×

Posted on

How to Increase Alternative Checkout Options

Category: Growth Hacks

How to Increase Alternative Checkout Options
Mohab Growth Hacks 0

How to Increase Alternative Checkout Options

For an e-commerce company, offering attractive checkout options to the customers is one of the most challenging tasks. Providing alternative checkout options may help a business in achieving a higher checkout process conversion rate, which is one of the most important metrics for gauging its efficiency. Another advantage associated with providing alternative checkout options is that it helps in controlling the rate of shopping cart abandonment by the customers. Further, smoother checkout process also provides an inducement to the customer to make a repeat purchase with the business.

Following are the main ways online businesses may provide a friction-less checkout experience to their clients and improve their business efficiency.

  • Make Sign Up Optional: It may seem tempting to make sign up necessary for checking out since it can provide you with valuable data but this requirement may put a serious dent in the conversion rate. Instead of making sign up mandatory, make it optional but with some incentive attached to it. For example, you can convey to the customers that the sign up may make the process faster. Another option is to let the customers sign in with alternative accounts such as Facebook or Twitter. This type of checkout can be customized so that the business may harvest the data from the customers’ social media accounts after receiving due permissions.

 

  • Simplify the Process: If you are not convinced about the idea of checkout process sans sign up then you may focus on simplifying the whole procedure. There are several tricks to make it easier and faster for your clients to complete their sign-up process so that they can check out in a smoother manner. You can use simple tools such as making use of Google Autofill which can complete various data fields in a jiffy. You should also ensure that the checkout procedure is simple and is not unduly complicated with a number of steps involved. With each additional step, the likelihood of the client abandoning their shopping cart increases exponentially.

 

  • Use Perpetual Shopping Cart System: There are several ways you can motivate the customers to complete their checkout process. Allow them the freedom to check out for each item separately or to club them together in a cart and then to check out for the entire order. Different eCommerce businesses may adopt different strategies in this regard, mainly depending upon their business and organizational structure. Perpetual shopping cart system is one such technique where checkout page is preserved perpetually if the process is not completed. So, when the customer visits your website next time, they may be tempted to eventually complete their shopping experience.

 

  • Work with Your Payment Processing Partner: If you run your online payment in collaboration with processing partners then it makes sense to receive expert advice from them. PayTabs can help you in simplifying your payment process and introducing alternative payment options for your clients. As an eCommerce operator, you should ensure that you collaborate with those payment processors who are at the helm of technological innovation. PayTabs is such a payment processor as it deploys latest technologies for making the entire process smoother and hassle free. Thus, eCommerce business owners can bring about exponential improvement in their performance and efficiency by collaborating with

 

  • Optimize the Checkout Process: There is no one single way to provide the best services to all your clients. Further, the checkout process also depends on the way your eCommerce business and website are designed. Based on these factors, you may decide to let your customers enjoy a faster checkout with express purchase of individual products, instead of making them collect these items in a shopping cart. At the checkout stage, you may further entice the clients by offering them freebies in the form of discounts, cheaper shipping rates or even free shipping. Discounts may be designed in such a way so that you can tempt the customers to make more purchases to earn higher discounts.

 

With the above methods to improve your checkout page experience, you can bring substantial improvement in your conversion rate and overall efficiency. While most of the measures are internal to any business, external factors such as tying up with the right kind of payment processor may also have magnifying impact on your bottom line.

6 years ago
Success Tips for Millennial Entrepreneurs
Mohab Growth Hacks 0

Success Tips for Millennial Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurship has always been a challenging task but millennial entrepreneurs face some unique challenges. However, they also have access to better resources, allowing them to make the best of the circumstances presented to them. Here are the top tips which can help millennial entrepreneurs in avoiding potholes on the road to success.

  • Create an A Team: Entrepreneurship may be a lonely journey, but it helps to create a good team. Make sure that you have a strong support system and that your team consists of people who understand your ambition and vision. It is also important that you actively seek out help as and when you require it. People are more than willing to help others out when they are asked in a direct manner. As an entrepreneur, you need to understand that looking for help is not a sign of weakness but of open-mindedness. This quality is especially helpful in technical areas, so if you are struggling with the taxes for your business or are stuck with a faulty code, then make sure that you have right kind of people in your team to deal with such issues.

 

  • Learn to be on Your Own: While this tip may seem to be diametrically opposite to the first one, it highlights the importance of being self-reliant when it comes to running your enterprise. Your team may be able to provide you technical support and at times, maybe even moral support, but there will also be times when you will find yourself dealing with such issues on your own. Further, you should also develop your abilities to reach a decision in an independent manner. You may also need to severely curtail your social life to make time for your entrepreneurial ventures. Before you take a leap, make sure that you are ready for these sacrifices.

 

  • Find Your Passion: The success of your venture depends on your efforts and your efforts are directly correlated to how closely you identify with your business. If you are truly passionate about your venture, then you will be able to stay motivated despite all the obstacles coming your way. You can also keep up your motivation level by focusing on the ultimate reward. Entrepreneurship involves long working hours, repeated setbacks and consequent stress. These obstacles are easy to overcome when you believe in what you are doing.

 

  • But be Business Savvy: it’s great to have an opportunity to work in the area you are passionate about, but it is also important to have your business fundamentals right. This means that you have proper idea about your market, you have designed your product in an appropriate manner and that you comply with all the regulatory requirements, among other things. While passion matters, you should also keep in mind that businesses have a high failure rate, especially in the initial years. New entrepreneurs are also advised to be careful about the finances so that they do not run out of funds at crucial moments. If you do not have any business background then you may also take up a few business oriented courses in a local college or university. Alternatively, you may join your industry association and other trade collaborations.

 

  • Be Agile: In today’s highly competitive world, it pays to be agile and nimble. A venture’s success is widely determined by its ability to pivot. It is important that you quickly recognize the gravity of a situation and take appropriate actions promptly. Some of the situations which may require such quick actions include change in market structure or change in regulatory frameworks. It is also advisable to keep various processes and procedures simple so that they may be conveniently altered as and when required by the changed circumstances. An entrepreneur should also be open to making swift changes to their plans. If the earlier plans do not seem to work then they should amend them accordingly.
Entrepreneurs are not born, they are made. By following these simple tips, you can vastly improve your chances of becoming a successful entrepreneur. You should also use technology tools to boost your business. These tools such as those provided by PayTabs can bring about efficiency and economy to your business operations, helping you grow at a fast pace.

6 years ago
Build a High Converting Landing Page
Mohab Growth Hacks 0

Build a High Converting Landing Page

A landing page is your first introduction to the client and as the saying goes, first impression is the last impression.  In order to ensure that not only the customer is persuaded to browse the website but also to purchase online goods and services offered through the website. Your eCommerce business may achieve new heights if you are able to achieve high conversion on your landing page. Here are a couple of tips that may help in boosting landing page conversion rate.

  • Understand the Purpose: for creating an impactful landing page, it is imperative that you recognize the true rationale of a landing page. Unlike a product page, the landing page is aimed at inducing the visitors to take an action. Such action may be in the form of signing up, making a purchase or such other deed. In this way, a landing page is meant to be more specific than a product page, which is generally more generic in nature. Thus, for the purpose of higher conversion rate, your eCommerce business may decide to have multiple landing pages, catering to the requirements of specific market segments.

 

  • Reinforce the Call to Action: As explained above, the main purpose of the landing page is to make visitors take an immediate action. Therefore, the landing page should be focused on reinforcing a single stream of call to action (CTA). If there is any confusion regarding the real purpose of the landing page, then it may lead to higher bounce rate, reducing the efficiency of your business. Further, the method to perform the action should be clearly laid out. For example, if your landing page’s main CTA is to invite people to sign up for the newsletter, then the buttons required for such sign up should be prominently visible on the page.

 

  • Personalize: custom designed landing pages are a major key to success for eCommerce businesses. The main benefit of this approach is that it allows you to be more customer-centric and the resulting landing page is more amenable to the needs of your clients. Such personalization may be done on different basis, depending on the segmentation of your main market. While initially such personalization may seem cost prohibitive but in the long run, it allows the business to yield high quality results and optimizing the performance. It is also important that the landing page allows easy performance of the task. For this purpose, multiple buttons or fields to accomplish the objective may be provided.

 

  • Focus on Content: for creating a persuasive landing page, it is important that you choose the content carefully. First off, the material you provide on the landing page should be highly targeted. Apart from following the usual SEO rules, you should also ensure that the material is presented in an easy to navigate manner. Further, the headings and subheadings should be designed to grab attention. While the headline should generally be brief, the subheadings may be used for providing further information about the products and services. Overall, the content should be in sync with the requirements of the targeted market segment.

 

  • Keep it Simple: keeping in line with the general theme of the landing page being specific and targeted, it is advised to the keep the page design and navigation system simple. This generally means that the clutter on the page should be avoided. The material provided on the page should be streamlined and unambiguous. Further, the direction for proceeding should also be straightforward and easy to follow. The page layout and content should be such that the visitor is not inundated with multiple choices, making it difficult for them to arrive at a decision. So, ideally the page should have only limited number of highly targeted options available, so that the customers can make quick decision.

Landing pages are an important ingredient of any eCommerce website. The conversion rate of these landing pages can vitally affect your top line and bottom line. The optimal use of landing pages may provide a necessary impetus to your online business with minimal effort. The above provided guidelines may be incorporated to ensure the high conversion rate for your eCommerce website landing page.

6 years ago
Marketing on a Shoestring Budget: Top Tips for SMBs
Mohab Growth Hacks 0

Marketing on a Shoestring Budget: Top Tips for SMBs

Marketing is vital for any business but is expensive at the same time. The costs associated with marketing campaigns can be especially prohibitive for small and medium scale businesses. However, with some innovation and creativity, you can market your business with minimal resources. Here are some of the top tips to help you make your business grow without breaking the bank.

Go Social: Social media changed the landscape of online marketing and any SMB would do itself a favor by incorporating it into its marketing plan. While generic social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram may be useful in reaching broader clientele, you may also use specialized social and networking sites relevant to your target market segments. However, the use of social media for marketing is a double-edged sword and thus, needs to be handled in a professional manner. As an SMB, you should ensure that you are getting the right message across without overexposing yourself.

Harness the Power of Referrals: Grow your business with some help from your existing client base. Leverage your customer base by asking them for referrals. However, you will need to take the initiative and may also have to offer some sops to entice your customers to provide good referrals. Such word of mouth marketing generally entails low cost and high conversion rate, making it a highly efficient marketing tool. You can offer free trial to your clients in lieu of referrals or you may give them discounts on their purchase; just make sure that the incentive system offered by you meets the requirements of your target market. Keep your clients updated about your referral programs so that your referral program does not get stuck in a rut.

Network & Collaborate: As an SMB, you should focus on networking, both online and offline for promoting your business. But like any other marketing tool, you should ensure that you are not overdoing it. While you should be consistent in harnessing the power of your network, you should also be aware that you can drive people away by being too forceful. For this purpose, you may attend industry conferences and other such events to acquaint yourself with people in your segment. Networking is a long-term marketing tool and requires considerable time investment to yield proper results. Apart from networking, you may also decide to collaborate with other businesses engaged in your vertical. You can go for joint marketing of your products and services or may choose to engage in some industry specific contests.

Organize Giveaways and Contests: Conducting events and promotional schemes such as early bird discounts can help you in gaining initial customer base. Some of the tools you may use in this regard are organizing quizzes or other contests and then offering them goodies in the form of discounts or free merchandise. Such promotional measures will not only help you strengthen your hold over your existing client base but will also bring in new customers. While using promotional events as a marketing tool, you should ensure that the incentives you offer to your customers contribute towards the demand factor. If your products or services ARE new in the market, then you may offer time-based trial versions as giveaways. This will allow the customers to try out the products before they fully commit to them.

Create a Niche: In today’s highly competitive world, it is absolutely vital for your business to create a niche for itself in the market. While you promote your products and services, make sure that you tell your story in such a way as to establish a unique brand proposition. Creating a strong brand ensures that you enjoy higher recall value and customer stickiness. A powerful brand also helps you in incurring lower costs for acquiring and maintaining customer base. One other strategy which may help you in creating a unique selling proposition or USP is to create targeted videos and other such content.

For an SMB, it is important to execute an efficient marketing plan.

6 years ago
Ain’t No Mountain High Enough
Mohab Growth Hacks 0

Ain’t No Mountain High Enough

Thanks to the fact that the fintech industry is still in its early phase of development in the Middle East, it seems to be a given that the companies that make up the industry are those of modest beginnings and spectacular growth thereafter. Yet, investing in this sector of the economy in the region remains to be a risky proposition for a variety of factors, not least of which is the fact that, relative to other parts of the world, the surrounding infrastructure here requires further development and better integration with the financial markets. It would be understandable, therefore, for investment to gravitate toward other industries. But there’s a catch.

Easier and lower-risk investment opportunities may appear to exist outside of the nascent fintech industry, but such “easy” investment opportunities tend to attract the biggest numbers of attempts, which means that only be so many people who can succeed using the same hackneyed formula. That way, some people — scratch that: lots of people — are bound to find out that their returns are ever diminishing and that their resources are ill spent. To make it in the market, therefore, one must learn to ride the wave of constant change that markets so often experience and must learn to take calculated risks to capitalize on the market’s shifting tides.

If we look at the trends in the markets regionally and globally, one thing is as clear as day: fintech’s tide is ever-rising. The surrounding environment of a fintech startup is arguably just as important as the vision and strategy of the entrepreneur. Today, on the other hand, we find that establishing such an environment is written into the government’s long-term strategy. Consider how Saudi Arabia’s forward-looking Vision 2030 explicitly concerned with creating “incentives to foster use of cashless payment solutions,” for instance. As a result of that vision, the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority has commissioned the giant financial firm Deloitte to oversee the process of turning Riyadh into a bustling fintech city. Relatedly, the economic vision has also resulted in the creation of a consortium of Saudi fintech startups to national banks to international technology powerhouses, all under the banner of “Saudi fintech.”

Saudi Arabia’s initiative, which was announced roughly a year ago, is now working on jumpstarts the fintech scene in the region’s biggest and most important economy. The rapid change and progress it’s experiencing are making host of advantages available to newcomers of tomorrow – not least of which is the fact that they have allies in the policymakers at the highest echelons of government.

The opportunities are there for the taking.

About the author

Mahmood Almahmood is a translator and editor at a national news service. Trained in the social sciences and the arts, he enjoys staying abreast of the business press and analyzing its trends.

6 years ago