in the world? And did you know that “less than half of all online buyers in Europe own a credit card.” In fact, there are over 200 types of payments that online shoppers around the world use to create ecommerce transactions. But how many of these payments are offered in your shopping cart? Think about this: Offering four or more alternative payment methods results in a 12 percent conversion rate increase.

Why are you denying yourself this revenue?

Consider A/B testing your cart to prove the ROI of implementing different local payment options. For example by splitting traffic from certain countries in Europe, like Netherlands, and offering half your traffic a cart without iDEAL as a payment method and the other half a cart with the iDEAL payment, it is easy to see which converts better, and justifies any costs associated with allowing customers to transact with it. Now investigate your other top performing countries and the market’s preferred local payment methods and continue to test cart performance.

This infographic from Alternative Payments provides a comprehensive perspective on how international ecommerce relies on alternative payment options, and the benefits of implementing them in your shopping cart.

With more than 39 payment methods, 30 checkout languages and 28 payment currencies, cleverbridge can handle business in any country around the world.

The post Ecommerce Eye Candy – Alternative Payment Methods [Infographic] appeared first on cleverbridge.

This month’s Ecommerce Digest will help you understand chargeback fraud, conversion rate optimization for B2B buyers, customer experience and the impact of U.S. sanctions against Russia on the payments industry.

Fraud, Chargebacks and Chargeback Fraud

Ecommerce Inequality Leading to Chargebacks and Friendly Fraud | Digital Journal

There’s fraud, then there are chargebacks and then there is chargeback fraud. Fraud is when someone uses a stolen credit card to order things online. A chargeback occurs when the victim of the stolen credit card disputes the fraudulent charge to their credit issuer. Chargeback fraud is when a customer legitimately places an online order with their own money and receives the product. Then, in order to receive something for nothing, the buyer issues a chargeback even though the transaction took place in good faith. This article, from the Canadian Internet news service Digital Journal, provides a good overview of the background and impact of chargebacks and chargeback fraud to online merchants.

Have you been challenged by chargeback fraud? Tell us how you combated it in the comment section below.

Conversion Rate Optimization for B2B Buyers

How to Use Data About B2B Buyer Behavior to Improve Conversions | FunnelEnvy

This post from FunnelEnvy emphasizes a really important point in ecommerce analytics: Most of the visitors to your site, or even shopping cart, will not end up buying something the first time they visit your site. In fact, according to a blog post by SeeWhy, 99 percent of first time visitors to ecommerce sites do not plan on buying anything. Of those, 75 percent bounce with the intent to return. This is especially important to understand with B2B buyers who are more relationship than transaction oriented.

Tell us your unique advice for maintaining B2B buyer relationships in the comment section.

Customer Experience

Brick-and-mortar retailers need to make customers feel they’re walking into a website | Quartz

While this article is really about what brick-and-mortar stores must do to capture today’s Internet obsessed retail market, it also hold the key to success for online merchants. The key is providing customers with consistent experiences across all digital and physical channels. Not only that, but it is also crucial to make the website experience as engaging as possible. But getting to that point is time consuming and requires a lot of creative and technical effort. The first step is to create a core brand story and identify the primary values your brand brings to your customers.

We want to know how you create a unified customer experience in a multichannel world.

New Russian Payment Card

Russia to Introduce National Payment Card | PaymentEye

As an ecommerce enthusiast, I subscribe to the PaymentEye emails. When I first read the title in this email, I thought that I would read about an exciting new payment method for Russian ecommerce. As I investigated this story more, I realized that this new payment card has broader implications.

For the past several months, due to U.S. sanctions, many Russian credit card holders have been unable to shop online with their Visa and MasterCards. Consequently, the Central Bank of Russia introduced a new Russian payment method as an alternative to Visa and MasterCard. Ostensibly, this was to provide Russian consumers with a new local payment option. However, as the article notes, this announcement is also a response to the sanctions. The upshot of this announcement is new regulations for foreign payment card providers operating in the Russian Federation. The new regulations require payment providers to make a large security deposit in Russian banks before they can process payments.

Will Russia continue to place hurdles in front of foreign payment services? And will this decision signify a growing trend in other important emerging markets? It is hard to predict the future from my armchair, but those with major shopping cart traffic from Russia should keep their eyes peeled for future disruptions.

How do you think the payment situation in Russia will turn out? Tell us your thoughts.

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