E-payment as a success factor in e-commerce / e-payment
The term e-payment, also synonymous with online payment, is closely related to e-commerce. E-payment refers to payment processing electronically via the Internet and is generally used to pay for goods or services purchased on the Internet. There are a wide variety of payment methods and e-wallets for payments on the Internet and via smartphones. For example, e-payment includes traditional mail-order payment methods such as prepayment, purchase on account, cash on delivery, SEPA direct debit (formerly called electronic direct debit) and payment by credit card, as well as online payment methods such as PayPal, Sofort, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Giropay, telephone and mobile payment, etc. In addition, there are other payment methods such as the prepaid procedure, installment purchase or cash payment methods such as Barzahlen.de.
From a merchant’s point of view, e-payment methods are mainly assessed and selected according to costs, non-payment risk and customer acceptance. For online store customers and store operators alike, the security factor is the decisive criterion for e-payment methods. The technical processing of the methods varies. With some, such as PayPal, the customer is redirected to an external website and may have to log in to a customer account. With others, he types his payment data directly into an SSL-encrypted form in the online store, or payment is made by other means before or after receipt of the goods. Payment by credit card in e-payment is strictly bound to compliance with PCI DSS security standards for processing credit card data.
For online merchants and e-commerce operators, the choice of payment methods is a crucial factor for business success. In order to use e-payment, some procedures require cooperation with a payment service provider or facilitate the handling and administration of the various payment procedures. Cooperation with a payment service provider is suitable for all store operators and merchants in e-commerce who want to focus on their sales business and outsource the effort of integrating their own system as well as for fraud prevention, monitoring and billing of payments.
The e-payment mix merchants should offer depends on their business model, the customer target group and current trends. Current studies show that merchants should definitely offer a choice of between 4 and 5 payment methods, with the trend going upwards. If customers can choose from different e-payment methods, this strengthens their trust in the store and ensures a lower abandonment rate in the order process. Customers who do not find the payment method they want are dissatisfied, leave the store and look for another with the payment method that suits them. For this reason, the e-commerce environment is closely linked to e-payment and accordingly has a high priority.
