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Top 3 Payment-Related Reasons for Abandoned Carts

PayTabs
Mohab Growth Hacks 0

Top-3-Payment-Related-Reasons-for-Abandoned-Carts

One of the biggest challenges faced by e-commerce businesses is the issue of abandoned carts. Potential customers who take time to browse through your offerings, add them to their carts and then simply leave their shopping when it comes to the final stage. In order to ensure that your business enjoys a healthy conversion rate, it is important to pay proper attention to the issue of abandoned carts. The abandonment of the cart can happen at any stage of online shopping; therefore, it is important to look into the reasons so as to take proper corrective actions:

  1. Tedious Checkout Process: Complicated checkout process is one of the most prominent reasons why customers leave their carts behind. If your checkout process involves filling out a number of forms, adding payment details and such other issues then it is highly likely that the customers will prefer to just abandon the entire process and go elsewhere. You can solve some of these issues by adapting policies such as allowing guest checkouts. This option lets the customers proceed with their purchases without actually enrolling with the websites. When their transaction culminates smoothly, it is highly likely that such customers will come back and register with your website eventually.
  2. Unexpected Costs: If you have hidden costs which are revealed at the checkout stage, then your customers are likely to leave without completing the transaction. Such hidden costs may be in the form of taxes or shipping charges. In order to increase the chances of actual purchase made, it is important that you are upfront about the all the costs involved. By incorporating transparency, you gain customer trust which eventually translates to better revenue for you. You may also devise various cost structures which enable you to offer ‘free shipping’ without hurting your margins. Taxes may also be bundled into the product prices so as to reduce the chances of unpleasant surprises at a later stage.
  3. Payment Issues: Payment related issues may manifest themselves in a variety of ways. First off, it is important that you offer a wide range of payment options. Some of the most prominent options are the ability to pay through debit cards, credit cards and internet banking. However, adding a couple of more options will greatly enhance the probability of the purchases reaching their final destination. Another major concern is regarding the security of the payment process. Since clients are required to provide sensitive information for making payments, it is important that they are assured of full security of such information. There are several certifications which prove that your website is secure. Having such authentication on your website increases your customer’s confidence and induces them to complete the process.
  4. Dubious Upselling Techniques: While it is desirable to provide an extra nudge to the client for increasing their order value or to induce them to add more products to their cart, aggressive upselling techniques may dissuade such clients. Some of the ways such intrusive techniques are used are through the pop-up ads or other such material. Instead of being helpful, such experiences may interrupt the purchase process, leading to the client abandoning their purchase. It is advisable that you do not use such measures and offer a smooth checkout process to your clients.
  5. Buggy Website: If your checkout process involves different pages and your website is slow to download then the client may feel frustrated through this experience. For solving this issue, you may want to consolidate your checkout process so that the clients do not have to wait for multiple pages to download. Further, the pages should also be optimized in such a manner that they are loaded quickly and do not lag. Slow processing may also impede checkout and payment process, prompting clients to walk away.

While getting the clients to your website is a difficult task, stimulating them to complete the purchase process is even more of a challenge. However, by carrying out a few simple tasks as listed above, you can ensure that your clients do not have to face undue hassle and that they eventually complete the process, adding to your top line. These steps will also help you in generating repeat sales.

5 years ago
PayTabs
Mohab Growth Hacks, Guest Posts 0

Your-Helpful-PCI-DSS-Audit-Checklist

In 2019, global retail sales grew by 3.4% from the previous year to hit $21 trillion. Global eCommerce accounted for 16.4% of total retail sales at $3.46 billion. Ecommerce sales continue to grow, thanks to globalization and the internet. 

This growth also comes with a few challenges, among which is payment card fraud. In 2018, payment card fraud amounted to $27.85 billion and was expected to hit $35.67 billion in the next five years.

If you intend to pursue the e-commerce route, you’ll need to consider a few things, one of which is the payment method. How many payment alternatives will you offer your customers? Are the payment methods secure?

Your customers will offer you their financial data on a silver plate; they expect that it’s secure and confidential. To guarantee this, you need to prove that you’re PCI-DSS compliant.

What is PCI-DSS?

This is a set of standards formulated by the PCI Security Standards Council. This council is made up of major credit card companies who joined forces to create security standards that protect credit card data.

As a merchant, your compliance guidelines are dictated by the number of annual transactions. Merchants are grouped into four levels:

  • Level 1

This covers merchants who handle over 6 million transactions every year or have experienced a data breach.

  •  Level 2

Merchants who handle 1-6 million transactions annually.

  •  Level 3

Merchants with less than a million transactions but more than 20,000 annual transactions.

  •  Level 4

Merchants with less than 20,000 annual transactions.

Each of these levels has different compliance requirements. The more the transactions you process every year, the tougher the compliance requirements become.

PCI DSS Compliance Checklist

PCI has six control objectives that constitute twelve compliance requirements. These requirements are not subject to merchant levels; thus, all merchants are required to adhere to the compliance requirements regardless of transaction volume.

These control objectives include:

  1. Secure Network and Systems

This control objective has two requirements:

  • Protect cardholder data by installing and maintaining a firewall

Firewalls are barriers that protect your network by preventing security threats from accessing or spreading through your network. Firewalls act as filters that determine whether information passing from one computer to another is safe or not.

  • Limit the use of vendor-supplied passwords

Every system comes with security parameters, among which are passwords. These passwords are often easy to hack; thus, you should change them before you deploy the systems. Ensure that you update system configurations and security measures as you identify new threats.

  1. Protect Cardholder Data

Cardholder data refers to personally identifiable information that’s associated with a credit or debit cardholder. According to PCI DSS, cardholder data includes PAN, which is the unique payment card number used to identify the cardholder’s account and the issuer. The standards require that merchants encrypt the transmission of cardholder data and protect stored cardholder data as stipulated in the guidelines.

  1. Implement vulnerability protection programs 

Create a program to help you identify weaknesses in your payment card infrastructure system. Hackers will exploit these vulnerabilities to access your cardholder which you can mitigate by:

  • Implementing measures to protect your systems against cyberattacks such as malware.
  • Maintain secure systems

  1. Access control measures

Limit access to cardholder data by vetting everyone who needs access to this data. This is achieved by:

  • Restricting access to cardholder data

Only authorized personnel should have access to this data. Limit the privileges of everyone to a need-to-know basis and deny all other access unless authorized.

  • Authenticate access

Employees that have access to cardholder data should be assigned unique identification. They will use these identifications to access the data, thus making it easy to track how data is handled. Do not use group IDs; every member with access needs unique identification.

  • Restrict physical access to the data

Your onsite systems are also vulnerable to attacks or internal leaks; thus, you need to put measures in place to limit physical access to cardholder data.

  1. Monitoring and testing networks

Monitor your physical and wireless networks to identify vulnerabilities that cybercriminals can exploit to gain unauthorized access to your systems and data. To prevent cybercriminals from exploiting these vulnerabilities, you are required to:

  • Thoroughly track, analyze, and monitor cardholder environments in search of weakness.
  • Frequently test your system components, processes, etc. to ensure that you maintain security over time. 

  1. Information security

Your business needs a strong security policy that details the responsibilities of your employees towards protecting cardholder data.

Conclusion

PCI compliance isn’t a guarantee that your systems and data are safe; hundreds of companies have experienced data breaches despite being PCI-DSS compliant. Achieving compliance is merely a baseline. You need to meet the requirements as stipulated by the governing body and implement extra measures that protect your systems from emerging threats. You can never be too sure when dealing with cybersecurity, going the extra mile helps prevent cyber attacks.

About the author

Jordan MacAvoy is the Vice President of Marketing at Reciprocity Labs and manages the company’s go-to-market strategy and execution. Prior to joining Reciprocity, Mr. MacAvoy served in executive roles at Fundbox, a Forbes Next Billion Dollar Company, and Intuit, via their acquisition of the SaaS marketing and communications solution, Demandforce.

5 years ago
PayTabs
Mohab Covid19 Resources 0

COVID-19-Top-Tips-for-Ecommerce-Shopping-and-Feeds

The onslaught of COVID 19 has changed the shopping landscape dramatically. Its impact on e-commerce and online shopping has also been intense. However, it is important that businesses understand the overall effect and devise appropriate strategies to deal with the situation. To make sure that your business is in a position to provide the best possible services during this difficult time, there are certain guidelines you can follow. These pointers will also help you in maintaining the liquidity and profitability of your business.

  • Figure out the impact: In order to design an appropriate strategy, it is important to figure out the areas which are going to be impacted by the pandemic. Further, it is also important to quantify the impact, so that you are fully aware of the changes. Depending on the type of your business, you may experience a drop in your website traffic. However, you should endeavor to measure the drop exactly, or at least have an approximate idea. Once these areas have been identified, the next step is to take mitigating actions to minimize the negative impact. This step will also allow you to identify your critical resources and ensure their proper utilization.
  • Streamline your costs: The pandemic has stalled the pace of growth for the e-commerce landscape, and is likely to have a negative impact on revenue and profit margins. During such times, it is important that you cut down your costs to preserve your financial resources. This is also the best time to evaluate your plans such as marketing budgets etc. You may decide to suspend some of the activities until things get back to normal. In other cases, you may find some expenses to be completely superfluous, and decide to eliminate them completely. You may also want to automate various operations, leading to more efficiency and reduction in cost.
  • Manage your resources: Apart from planning your expenses, you should plan about your resources as well. Identify the assets which are most resource-incentive. For example, maintaining an inventory calls for substantial investment, and therefore, you may want to carry out ABC analysis of the items lying with you. With this analysis, you can identify the items which are most critical for your business. You may want to reduce your investment in non-critical items while focusing on the important ones. Similarly, you may want to renegotiate the terms and conditions with your debtors, so as to speed up the cash flow and boost your liquidity. You may also carry out a similar process with your creditors to renegotiate your contract.
  • Focus on revenue: The long lockdown is indeed going to have a negative impact on the revenues of most businesses. However, such a negative effect is not going to be equal for all. In fact, for some businesses, this calamity may lead to higher revenues. In this scenario, you may want to figure out alternative revenue streams for your business. You may want to expand your business into health-related areas, and by doing this, you will not only be able to seek new revenue streams, but also provide essential services to the society. For example, you may add items such as face masks, gloves etc. to your inventory.
  • Implement and track metrics: You can use this slack time to try out various marketing and analytics strategies. You can implement new metrics which may help you in tracking your business activities in an efficient manner. Most of these metrics are real time and may help you in taking timely and prompt decisions. The metrics regarding site visit and sales value are especially helpful. Additionally, you may also want to keep an eye on the competition to see how they are faring in this environment. Some of the most prominent metrics you need to look out for are Benchmark CPC and Benchmark CTR. Another important area for analysis is the price competitiveness, where metrics such as benchmark product price difference may be used.

COVID 19 has presented e-commerce businesses with an unprecedented situation. While the environment is unpredictable, you can successfully navigate through this situation with the appropriate tools and intensive planning. So, try and use this downtime for planning your future course of action.

5 years ago
PayTabs
Mohab Partners & Partnerships 0

PayTabs-Collaborates-with-Zbooni-to-facilitate-micro-payments

PayTabs is enhancing its portfolio of solutions to provide more relevant and sustainable services to clients during these exceptional times. The company’s collaboration with Zbooni will now allow PayTabs to offer micro payment solutions to small businesses units that traditionally operate without online presence. Through this tie up, PayTabs seeks to provide entrepreneurs and home based businesses such as bakers, designers, consultants, tailors, craftsmen and women the ability to carry out their business operations in safe manner by continuing to sell on social media platforms and then receiving payments seamlessly and conveniently.

In support of small businesses and in line with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s leadership initiatives during this unique situation, PayTabs is also offering those who sign up for the service zero set up fees or transaction fees until 15 June 2020. This is with the objective of protecting people and reducing the burden on families by empowering SMB’s to  setup their accounts within hours on the Zbooni platform and sell their products through any social media channel.

Let’s have a look at this tie up to see how these new services can help you manage your business in the current scenario. This service is mainly targeted on the businesses offering services such as baking, designing, tailoring, art & fitness, consultation and e-tailing home-made crafts.

What Does Zbooni Do?

Zbooni is a micro payment platform which also offers several user-friendly features for aiding offline as well as online businesses. One of the most prominent USPs of Zbooni is its mobile invoicing service. With the help of its dedicated app, any business can start accepting card payments, including debit cards and credit cards. Its holistic portfolio of services lets you create your online store in a matter of an hour. However, Zbooni goes even further as you do not necessarily need to have online presence to start using its services. Its features are highly applicable to offline businesses as well.

One Stop App: Zbooni offers you a centralized interface to manage your business’s cash flow in an intuitive and efficient manner. Its app is mainly designed to let the businesses accept payments from anywhere. You can manage your cash inflow by generating invoices and sending them through a wide range of channels including WhatsApp and other messaging services. Subsequently, your clients also get the pick of the payment options. They can clear their bills through any major card or even by using Mada. Zbooni lets you collect your dues fast and efficiently.

Easy Sign Up & Documentation Process: Customers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia can easily set up a Zbooni account by signing up at PayTabs.com/sign_up_zbooni and submitting a couple of documents. The documents required while signing up are as follows:

  • Two Personal IDs (Passport & Local ID) of the authorized signatory of the merchant
  • Personal IDs of Partner/ Shareholder/ Ultimate Beneficiary holding over 10% of the shares in the company
  • Business/ Trade License issued by government or Freelancing Official License (for KSA merchants) matching website business activity.
  • Last 3 months bank statements or a bank letter in case the account is new. Bank account should be under the company name
  • Proof of address (rent contract, electricity bill, mobile bill, bank statement, Wasel etc.)
  • Memorandum of Association/ Shareholder Registry

Mobile Payments: with the massive increase in mobile technology, it is important that your business possesses the ability to process mobile payments. Zbooni is optimally designed to do just that for your business. Clients are not even required to have Zbooni app installed on their phones to make the payments. can simply send them a link through a browser which they can click to complete the payment process. The money is then deposited in your wallet and is transferred to your bank account and PayTabs will now facilitate the process.

Intuitive Operations: Zbooni has made it a lot easier for you to process your payments. The process followed by Zbooni is highly intuitive and convenient to follow. The process starts with creating an account using the app. After this, the business is required to create an order and generate an invoice. Afterward, you simply have to send the link to your clients. Once they confirm the order they are guided through the payment process. Zbooni ensures that the entire process is quick and easy both for you and your clients.

Flat Fee Structure: With Zboomi you do not need to worry about complex fee structures. Zboomi charges a flat fee, which makes it easier for you to keep track of your expenses. Unlike staggered fee structure where your payments pile up with increase in your volume, the expenses ratio remains flat with Zboomi option. The amount is automatically deducted from successful transactions, offering you convenience. There are no hidden costs, no maintenance fee and no set up costs. Its flat structure and simplified process allows all kinds of business including the small ones to use this service. Now, you do not need to use your precious resources for unnecessary paper work.

And now you can avail one-time special offer for small businesses in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. In order to help businesses in this difficult time, PayTabs has designed a special pricing plan, which is valid until June 15th, 2020. Under this plan, the eligible businesses are not required to pay any transaction fees, set up fees or monthly fees. Further, the businesses are also exempted from any minimum volume requirement. This special offer is only available to new Zbooni customers and existing PayTabs customers in KSA.

5 years ago
PayTabs
Mohab Growth Hacks 0

Helpful-Tips-to-Manage a-Remote-Team

Telecommuting has been gaining ground for quite some time and has become especially relevant during the present crisis. It has been estimated that nearly 50 percent of professionals are involved in telecommuting at one point of time or another. The concept of telecommuting is not only appealing to employees but also to managers. However, despite its obvious benefits, there are certain challenges associated with the concept. Here are some tips for you to handle your telecommuting team efficiently and get the best results.

Set the agenda

In order to have a successful remote team, it is important that the main purpose and goals are clear to every person in the team. As a manager, you should ensure that the goals are set in concrete terms and are clearly communicated. It is also imperative that the main or common goals are further subdivided into individual goals, so that every person in the team knows what his or her Key Result Areas are. Since remote teams do not congregate physically, the progress towards achievement of goals should be constantly measured. This can be done with the help of several online and collaborative tools. Setting up enforceable deadlines is also important to keep the entire team in line.

Regular engagements

Since remote working is still not a widely popular concept, it is necessary that the team imbibes feelings of belongingness and cohesiveness. In order to foster these traits, you should keep the team engaged. This can be done by carrying out regular meetings. Nowadays, there are several tools available for this purpose. Virtual meeting software such as Skype and Zoom can come to your rescue. Depending on the bandwidth and your requirements, you can schedule voice-based meetings or video meetings. It is advisable to plan some sort of communication every day to ensure that the entire team is working towards the same goal.

Instill team spirit and trust

The success of a remote team largely depends on the collaborative spirit and individual responsibility of the team members. In the telecommuting mode, it is difficult to constantly supervise your team. Therefore, in order to get the best possible performance, you should instill the concepts of individual responsibility and accountability. While group meetings are important for fostering team spirit, you should also conduct regular one-on-one meetings with your team members to provide them with proper guidance and feedback. Such regular interaction can be helpful for the appraisal process and for designing work processes.

Use the right tools

Telecommuting is on the rise, and so, there are newer tools coming up every day, to help you manage your remote team in a more efficient manner. While emails are good for keeping track and for regular communication, the constant back and forth mailing can become tedious after some time. It is therefore more advisable to use dedicated tools such as project trackers and meeting recording software. Project management tools such as Trello, Asana and Airtable are highly recommended in this regard. These software solutions can help you in aligning your entire team in terms of deadlines, accountability and expectations. You can also use these tools for commenting on the performance of your teammates and for reassigning tasks.

Provide proper feedback

In a remote setup, it is vital that you keep the team spirit up by keeping the communication channels open. The proper exchange of feedback is also important, along with a support system. Once you provide comments on your employees’ work, follow it up with helpful tips and guidance. With proper communication, you can ensure that the individual goals of your team members are in sync with your team goals. The process of evaluation can be further enhanced by setting up a proper communication strategy. You can schedule formal check-ins in advance to meet the requirements of your team members.

Final word

Remote working is the new normal now, and is set to become even more popular in the future. With the help of the above tips, you can ensure that your team is able to offer their best even from afar. The use of the latest technology and tools can help all of you accomplish goals in an efficient manner.

5 years ago