The user experience is everything when it comes to any online interaction — but especially in eCommerce, where the last few moments, at checkout, can make or break a transaction.
A dearth of payment methods on offer, or friction-filled input of card details or coupon codes or other information can do much to change consumers’ minds. Checkout is the last hurdle for conversions — or, if done right, a seamless checkout experience can actually ensure that the deal is sealed.
For middle market companies — generally defined as corporates with a few tens of millions of dollars to as much as $1 billion in annual top lines — the problems can be acute. As PYMNTS Intelligence and Mastercard have found in joint research, a majority of these merchants, at 60%, have said that they have at least one problem in their checkout constructs; as many as 80% of firms are interested in one-click checkouts.
And the pain points are showing up in the data too, as more than a third of companies report having had problems with shopping cart abandonment.
Focusing on the UAE
In the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the research showed, 64% of mid-market companies experienced at least one checkout problem. Roughly 54% had cited back end issues tied to payment processing friction. That stat is a telling one, as it indicates that the areas to be improved also happen behind the scenes.
For these middle market eCommerce companies in the UAE, only a relatively scant 16% of companies report that they have no problems at checkout or at the back end, which indicates room for improvement.
These companies want technologies and providers — especially payment service providers (PSPs) to streamline and secure the user experience, and the flows that happen once the buy button is clicked. We found that tools such as one-click payments and card-on-file technology that reduce friction at checkout are among UAE merchants’ most requested updates. In fact 7 in 10 merchants that find upgrades from their PSPs wind up embracing those upgrades.
Within that subset, the 64% of UAE merchants able to request additional features from their PSPs said that they had done so in order to raise their conversion rates. But they are price sensitive, too, as 62% cited price as an important concern when deciding what technologies to integrate — more than the 50% across the five-country sample that said the same.
There are some nuggets to be perused by the PSPs themselves in sifting through the Mastercard and PYMNTS Intelligence data, as the merchants’ consideration of PSP relationships also takes into consideration the price of technologies and implementation, which has been cited by 62% of merchants.
More than half of merchants want their PSPs to be “easy” to work with – so it’s clear that easier relationships and competitive pricing can win the day for PSPs navigating new merchant relationships or keeping current customers loyal.
As for the key solutions and functionalities desired by merchants in the UAE, 46% of UAE merchants have asked for one-click capabilities. Merchants in the UAE requested this feature more than those in any other country surveyed. Additionally, the second-most highly sought feature similarly makes checkout quicker and easier for customers.
More than one-third of UAE merchants have asked for card-on-file technology. The solution enables consumers to pay without having to reenter their information, reducing friction in the checkout process. UAE merchants were 70% more likely to request this than they were prone to request payment and gateway tokens.
