As the eCommerce industry in India flourishes, consumers look for simpler and better ways to make payments. Customisation and personalisation of shopping experiences have seeped into the digital payments ecosystem as well.
Businesses today look for efficient, streamlined, and hassle-free payment mechanisms as a way of implementing customer retention strategies for their brands.
The variety of digital payments that exist today has shaped customer preferences in adopting payment technologies readily. Reports say that UPI and NETC have seen the highest growth and adoption over time.
The future, however, may see other kinds of payment ecosystems which encompass holist consumer journeys and provide more than just checkout facilities.
Biggest Trends in eCommerce Payments
Some of the most “viral” trends that eCommerce spending has experienced belong to three major sectors:
Digital Wallets
Digital wallets are encouraging movement towards a cashless economy. In fact, the number of mobile wallet users in India is estimated to reach a whopping number of 434 million by 2025.
Digital wallets provide unparalleled convenience to payers who only have to carry their mobile phones instead of carrying cash and cards separately, and this has provided a further boost for wallet adoption.
Omnichannel Payments
Omnichannel payment is a mechanism that allows customers to pay for a product or service through any channel of their preference. They may choose to use the POS or prefer paying for a store purchase through the points in their brand app.
As customers become more aware of the benefits, services, and conveniences they can have while shopping, providing omnichannel payment opportunities helps brands enhance customer experience.
Security Enhancement and Fraud Prevention
The third key trend that is impacting the growth of digital eCommerce payment is the rising demand for security and fraud prevention.
Security measures such as multifactor authentication and blockchain-based encryptions are excellent ways to assure customers that their transactions are safe and the payment gateway is trustworthy.
The role of security in eCommerce payments is set to rise.
Infrastructural Preparedness
For businesses seeking to establish strong customer loyalty, creating a robust infrastructure for the payments ecosystem is a necessary strategy. The eCommerce payment solution should be preference-ready with a selection of multiple payment options like BNPL, UPI, wallets, cards, net banking, and more.
It helps enhance the user experience for the shoppers to be able to pay in the way they prefer. Solutions like Affordability Suite by Plural by Pine Labs provide brands with a full suite of apps and features that help personalise checkouts and payments.
Integrated payment solutions consolidate the entire checkout process and bring offers, discounts, payment methods, and personalisations to one simple interface, helping brands enhance their customer journeys significantly.
Impact of Emerging Technologies
With increased digitalisation in the payments ecosystem, it is understandable to have concerns about the cybersecurity of your customers. In such situations, brands can explore modernised security measures for all digital transactions, like leveraging the decentralisation capabilities of blockchains.
Blockchain-based security mechanisms help prevent fraudulent transactions and provide high and immutable security to customers. Innovative payment solutions (like Buy Now, Pay Later or cryptocurrencies) can pave the way for customers to have alternative payment methods handy.
Brands can significantly increase their average order values in this way.
Modern payment solutions provide a comprehensive payment ecosystem setup where customers get to customise every aspect of their payments securely.
Regulations and Compliance
eCommerce payment solutions leverage certain customer data to be able to provide them with personalised and customised brand experiences. In fact, all businesses gather customer data to enhance user experience.
In such situations, it is important to consider the local, regional, national, and international compliances and regulations that have been mandated for the nature of the business.
Sometimes, businesses are required to ask for user consent first before collecting their data, for example. Modern payment solutions should have an inbuilt functionality that automatically sorts through customer data according to the applicable mandates to help brands remain compliant at all times.
For example, the GDPR mandates brands to ask for cookie consent from a website visitor before they can begin to collect their data. At checkout, the payment solution should also be programmed to ask for user consent before it saves their information for any purpose whatsoever.
Challenges
The eCommerce industry is in a phase of continuous evolution. As such, there are several challenges that businesses in the industry must first overcome or prepare for to enable the best payment mechanisms for their customers:
Dynamics
There was a time when net banking was a highly popular choice for making online payments. Before that, people preferred using cards. However, UPI took over by storm as soon as BHIM and PhonePe came into the market.
The dynamics of payments keep changing. With the emergence of BNPL and SNPL, brands are gearing up yet again for another major change in eCommerce payments.
Change is, therefore, one major challenge for which brands need to remain agile.
Partnerships
Digital infrastructure is not easy to set up, and it is even harder to maintain with high performance. Partnerships with the right digital infrastructure providers, therefore, pose significant challenges.
In a world where digital demand is higher than expertise, it is hard to find the right payment solution partners who can back up their word with equivalent services.
Brands should select digital partners who have an in-depth understanding of the eCommerce payments industry and provide integrated payment solutions that are customisable.
Affordability Suite: Be Ready for The Future of eCommerce Payments
When it comes to modernising the payments interface, Plural’s Affordability Suite remains a step ahead of customer preferences and provides state-of-the-art solutions to brands.
Affordability Suite is a comprehensive checkout solution that integrates payment customisations, offers, payment methods, brand discounts, and so much more on a single interface.
For the customers, the Suite offers affordability, flexibility, and special discounts and add-ons. For the brands, the Suite enables higher sales, customer loyalty, and Brand EMIs. Businesses also enjoy higher transaction values and reduced transaction risks, even with high-ticket items.
For eCommerce sellers, the Affordability Suite enhances customer experience and enables a competitive advantage in the market.
So far, Affordability Suite has facilitated over 9 million transactions valued at INR 250 billion, has partnerships with over 25 major banks across India, and over 20 brand partnerships. Additionally, the latest Brand EMI features special EMI mechanisms for consumers who wish for more flexibility with their payments for high-value items like consumer electronics.
To understand Affordability Suite in more detail and the benefits it can provide for your brand, visit the Plural website.
