What Is the Best International Online Payment System?

For eCommerce Success, Give Your Customers What They Want

A bedrock truism for business success is to “give the customer what they want.” This idea definitely applies when it comes to choosing the best international online payment system. In fact, a survey¹ of online shoppers in Britain found that 50% would cancel a purchase if their preferred payment method wasn’t available.

While international online payments are complicated and the number of types and options available continues to expand, the simple key to success is making sure that you can offer customers the payment option that they prefer.

There are Hundreds of Payment Types Preferred by Consumers Around the World

These payment types can usually be grouped into four main categories: cards, bank transfers, ewallets and cash.

Cards

Credit Cards revolutionized the ease of payments and are the preferred means of payment in many countries. However, not all cards allow for international transactions. And globally, they are losing ground to ewallets, which are expected to command 52.2% of all payment transactions by 2023².

Bank Transfers

Transfers are a preferred mode of payment in countries as diverse as The Netherlands and India. However, they come with their own set of challenges for international payments. Wire transfers are fast, but expensive. Automated Clearing House (ACH) transactions are slower and less costly, but there are fees that come through due to correspondents involved in the process that can chip away at the funds – and foreign exchange (FX) makes them more complicated. That’s why it’s important to work with a international payment solution provider that enables you to both accept and disburse funds via international bank transfers in every country where you do business.

eWallets

In the past several years, digital wallets have risen to become the preferred method of payment with 41.8% of online shoppers choosing this method in 2019.² They offer more flexibility when it comes to cross-border transactions, and a growing preference for contactless payments in physical retail locations is likely to accelerate their adoption.

Cash

The old saying that “cash is king” still applies in large parts of the globe. Cash on delivery (COD) is a primary payment method in Eastern Europe, India, Africa and large swathes of the Middle East.

Regardless of Payment Methods Used, There Are a Number of Functions that Must Be Considered

Compliance Support

The country where you’re headquartered and every additional jurisdiction where you do business likely has unique rules and requirements for compliance functions such as KYC (know your customer) and AML (anti-money laundering). Failing to meet these requirements can be both time consuming and very expensive.

Fraud Monitoring

It’s a sad fact of online business that fraud is widespread and aggressive. It is critical that online merchants have the ability to actively monitor and remediate fraud.

Foreign Exchange (FX)

Every new country that you do business in may entail a new national currency. To be successful, you need the ability to accept payments in multiple currencies, settle in a single preferred currency and manage the FX risk that is inherent in multi-country online ecommerce.

Integrations

The global payments ecosystem is expanding and payment methods are proliferating. Accepting multiple forms of payment is essential to success and this means doing the complicated technical integrations yourself or working with an international payment solutions provider, like Rapyd, that has done the work for you.

How Do You Give Customers What They Want When it Comes to International Payment Systems?

While ecommerce is growing rapidly, it is also highly competitive and customers can be very demanding. On top of that, there are great differences in payment preferences in different regions along with new global, regional and local payment options. To succeed, it is imperative to adopt a next-generation payment stack that offers consumers the international payment options that they prefer.

Rapyd Collect is an ideal solution because it automatically offers consumers their local payment methods at checkout. At the same time, it provides merchants with a suite of services (compliance support, fraud monitoring, foreign exchange, and single-currency settlement) that simplify international payments. It’s the fast and easy way to give your customers what they want.

Sources:

1. http://web.archive.org/web/20120409084616/http://www.retailtechnologyreview.com:80/absolutenm/templates/retail_internet_retailing.aspx?articleid=554&zoneid=13

2. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1111233/payment-method-usage-transaction-volume-share-worldwide/