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Quick Secrets to Successful User Onboarding

Quick Secrets to Successful User Onboarding
Mohab Ecommerce 0

Quick Secrets to Successful User Onboarding

The rapid development of the e-commerce industry necessitates equally fast adjustments from business owners. One of the most important aspects of an online business is user experience and this is where your business will fail or succeed.  By embracing new technologies, online businesses can now provide a seamless user experience, thus gaining a competitive edge. Online payment platforms are among these critical technologies every online business must embrace in its endeavor for improved UX. If you plan to leverage a new payment platform on your website, it is important to consider user onboarding. This entails increasing the chances that new users become successful when adopting your application. It is the most crucial yet frustrating element of a product launch because it determines the first impression. As they say, first impressions are crucial and for this reason, developers and website owners must learn how to improve user onboarding. This article tackles some crucial things a software developer should consider to help users find new value and success when using their product. Read on.

Why User Onboarding Matters

When thinking of customer retention in e-commerce, most business owners adopt a wait-and-see approach. The idea is to wait for a few weeks after a product launches on the website and start making changes that will hopefully retain users.

  • Sells Your Products Value Proposition

Now, internet users have an infamously short attention span and this is enough reason to develop an intuitive onboarding experience. Such an experience enlightens users in the essentials of the payment solutions system. User onboarding sells your product’s value propositions and helps users experience the benefits as fast as possible thus reducing the possibility of dropping out.

  • Greater Conversions

It is important to appreciate that great conversions are about proving to customers your product’s value and full potential in the product launch and trial. User onboarding is crucial not only in improving the growth rate of users on your e-commerce platform and revenue but also in customer retention.

  • Customer Retention

Customer retention has now emerged as a more important business objective surpassing acquisition. In essence, user onboarding is a chance to create a great first impression. In this case, once the software user installs your product, they expect to get value and that’s what user onboarding is about.

  • Setting the Tone Of Interactions

Remember, the first experience a user has on the software sets the tone for your relationship and determines whether this will be a long-term interaction.

Small Tweaks to Make User Onboarding Work 

While user onboarding remains a nascent aspect of website development, some trendsetters have already charted the way. Some of the little things you can do make your online payment gateway work during the launch phase include:

  1. Setting realistic expectations: Show users where they are in the process of using the payment system and how far they have to go. Through the Endowed Progress Effect, you will motivate them to complete the steps and own the process.
  2. Map User Journeys/Tailor the experience: You need to understand the users’ persona to map their journey when using the product. What are the user’s needs, goals and motivations when using the payment application on your site? Are they worried about the cost? Do they need some education about the product? Try tailoring the product to suit the diverse needs of target users.
  3. Offer a compelling value proposition early: You must communicate the value proposition early enough through a simple, clear description of what makes your payment system unique. Make sure you help the user understand cost implications and benefits of the software early to spur further interest.
  4. Simplify: Simplicity is underrated in website development, yet it makes the difference between a successful system and a failed one. Keep things simple in the free trial form, a name, an email, or a social login such as Google or Facebook will work great for user onboarding.
  5. Choose a specific end goal for your user to reach: Make sure you understand where you want users to end the process and what is to be achieved there. Remember always to put the user’s goals first and not your product’s goals.
  6. Reduce friction: A poor sign-up process can ruin the onboarding. While friction will occur due to questions and permissions, you can reduce it through good interface design. Try to decrease form completion time through online form validation and build trust through customer reviews, and testimonials throughout the process.
  7. Use guided interactions: This educates and familiarizes users with the core features of the software.

These are just a few of the little things you can do when learning how to integrate payment gateway.  It will make the onboarding process successful leading to increased customer retention.

7 years ago
How to Use Customer Feedback for improving User Experience?
Mohab Customer Experience 0

How to Use Customer Feedback for improving User Experience?

According to a report by Lee Resource, for every customer who complaints, there are 26 other unhappy customers who have remained silent.

This data shows exactly how important it is to understand what your customers are thinking. The only way you will know that is when you listen to your customers. Once you know what they want you to improve, you can decide how you can do it.

There are numerous ways to collect customer feedbacks, such as surveys, emails, product reviews, analytics reports, and so on. The question is how do you leverage customer feedback data to offer value to the users? Here we discuss ways to utilize customer feedback to derive maximum value and ultimately, enhance user experience and propel the growth of your organization.

Creating customer-oriented Products

Evolving trends and data analytics can give you an insight into what to create for the consumers. But customer feedbacks will provide extensive data like desired features, defects in products, problems with the processes, and so on. As customers are using products and services on a daily basis, they can identify areas that have a scope of improvement. They can give you ideas that you might have skipped in the planning stage. Identify customers who leave detailed and practical feedbacks, and invite them to collaborate and innovate with your team.

Discover New Possibilities

Reading customer feedbacks lets you analyze the demands of the consumers, thereby, instigating you to develop a new range of products and services. The emerging needs of the society compel consumers to ask for more. They discuss their problems and write about ideas or features in the reviews, surveys, and feedback forms. It’s your responsibility to assess available information, have a discussion with the team, and determine the future course of action.

You can also engage with the customers on the community forum, blogs, and ask technically-inclined individuals to review and submit feedback. This is a great way of accumulating crucial information.

Engage with Customers

Customer feedbacks are not just about spearheading innovation and development. You can actually use customer feedbacks to strengthen bonds with your existing and new customers. For example, if customers leave either a positive or a negative feedback on the product listing, engage with them, appreciating them for rendering a positive response and addressing their grievances in case of a negative response. When you engage with the customers, you build trust that will be fruitful for your business in the long run.

Moreover, you can request satisfied customers to refer your products or services to their contacts on social media or by personally communicating with them. This is an excellent technique of mouth publicity to grow your sales.

Addressing Bugs

The research and development wing maybe doing a commendable job when it comes to designing products, releasing updates, and integrating new technologies. But the customer feedback shows the real image when it comes to overall experience with respect to a product or service. For example, if the majority of the customers complain about the payment gateway process, you should dig further and identify the weak areas. Based on reviews, you can learn about the bugs that can be addressed. This will improve the quality and also prevents any blunders in the future.

Building a Roadmap for the Future

If you are a businessperson, you must have a long-term vision to establish your brand. However, your roadmap may not be aligned according to the customer expectations. You have deployed everything to be on the right track. But if customer feedback is not on your list, do it right away. The feedbacks will generate enough data for you to determine and implement the future course of action. Let’s say you are into payment gateway services, and you have got some feedbacks about integrating UPI payments. You can consider this suggestion and incorporate UPI options for taking payments online, a clear sign of product improvement.

 

Your customers are human beings, influenced by emotions. Try to engage with them emotionally to know about their genuine views, ask for ideas and improvements, and enhance their experience. This will establish your credibility, thereby, paving the path for your success.

7 years ago
Scaling Your Business with Recurring Billing
Mohab Growth Hacks 0

Scaling Your Business with Recurring Billing

There is no better news than a fast-expanding customer base for a business owner. However, with the good news comes a new challenge – how to effectively tackle the large number of payments from your growing list of customers.

One of the best ways to do that is to use the recurring billing model. This will not only help you automate and simplify the business model while assuring a fixed revenue stream, it will also help your customers by offering them regular payment options, fewer late fees, greater convenience and faster payment methods.

Let us take a deep-dive into how you can take advantage of the recurring billing system and scale your business.

Benefits of Recurring Billing Model

  1. Pricing as per Service Offerings

Recurring payments generally deal with software-as-a-service (SaaS) offerings. However, there are no predefined norms when it comes to the type of products and services. You can take payments online for a bunch of services, offered in a package. Create suitable packages comprising of products and services, and allow users to purchase subscription packages. The recurring subscription system is a secure payment processor that takes care of all the billing cycles, maintains client records, and ensures encryption of sensitive information like credit card details.

  1. Inter-linked and Automated Process

While installing a recurring payment model, customer acquisition should be a priority. When we talk about customer acquisition, harnessing multiple channels like online, mobile, and affiliates should be considered. The inter-linking of channels and payment mediums depict the seamless functionality of recurring billing software.

Raising invoices, linking payment gateways, managing accounts, scheduling periodic reports, and adapting to changes – a perfect recurring payment system automates all these processes for a simplified functioning. Scaling your business becomes easier as you can focus on other peripherals other than billing.

  1. Enhanced Customer Relationship

Do you know that the probability of selling to a new customer is 5-20% whereas it fluctuates between 60-70% for an existing customer? When you have a subscription model in place, you should ensure customer satisfaction. Furnishing facilities like automated payments, usage metrics, timely notifications and updates, and prompt support services are necessary to develop fruitful customer relationship. Moreover, the recurring billing model can assist you with subscription chores like renewals, terminations, customization, upgrades, and so on.

  1. Accurate Analysis & Growth Prediction

Data is the key to your success. As subscription services are constantly evolving, you should be agile enough to adapt to the latest methodologies. Data metrics and customer behavior analysis play a crucial role in determining your next move. An efficient recurring system will emphasize data metrics such as retention rate, subscription patterns, customer acquisition, cost analysis, and much more. This will ensure a stable cash flow and growth in your business.

Integrate Recurring Billing Software

There are various online payment platforms that offer reliable and scalable recurring billing system, along with various payment features. Considering the aforementioned benefits and your requirements, you can integrate a payment gateway on your website. Most of the payment gateways, like PayTabs, offer hassle-free solutions for collecting recurring payments.

You can expect complete or partial automation, as per your convenience. From generating periodic invoices to upgrading subscription plans, the payment gateway takes care of all the aspects. In addition to automation, customization is also an influencing factor. There is a wide scope of customization involved such as designing invoice and email templates, updating subscription packages, setting up notification alerts, and much more.

Payments can get complex in a recurring model. For example, if a credit card expires and the payment is due, there could be a possible decline. Generally, recurring payment software is capable of managing card details and client information, thus, reducing the possibility of declines at the time of payment. And since the recurring model deals with a client’s personal information, it is advisable to rely on secure online payment systems that vouch for encrypted payment processes.

There is no doubt that recurring billing system assists you in scaling your business. At the same time, we cannot rule out the possibility of complex mechanisms, which may hamper your business growth. An automated and reliable recurring payment system lets you focus on other organizational aspects, without compromising sales and customer relationships.

7 years ago
Payment Gateway Providers 101 – Why and How They Matter in Online Payment Processing
Mohab Ecommerce 0

Payment Gateway Providers 101 – Why and How They Matter in Online Payment Processing

The stiff competition in the online ecosystem calls for innovative strategies to stay ahead of your competition. One of the easiest ways to do this is by offering a seamless customer experience.  A payment gateway comes in handy in helping you offer a smooth user experience by allowing easier processing of payments on your ecommerce store. If you plan to set up an online business or if you have problems with billing, it is crucial to learn how to get these payment gateways working for you. Here are the main points you need to know about payment gateways. Keep reading.
How the Payment Gateway Works

To make things clearer, you need to understand what a payment gateway does. Now, in an online payment transaction, there is the merchant/business, the online customer, and the technology. In the part of the technology, you have the payment gateway (linking your site’s shopping cart to the card processor) and the payment processor.

During a transaction, a payment gateway encrypts credit/debit card data and keeps it private before sending it to the payment processor. The processor then sends this encrypted information to the issuing bank which accepts or declines depending on availability of funds and other factors.

In the simplest understanding, the payment gateway is a software integrated into your ecommerce website to send all of your credit card transactions to your credit card processors. At the same time, it also sends a message back from your credit card processor letting you know if a particular transaction has been authorized.

The Crucial Role of Payment Gateways

To fully understand the reason as to why you need the best payment gateway for your ecommerce store, consider the following:

  1. Serves as the middleman: The payment gateway reduces the temporal distance and makes payment possible in a matter of seconds. This software connects the customer’s bank, your bank, the acquiring bank, and the issuing bank.
  2. Authentication: Online transactions are fraught with risks and many businesses lose billions each year. An efficient payment gateway authenticates the card information and Okays the transaction to continue. There are no fears about losing money on your end.
  3. Security/Minimizing risk: In an ecommerce environment where risks are high, you need a system that mitigates such risks through encryption. You don’t want to lose your customers’ sensitive data when processing payment as this can ruin your business. The east payment gateway ensures compliance with security standards including Payment Card Data Security Standard among others.
  4. Hassle-free payment transactions: When you have an effective payment gateway, your payment transactions will flow smoothly and this boosts customer retention. The software makes the process hassle-free for both the merchant and the buyer.
  5. Reporting tool: All information collected during a transaction is crucial for your business and as such the payment gateway shares this to the parties concerned.

In essence, payment gateways are convenient, user-friendly and they have low commissions. They reduce the risk of theft and loss, which could tarnish your company’s reputation. Whatever the industry you are in, a good payment gateway is a handy tool in providing a seamless customer experience.

When shopping for a payment gateway, consider your business needs first. Look for multiple features such as encryption, recurring billing, virtual terminal, PCI Compliance and ease of integration with other tools such as Quickbooks. Payment gateway charges also vary and include setup fees, monthly fees, registration fees, payment processing fees, transaction fees, refund fees, and chargeback fees, limit fees, batch processing fee, termination fees and fund transfer fee among others.

You must also consider data security among other features. The gateway should be easy to set up and user-friendly. You should also compare the benefits of hosted vs. integrated gateways before picking one of them. Using this information, go ahead and leverage the best payment gateway to stay ahead of the pack in your industry.

7 years ago
How to Set the Right Price for your Product or Service
Mohab Ecommerce 0

How to Set the Right Price for your Product or Service

Placing an appropriate price tag on a product or service is a sensitive task. To generate sufficient profit, you have to set the right price. At the same time, you cannot exaggerate it because this will keep buyers away from your store. The following set of recommendations will help you in optimizing the pricing strategy for your e-commerce business.

Cost Analysis

Right from manufacturing to the delivery of the product, everything is driven by money. There are various costs involved in a business, directly or indirectly associated with the product or service. The market price depends on the costs and expenses incurred. The profit is what you get after deducting costs from the market price.

The direct costs are associated with the manufacturing the product or conceptualizing a service. The overhead costs include fixed and variable costs like rent, salaries, administrative expenses, warehouse maintenance, advertising costs, payment gateway charges, and so on. After considering all these aspects, you can determine the right selling price.

Market Evaluation

You should be aware of the consumer behavior and industry trends to accomplish the task of market evaluation. Identify and segregate your customers on the basis of demographics, buying trends, and so on. Work on determining the amount of money they are willing to pay for your product or service. You can conduct surveys to gather complete information.

Competition Analysis

There is a rare chance that you don’t have competition in your niche, and therefore, you should be prepared to perform competition analysis. The procedure involves evaluating their business process, analyzing products or services, identifying their tie-ups, and understanding their pricing strategy. You have to offer a superior product or service, at a competitive price, to gain prominence in the market.

Value Proposition

The value proposition is an art, and if you can master this, you can reap maximum benefits. Finalizing a price depends on the value of your offering. If you are dealing in premium products or expert services, you cannot set a low price. You have to maintain a suitable price to maintain its value proposition.

In addition to these, you can also work on user experience. For example, you can install a payment gateway for smooth and swift online payments. Customers are sensitive, and they are willing to pay more if you enhance their shopping experience.

Marketing and Promotions

Understand buyer’s psychology to mark the correct price of your product or service. During marketing stints, utilize tactics that will attract the buyers. For example, when a buyer sees a “SALE” tag, he or she develops an urge to check out the product. Similarly, odd numbers in the price tag can rake in more sales. Instead of a boring 500, simply mark the price as 499. Although there is no significant change in the price, it will definitely attract more onlookers.

Paid promotions can add up to the overhead costs. Whether you opt for social media promotions, search engine promotions, influencer marketing, or affiliate marketing; prepare an estimate and consider it at the time of pricing.

Pricing Options

Some of the pricing methods that you can adopt include:

  • Penetration pricing – This is suitable when you plan to acquire a market share in the initial stage. Initially, you can offer a low price and increase it later when you have established your presence.
  • Pre-emptive pricing – You have numerous competitors in your niche. To disrupt their monopoly, you can offer similar products or services at lesser prices.
  • Premium decoy pricing – When you plan to boost sales of a particular product, simply increase the price of other products so that customer opts for the product with the lowest price.
  • Price Leadership – When you established your brand and customers vouch for your product or services, you can set up a convenient price, without worrying about market trends and competitors’ presence.

You can deploy any or all of the aforementioned suggestions to finalize the product or service price. Your ultimate aim should be to maximize revenue and minimize expenditure. You can also innovate and apply pricing strategies or experiment with different combinations of pricing methods to obtain best results.

7 years ago