Most digital merchants are familiar with offering a credit card payment option to their ecommerce customers. If you’re trying to decide how to incorporate alternative payment methods (APMs) that lift your business, check out our tips:

Define your goals.

The first step in choosing a profitable ecommerce payment method is to define the problem you’re trying to solve. Here are some possibilities:

• Do you need a payment alternative for the risk-adverse customer? These are the consumers who avoid sharing bank account or credit card info online to avoid the risk of credit card fraud and identity theft.
• Are you trying to reach the unbanked or underbanked sector? These groups have little or no access to traditional banking institutions, relying instead on businesses like check cashing services.
• Is your ideal customer a college student who hasn’t been able to get a credit card?
• Do you need a simple way to retain customers or maintain subscriptions?

Find an experienced payment processing partner.

Invest in an alternative payment processor who wants to do partner with your business and help it grow. Ask if your potential APM provider will:

• Provide an interface that’s easy for customers to use and easy to integrate into your current infrastructure
• Provide metrics to help you analyze your business so you can make profit-building decisions
• Give you access to the markets you’re currently not reaching, whether it’s the security conscious or the unbanked
• Offer a professional staff with the experience to walk you through the implementation process
• Provide a customer verification system to reduce uncollectibles and chargebacks

ILD Teleservices is a Florida-based APM processor with the tools and support to expand your business and enhance profit potential. Contact us to learn more about Bill to Phone, an easy, secure, and reliable payment alternative that allows customers to charge digital goods and services directly to their phone bill.

Customers prefer alternative payment methods when purchasing mobile content, according to analysis firm Strategy Analytics. The survey of more than 2,500 U.S. and Western European users showed that operator billing beat out other ecommerce payment methods, including PayPal, pre-registered accounts, and credit and debit cards.

Consumers were least interested in paying by credit card.

What’s more, it didn’t matter to participants whether the credit/debit card information was saved or if they were asked to enter the card info every time—the payment method still fell to the bottom of the preferred list.

Give your customers the billing methods they prefer.

In a customer-centered world, options that make life easier for the customer will increase brand loyalty and reduce churn. Here’s why alternative payment methods, such as LEC Billing (or Bill to Phone), which allows consumers to charge purchases to their phone bill, are so attractive to ecommerce shoppers:

• Allows customers to consolidate billing; instead of several bills, the customer simply pays for the product/service on their regular monthly phone bill.
• Saves the customer money because they’re not paying additional interest fees to credit card companies.
• Unlike debit cards or some PayPal options, LEC billing lets consumers hold onto their money a little bit longer.
• Makes online shopping convenient because there are no long credit card numbers to enter or microscopic security codes to decipher.
• Reduces the consumer’s risk of identity theft because they’re not required to share sensitive financial info over the web.

ILD Teleservices will help you give customers what they want.

As one of the nation’s leading alternative payment processors, we have the merchant tools and billing experience you need to increase brand loyalty and reduce churn. Contact our team today to learn more about implementing the alternative payment processing services that will help your brand grow.

ILD Teleservices | Chipping Away At Chargebacks

Chargebacks hurt ecommerce business. A chargeback is a customer-initiated refund that is enforced by the customer’s bank or credit card issuer. They’re initiated for any number of reasons, including technical issues (non-sufficient funds, processing errors, etc.), quality-related complaints (customer claims the goods/services weren’t as promised), or fraud.

No matter why chargebacks are initiated, the fact is, if you’re an ecommerce merchant, they hurt. The process forces you to reimburse the cardholder and pay pricey fees to the bank. What’s worse, chargeback rates may actually dictate the payment forms you’re allowed to accept from customers. For example, most credit card companies require merchants to keep their chargeback levels below 2%–with some requiring even lower rates. Businesses with higher chargeback rates stand to lose their merchant status.

Ecommerce merchants can reduce chargebacks by implementing best practices, such as providing accurate product descriptions and clearly defining a return policy. There is, however, another tool for reducing costly chargebacks: go alternative.

No, we’re not talking about flannel shirts and grunge rock. Instead we’re talking about adding alternative payment methods, like bill to phone, to the shopping cart process. When customers choose this option during checkout, they simply authorize the merchant to bill the purchase to their monthly phone bill, taking the credit card transaction out of the equation entirely.

But ecommerce merchants can’t stop there. It’s critical to find a bill to phone processor with the ability to provide real-time verification of the customer’s identity and account information. By validating personally identifiable info, such as home phone number and the last four digits of the customer’s Social Security number, you eliminate a higher number of the fraudulent orders and information errors that trigger customer-initiated refunds.

Don’t let chargebacks chip away at the bottom line you work so hard to build. Reduce chargeback rates by talking to the bill to phone payment processing team at ILD.