Nick Corrigan, UK&I Managing Director & President, Global Payments
Last month, my favourite local pub switched to offering only delivery of food, beers and craft beers due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Through two world wars, Britain’s pubs stayed open, but have now been forced to evaluate, and drastically change, their business models — a true indication of the unprecedented times we’re living in.
Like the pubs in Britain, many other merchants and retailers are also facing similar difficulties, particularly those primarily focused on face-to-face business. These businesses are not alone, and amidst these uncertain times, there are ways in which businesses can continue driving forward.
Understanding the terminology
It’s important to start by first understanding the different types of payment terminology in order to navigate which types are the best way to connect with customers during this challenging time.
Card present payments are those where the physical card — or device in the case of mobile wallet payments — is presented in person by inserting a card into a terminal or ‘tapping’ a card, watch or phone for contactless payments. Previously, in some cases, customers regularly signed a receipt or pin pad during checkout. Now, however, many customers and employees no longer want to touch a keypad, pen or stylus to provide those signatures.
Card not present payments are those where the physical card or device is not present in person, but instead, the card data is transmitted and processed digitally through other means, like when your customer enters a card number in a payment form online. In this social distancing landscape, many businesses realise that to keep their employees and consumers safe, they need to start, or increase the use of, card not present transactions.
Commerce channels are the mediums in which commerce can happen. For example: ecommerce (online and in app or browser via mobile phone), face-to-face, over the phone or social selling. With limits and restrictions on face-to-face channels, businesses are utilising, or switching quickly, to these other commerce channels.
Explore these 5 ways to accept payments during COVID-19
Online payments
More and more, people are confined to their homes because of stay-at-home orders around the world. So, if businesses are already accepting payments online, now is a great time to ramp up. For those that aren’t, this is the optimal time to start. Part of online payments strategies can include reaching customers, and delivering products, through social networks.
To establish and set up an online presence, two things typically need to be done: build an ecommerce website from scratch, or utilise a 3rd-party software, commonly referred to as a shopping cart. Building an ecommerce site from the ground up is, of course, a much larger undertaking in terms of time, money and technical capability. Conversely, the use of a shopping cart lends itself to faster and easier implementation.
There are benefits to each option, which can be explored with payments partners, but in either scenario, any online payments solution needs to come equipped with robust fraud prevention capabilities and strong data security features to lower potential risk and better protect the business.
Telephone orders
There are a few different ways to take orders over the phone to reduce or eliminate physical interaction with customers. The easiest and most cost-effective is with existing points of sale. Many point of sale solutions can be utilised to process phone payments.
And although credit card payments over the phone are not a new concept, there is still some unease due to the risk that the person on the other end of the line is not the cardholder or an authorised user of the card. However, tools like Address Verification and CVV Codes can help minimise fraud when in-person payments are not possible.
If businesses are looking for a card not present payment type that offers the convenience of paying over the phone, but with another layer of security, a pay-by-link solution could be an option. Pay-by-link technology allows the merchant to send a customer a secure payment link while on the phone to ultimately provide them with an ecommerce checkout experience.
Additionally, there are other payment solutions like virtual terminals that facilitate phone payments. With a virtual terminal, businesses can easily authorise, process and manage card payments in real time. Through this technology, they can retain payment details for one-off or regular future transactions and issue refunds from a secure, hosted payment page in their browser.
In-app and in-browser mobile wallet payments
For those already accepting online payments, the customers’ experience can be enhanced with online mobile wallet payments. In fact, many of today’s consumers are comfortable with – and even prefer – using mobile wallet payments like Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay.
These types of payments offer a safe, secure and convenient way for customers to pay online or via mobile technology. Through this payment type, conversion rates can be increased and abandoned shopping carts eliminated by allowing customers to check out seamlessly without needing to enter payment, delivery or contact information after their first purchase.
Credential-on-file payments
Have a need to offer recurring payments service to customers? Credential-on-file payments allows a merchant to store customer credit card details on file for repeat online payments. This technology saves valid cardholder details in a secure vault and enables them to automatically schedule payments to reduce manual workload and enhance the customers’ payment experience.
When looking for a credential-on-file payment solution, it must provide the security and flexibility needed to protect the business and improve the customer experience. For example, look for options that offer strong fraud prevention, card management and tokenisation capabilities.
Digital invoicing
During this pandemic, people are looking for fast, easy and efficient ways to exchange funds in a business-to-business setting. For businesses that use invoicing as a form of payment collection, digital accounts payable solutions are a viable option to streamline the payment process and eliminate the physical need for invoices and cheques.
Through these “virtual invoices,” payments can be accepted instantly and electronically, without dealing with the physical limitations of traditional invoicing. When evaluating an electronic invoicing solution, businesses must look for those that have the technology to truly automates the invoicing process to reap the full benefits of this payment type.
As businesses continue to navigate today’s uncharted waters, innovative payments methods will be at the heart of ensuring they can continue serving and staying connected to customers.
