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The products are chosen. The inventory is ready. The staff is hopped up on caffeine. Let the 2010 holiday shopping season begin! The National Retail Federation expects a 2.3% increase in consumer holiday spending this year. No matter what your usual preparations for the fourth quarter might be, it’s possible your online store is missing the hottest thing in ecommerce this year: alternative payment solutions.
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Here’s why you should add alternative payment options, like bill to phone, to your ecommerce site:
- Ecommerce merchants are beginning to recognize there’s a huge market in the underbanked, those consumers with poor access to banking facilities. Estimates vary, but some sources believe as many as 40 million Americans have little or no interaction with conventional financial institutions. That means a portion of your target market may not own credit cards or have access to a bank account.
- Consumers are more risk averse. Identity thieves stole about $54 billion dollars in 2009, according to Javelin Strategy and Research. The fear of identity theft and credit card abuse may make some consumers hesitant to submit credit card information over the Internet.
- Consumers are more money conscious. Just because consumers have credit cards doesn’t mean they’ll use them. Why? As interest rates rise, more consumers may cut back on card use to avoid paying bloated rates. In addition, the economy has forced others to come to terms with their debt load, and, as a result, they may work to actively reduce the amount they borrow from banks and credit card companies.
Get on the “Hot” list this year by offering consumers an alternative to credit cards and bank account based payments like Pay Pal. A bill to phone payment option allows consumers to charge your online content and services to their phone bill. When they pay the phone company—using whatever payment method they normally use—they also pay for your products.
The tinsel, gift wrap, and cheesy TV holiday specials will be here before you know it—and, hopefully, so will the consumers. Learn more about adding bill to phone options to your ecommerce store by contacting the alternative payment experts at ILD Teleservices.
Does your payment solution pass the no-hassle test?
The kids are back to school and no doubt some of them are moaning and groaning about quizzes and tests. As an ecommerce professional, though, tests are a chance to make sure that you’re giving your customer the best experience possible—the kind of experience that makes it easy to complete their transaction with you. Providing hassle-free ecommerce payment solutions is an important part of converting shopping carts into sales receipts. Do your payment methods pass the no-hassle test?
Credit Cards
For years, credit cards have been the go-to method for ecommerce merchants. And they are convenient—if the customer owns one, that is. Nearly 25% of Americans don’t have a credit card. What’s more, only about 41% of college students—a market ripe for online media and video games—own a credit card, writes CreditCards.com. For these consumers, requiring a credit card for purchase is anything but hassle free.
PayPal
The popular online payment service has gained popularity because it allows anyone with an email address to pay for goods and services with a credit card, electronic bank transfer, or personal check. Sounds easy, right? Not so fast. The payment processor requires consumers to set up an online PayPal account that retains credit card or bank account details—info that risk-adverse consumers aren’t likely to share. In addition, the account verification process can take up to several days. If you limit ecommerce payment solutions to PayPal, customers might find it’s more hassle than your product is worth.
Bill to phone
This third party payment solution allows consumers to receive a bill for your services in their monthly phone bill. For non-credit card owning consumers, it eliminates the hassle of finding a friend or family member who does own a credit card (assuming, of course, the consumer would take the time to do even that.) There are also no ponderous, time-consuming accounts to set up. All your customer provides is very basic information, including their telephone number. It’s a simple transaction that requires no real effort on the consumer’s part—and that means a higher conversion rate for you.
Does your ecommerce payment method pass the hassle-free test? If not, contact ILD, a leading bill to phone alternative payment processor with the tools and know-how to deliver easy online payment solutions.
Savvy Shopper Alert! Sweeten the Deal with Payment Alternatives
Savvy shoppers know there’s a lot more to getting a good deal than a low price. Will the product work? Will the service make your life easier—or harder? Now consumers have another option to consider when it comes time to score a deal. Many ecommerce merchants are adding a quick and easy payment method to their online stores: bill to phone. This checkout option allows customers to charge digital goods and services to their monthly phone bill. Here are three advantages this choice offers to shoppers:
Stop paying credit card companies.
When you pay with bill to phone, you simply submit payment when you pay the phone bill. That means you’re no longer roped into paying increasingly rising credit card interest rates. There are no fees to choose this payment method either—it’s completely free for consumers. You work hard for your money, so hang on to more of it by paying bills interest free with this alternative checkout option.
Stop stressing about identity theft.
Credit card fraud and identity theft are very real concerns. However you shouldn’t let them stop you from enjoying digital products and services. When you choose the bill to phone payment method, you’ll enter your home phone number along with the last four digits of your Social Security number. (The last digits of your Social are used only to verify your identity.) There are no credit card numbers to transmit over the web, which helps protect your financial and personal information.
Stop handling so much paper.
We’re all busy. Whether you hold down a full-time job while finishing a degree or take care of your young children and aging parents at the same time, there’s so much to do—and entirely too little time. Do you really need one more bill cluttering your desk? By choosing the bill to phone payment alternative, you choose the freedom that comes with having one less due date to remember and one less check to write. The bill for your online purchases comes conveniently rolled into the phone bill you already pay each month.
To learn more about how bill to phone works, check out our visual guide. If you have questions about alternative payment solutions, contact the ILD customer care team.
Bill to Phone & ILD Teleservices – A Consumer Affairs Guide
“ILD Teleservices.” You see it on your phone bill and wonder: Who are they? Why are they billing me? Is this right? Well, look no further. This guide will give you the 411 on why you might be seeing our name on your phone bill and how we work with vendors to provide a safe and reliable alternative to using a credit card for purchases.
Why “ILD Teleservices” appears on your phone bill
ILD is a third-party payment processor, acting as a link between merchants and consumers. When a consumer purchases a product or service and chooses the Bill to Phone payment method the merchant submits the information to ILD who, in turn, submits the charge to the consumer’s phone company. The consumer simply submits payment for the purchase with their monthly phone bill payment.
If a charge appears on your bill, it’s because someone in your household may have authorized a merchant to charge your phone bill for products or services, such as ring tones, video games, or Internet services. If you have questions or need help with a charge, please contact our help center.
Why Bill to Phone is a payment option consumers trust
- It’s hassle free. With Bill to Phone there are no long credit card numbers to type in or super-small security codes to read. At checkout, customers simply enter information that’s unique to them, such as their phone number and the last four digits only of their Social Security number.
- It’s peace of mind. Because you’re not entering sensitive information like a credit card number, you lower the risk of online fraud and identity theft. Bill to Phone is simply a safer way to pay for the online goods and services you want.
Why ILD Teleservices is a payment processor consumers trust
Consumer protection is a priority at ILD. Before we agree to partner with a merchant, we do a stringent background check on the company as well as its key personnel, such as officers and owners. Our team also works with third-party investigators to examine potential partners.
We also offer a help center to resolve customer issues, whether it’s canceling a subscription or disputing a charge for a service you never received. What’s more, the resolution center keeps customers in the loop by allowing them to check on the status of credits.
ILD Teleservices is a respected alternative payment processor. For more than 13 years, we have been a leader in finding payment solutions that work for both merchants and consumers. In addition, we offer businesses a range of services, including audio and web conferencing and social media strategy.
More questions?
For more information about ILD or ILD charges listed on your phone bill, check out these links:
Cure the pain that triggers ecommerce cart abandonment
Ouch! No one enjoys pain, whether it’s the physical kind, like a nasty paper cut, or the pain that comes from unpleasant or inconvenient things, like high gas prices. For some ecommerce customers, pain comes in the form of checkout procedures. Here are two pains that might be causing ecommerce clients to check out of your checkout process:
The pain of the keyboard tax
No, it’s not the latest brainchild of misguided politicians. Instead it’s a term used to describe the labor that goes into typing. Life moves at a 24/7 pace that’s packed with work, family, and other activities. A consumer might not be willing to invest the time it takes to dig out a credit card, hunt for any necessary reading glasses, type in that big, long number, double-check it, find and enter the expiration date, and find and enter the security code, which is so small it requires some customers to read it with a magnifying glass.
One way to eliminate the hassle of the keyboard tax is to offer a bill to phone alternative payment option. The checkout experience becomes much smoother because the customer is only required to submit top-of-mind information: name, address, phone number, and the last four digits of their Social Security number. Less time spent wading through the checkout process means a customer has less time to re-think their purchase.
The pain of debt
Many consumers are increasingly aware of the debt they carry—and many are taking steps to reduce it. For nearly two years, consumers have continued to cut back on credit card use, according to the Federal Reserve. Experts say that the drop in credit card use is especially noticeable in the 18 to 24-year-old demographic. By offering a payment solution that adds the purchase to the consumer’s monthly phone bill, you eliminate the pain of debt.
The cure for ecommerce pain
Ecommerce merchants will always need to provide credit card options for clients, but you can ease the pain by also offering bill to phone payment solutions. You might just find that offering alternative payment methods cures your pain, too—the sting of seeing all those abandoned shopping carts.
To eliminate the pain that causes ecommerce consumers to abandon carts mid-checkout, contact the team at ILD, a leader in payment solutions that are simple for consumers and profitable for merchants.
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