Almost 50% of customers abandoned their online travel bookings early because of payment-related problems according to new research from Worldpay.
Who would have thought the payment process has such a big impact on shoppers?
NB: This is an analysis by Thomas Helldorff, vice president travel at Worldpay
Travel sites who cannot reassure customers that the payment process will be quick, secure, and managed to the highest standard of professionalism seem to struggle to keep potential travellers on board to complete a transaction.
The remedies seem easy enough – the opportunities for incremental revenue are huge.
Here is a summary of key considerations you should keep in mind when building and optimising your booking experience:
- Be loud and proud about your security logos. Build confidence on your website by displaying digital security and payment authentication logos
- Show accepted payment methods on the homepage to reduce cart abandonment later in the process
- Display prices in your customers’ local currency so customers know the value of their booking
- Inform shoppers about surcharging upfront so there are no surprises at the payment page
- Be clear about the steps in your payment process especially if you are re-directing a customer to another site to make a payment
- Offer to store your customers payment details for quicker checkout and reassure them that their details will be treated with confidentiality
- Minimise the customer details you ask for, and pre-fill their data where possible
- Keep your payment page ‘clutter-free’
- Validate payment details as your customer enters them
- Show clear error messages if a transaction doesn’t go through. Explain why the error occurred and provide links to customer support that can actually help
- Reassure customers about their payment with a confirmation email
- Make it easy for customers to find answers to payment-related queries with their preferred support tools
Original article source: Tnooz
