How to Optimize Your Cross-Border Payments Experience

So, you’re going international? It’s no surprise, the international eCommerce market is booming! Accepting payments in multiple currencies from other markets can be a key enabler for your business to expand beyond your domestic borders, yet there are some considerations:

• Regional nuances: Payment methods, customer preferences and habits vary greatly around the world.
• Regulation: The cross-border payments process is governed by more complex rules than domestic. Longer settlement times create friction and impact the customer experience, and Foreign Exchange (FX) fees can be a margin killer.
• Fragmentation: There is a lack of interoperability among the front-end and back-end solutions available to merchants to start accepting cross-border payments.

Despite these challenges, the international eCommerce market is ripe for growth and presents an attractive opportunity for your business. Let's discuss how you can optimize the international payments experience for your customers.

Optimizing the Customer Experience for International Payments

There are several ways to optimize your customer experience for cross-border commerce. Unsurprisingly, they all revolve around an understanding of how payment approaches differ by country and providing options that meet the needs of your customers.

Local Payment Methods and Preferences

Firstly, you need some understanding of the most popular payment methods and approaches in your target markets. For example, the majority of online shoppers in the Netherlands use the online banking scheme iDEAL. Consumers from China prefer eWallets like AliPay and WeChat. Whereas in North America credit cards dominate.

Providing a ‘localized’ shopping experience is also a must. As well as paying with familiar methods, consumers want to be spoken to in their own language. A personal touch makes all the difference when it comes to increasing conversion.

92% of shoppers prefer to make purchases on sites that price in their local currency.

But you don’t need to research and manage this yourself. Website plug-ins offer a fast track to localization, as they let you easily translate your storefront into multiple languages before refining. This can make them an ideal solution for smaller retailers that might want to test the waters of cross-border before jumping straight in.

It doesn’t stop there either. Some plug-ins also enable you to set different pricing strategies, create marketing campaigns for regional holidays, and have tailored distribution and shipping.

Currency is King for International Payments

By partnering with a Payment Service Provider (PSP) that supports multi-currency options, whether from within their own platform or via a plug-in, you can easily start accepting and settling payments in multiple currencies. This enhances the CX which can increase conversion. It can also reduce the risk of false declines. 

Clearly, the ability to accept multi-currencies is a necessity for the cross-border payments customer experience.

CM.com Protip for Cross-border Payments

PSPs that offer a wide range of plug and play options with easy API integration, will give you the freedom to scale your website to support your international expansion strategy and improve the customer experience. It means you can quickly add and activate new cross-border payment options as they are needed.

Want to read more about cross-border payments and are you interested in how they work on the back-end? Download our Guide to Cross-Border Payments for more information, check-lists, insights and tips for improving the cross-border customer experience.