Promoting your payment options online

If you’re an online or omnichannel retailer, you’ll know how important your site’s real estate is. But the importance of promoting your payment options at the very beginning of your customer journey cannot be underestimated.

We know customers often browse with a budget in mind. But, if they know they can spread the cost instead, they may well decide to look at other options. This could influence their purchasing decisions from the get-go – ultimately helping you to increase sales and boost average order value.

But how can you make finance work harder for your business? In this guide, we’re sharing some simple ways you can promote your ePOS finance solutions.

1. Understand how to promote finance in the right way

First things first, you and your team should be confident that any promotion of your finance options is compliant with Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) regulations.

Finance can be complicated, and the rules around talking about finance can be even more so. But we all have a duty of care to your customers and must ensure they’re treated fairly, and therefore promoting finance in the right way is crucial.

Our retail partners are offered a comprehensive Financial Promotions Guide to help them feel more confident when discussing finance. You can get a preview by reading our article on promoting finance compliantly here.

2. Add a homepage banner

With new products to launch, offers to promote and special events to shout about, you might be tempted to hide your finance options away on your product pages or even on your checkout page.

Give your customers chance to shop your store with finance in mind. We know that products such as interest free credit attract customers and encourage them to spend more. That said, your customers simply won’t be in the headspace to consider finance once they’ve already made their decision based on how much they can afford to spend upfront.

You’re also putting yourself at risk of checkout cannibalisation if you don’t promote your finance options throughout the customer journey. This essentially means your customers opt for the convenience of finance instead of paying by credit or debit card, without adding more to their basket as they already made their purchasing decision before they knew finance was available. This can impact profitability. In our experience, retailers can avoid this issue by promoting finance from the moment a customer lands onsite.

3. Integrate a finance calculator on your product pages

Your customer might love one of your products and click through to its page to find out more. Perhaps it’s slightly out of their budget, or they’re wondering if they can stretch their finances to afford a matching item. This is where our finance calculator comes in. It allows customers to get an idea of how much finance could cost for the product they’ve got their eye on.

It allows them to tweak the borrowing amount, loan term or deposit to find out how this could impact the monthly or total cost. Customers can explore their finance options until they find a solution that best works for them.

Visualising how much a product could cost each month versus upfront is a great way to help customers work out whether it’ll fit their monthly budget. Perhaps hundreds or even thousands of pounds outright might be a little out of reach, but they could afford more manageable monthly chunks. A calculator is an invaluable sales tool at this stage of the customer journey.

4. Create a dedicated finance page

Retail finance can be complex, and the last thing you want to do is persuade customers to apply for finance if it’s not right for them. While most customers will be familiar with finance and how it works, it’s fair to assume that not everyone knows the ins and outs of point-of-sale credit.

It’s therefore critical that your site displays key information, such as what finance products are available, how finance works, information about the application process, which lender is providing your finance solutions and who they can contact to discuss any concerns or questions.

Most retailers find it helpful to create a dedicated finance page to house this information, potentially including a drop-down list of FAQs at the checkout too. We provide our retail partners with a comprehensive list of FAQs to support customers considering finance as a payment option.

5. Shout about finance at the checkout

While it’s always recommended to promote your payment options long before your customers get to the checkout, you shouldn’t overlook the importance of the user experience at every stage of the journey.

A cluttered, complex checkout with lots of different finance options is bound to confuse customers. This encouraged them to just sticking to your ‘pay by card’ option – which may well limit how much a customer can afford to spend with you.

If you spot low finance utilisation, analyse your checkout and put yourself in the shoes of your customers: are the finance options displayed clearly, allowing you to make an informed decision? If the answer’s no, it’s time to review your payment options and make your checkout process more powerful.

6. Drive traffic by promoting finance off-site

Almost all retailers invest in marketing, particularly social media. It’s where your customers connect with your brand in a neutral space, before deciding to make a purchase with you. That makes your social channels the perfect place to promote finance and drive customers to your site rather than competing brands.

Often, we find customers will actively seek out retailers who offer the flexible finance options they need. Stand out by shouting about the different ways your customers can pay.

Omnichannel retailers must also consider the power of promoting finance in-store. Customers may well browse online before visiting your physical store, or vice versa. Ensure a consistent experience by strategically placing point of sale materials throughout your store. For example, window stickers, hangtags and strut cards to place at the checkout inform customers that finance is available at every stage of their shopping journey.

This empowers customers to make the right choice for them, potentially even accelerating purchasing decisions as it could eliminate budget concerns.

7. Analyse your data to improve the customer journey

Your customers’ behaviour will likely inform how you position finance across your website. So ensure you’re analysing the customer journey, transactions and finance applications to help refine your strategy.

For example, if you’re noticing an increase in finance applications but a decrease in average transaction value, this may be a sign that finance is not being utilised as it should be. It could indicate a bit more work needs to be done to introduce finance earlier in the customer journey.

Work with a provider who just 'gets it'

With over 3,500 retail partners nationwide, it’s fair to say we know what works when it comes to promoting finance effectively – and compliantly. Our team of experts, from marketing and compliance to your dedicated Relationship Manager, are on-hand to ensure you’re shouting about finance in the right way. Ultimately, helping you to support and convert customers.

Let’s create a better shopping experience for your customers. Get in touch with our team today to find out how we could help.