The ecommerce boom has had a cataclysmic effect on the habits of businesses and consumers, and has generated new trends in payment.
Despite the fact that Italy is still very much tied to the dear old cash on delivery – the method that allows you to order online and pay on arrival of the goods – digital payments are taking off. According to GFK research, in the period between the start of the pandemic and now, there has been an average decrease of 23% in the use of cash, while the use of credit cards has increased by 12% and that of prepaid cards by 17%.
In short, the digital payment revolution has begun and soon the cash-on-delivery system will be a thing of the past. This is the direction of the new trends that are winning over consumers: from payment in instalments to deferred payment, there is something for everyone – and, above all, for all needs.
Here are the 5 most popular ones that every eShop should have:
1. Scalapay, instalments even for small amounts. This is a service that allows shoppers to buy from online shops by deferring the entire amount in three equal payments, without interest or additional costs. This is the perfect solution to broaden your target market by making goods more accessible, while also dealing with possible difficulties due to limited liquidity at the time of purchase.
2. Sofort, buy global, pay local. It is called this in Italy and many other countries, but it is a ‘local’ payment system of the more famous Adyen – a Dutch giant, active since 2006. Through its local declinations, Adyen is able to offer an end-to-end infrastructure connected to the Visa and Mastercard systems (and to other payment methods), developing a platform that brings together almost all the functions with which customers interface when they buy online (payment collection, anti-fraud control, processing, transaction, payment approval and confirmation). Adyen concentrates all these steps in a single system and, to have a greater impact in terms of sales performance, its approach is focused on individual countries.
3. Klarna, buy now, pay later. One of Europe’s largest banks, Klarna provides payment solutions to 85 million consumers through 200,000 merchants in 17 countries, including Italy. Klarna offers a «buy now pay later» option, whereby anyone who buys something from an ecommerce that has integrated Klarna into its system can receive their order within a few days and pay for it later. And that’s not all. Klarna also offers online consumers the option to split the cost of the purchase into 3 interest-free instalments, which will be charged to the card in 30 days. Finally, it also allows the payment method of transfer to be digitised.
4. Amazon Pay, the marketplace evolves. Amazon has made inroads into the world of digital payments, and as of today, many online retailers can implement it as a payment method on their site. For shoppers, Amazon Pay is very easy to use: simply register with your Amazon account and you can proceed to payment without needing to enter your credit card number. And of course, everything is secure.
5. Satispay: many services in one app. Satispay is a payment method that is becoming increasingly popular. By downloading the app, this service allows you to pay at online and offline shops in just a few taps without using a credit card. But that’s not all: with this method of payment, you can also transfer money, get an immediate refund of a percentage of your spending, pay bills and top up your phone. Finally, Satispay also allows you to save money, becoming a digital piggy bank.
