8 simple steps to set localized payment page experience
E-commerce open new opportunities for your business, you are no longer confined to the physical boundaries of your country, customers from all over the world are able to reach your website and purchase your goods. In the age of globalization people are more opened to the idea of purchasing products and services from the overseas vendors, however, the merchants have to go an extra mile to provide users with customized and localized shopping, checkout and payment experience. Your website and shopping cart should feel native to the user, optimization of payment pages lowers cart abandonment rates. Customizing you payment pages for various markets will include displaying the right currency, payment methods, language, price and design so that they align with customers’ most likely preferences.
How can I localize my payment pages?
1. Ask your payments service provider what tools they offer to localize your payment page
If you are using cashier pages provided by your PSP make sure they have tools to customize payments pages for countries and regions and insert translations for cashier fields and user messaging. Also, check how can you customize payment methods menu, various buttons, colors etc’
2. Analyse local competition
Before entering new market you are probably making research and checking out local competition. Do not forget to take a look at the payment pages on these sites. Even better try to make a purchase to see the complete checkout flow and the confirmation email sent to the customer.
3. Translate your payment pages into the user’s language
Be sensitive of the user’s language, decide whether you need to translate to traditional or simplified Chinese, Spanish from Spain or Spanish from Mexico etc’. It may be that you need both versions. Google translator is not an option when translation a payment page, it is best to ask for professional service.
Make sure you translate not only the fields of the cashier pages but also the messages the user sees before and after the deposit. Do not forget to translate the confirmation mail as well.
4. Pay attention to content localization
Your cart and payment page may require user to fill in details such as address, bank account details, dates, courtesy titles etc’. All these small details change from country to country and can make or break the feel of local user experience in the cart and payment page. For example, in some countries “zip” or “pin code” will be used rather than ‘postal code”. The bank account format differs between EU, UK, or Canada. Make and effort to prevent the loss of shopper’s trust by paying attention to these details.
5. Display prices in local currency during the purchase process
Displaying local prices is a vital step to localizing your cart. For many markets a display of a price in a foreign currency can lead to incomplete payment transaction due to user’s hesitation before a purchase. The only goal of your payment page is for the user to complete the purchase, do not make them go to a different browser tab to check out the exchange rate.
6. Process payments in local currency
The best option for you will be to process the payment in the local currency. Discuss this option with your payment service provider most of them support multi currency processing. If the processing in local currency is not available or is not a viable option for you at this moment make sure you show both local currency amount and actual processed amount on your confirmation email.
In some countries payment processing in foreign currencies may incur hefty fees for the customer. It is advisable to research the processing fees and be aware of them as you may get some user complains.
7. Accept Local Credit and Debit Card
In many countries international credit cards are widely acceptable and may users have one. However, in some markets local debit cards or prepaid are extremely popular and you can miss a lot of customers if you do not accept those. For example, in Brazil you should be able to process mercado live or hipercard, in Argentina caral and naranja cards are popular, in China you must process China Union Pay cards.
When entering a local market make a research and discuss your options with your payment service provider, in some cases it may be beneficial to add a local payment gateway to your arsenal for better coverage and higher approval rates. For example, if you’re planning to sell in China, Alipay should definitely figure on the checkout page.
8. Accept Local Alternative Payment methods Keep in mind that credit cards are not always the preferred payment method in different countries around the world. For example, in some European countries, customers prefer real-time banking options through which they’re redirected to their online bank accounts, such as SOFORT and Giropay in Germany. In Japan, payment method mistrust is often a big problem when it comes to online purchases. Many Japanese customers prefer to pay for goods with vouchers,called Konbini,purchased with cash. In India cash-on-delivery (COD) method is one of the leader.
There are also the big global players such as Paypal that became a standard payment option appearing on most cashier pages around the globe. Many users will also want to use new payment options such as Apple or Google pay, which should be considered if you have a high percentage of mobile in app traffic.
Today, as the competition in the markets rises customers expect optimized checkout experiences. Luckily the technologies are in place to enable your business to meet these expectations. Make sure your e-commerce store is localized to make the checkout process as easy and hesitation-free as possible. The cashier pages should be just what the user expects them to be, nothing must disrupt the customer from finalizing the payment. Once you’ve optimized your payment pages and tailored them to your customer’s expectations you start to see a revenue growth from your international customers.