The customer is becoming more demanding and demands a seamless and intuitive shopping experience. Therefore, both physical and online retailers must adapt their checkout process through different payment methods to offer the most suitable one for each of their customers.
Spain is one of the countries that has increased the most its percentage of online purchases after the arrival of the pandemic. According to a report by Hootsuite and We Are Social, 79% of Spaniards admit to having made a purchase online in the last month.
Facilitating the checkout process and offering a wide variety of payment options is very positive for retailers, since the easier and faster it is for the customer to pay for their products or services, the higher the conversion rate will be.
Following the recent entry into force of PSD2, the European payment services regulation that aims to increase security, end-user protection and boost innovation. The mandatory application of strong authentication (SCA) in transactions has been introduced, affecting, above all, transactions carried out online. However, the regulation provides for both exceptions and exemptions that it is important for businesses to be aware of.
Merchants can request exemptions to avoid double authentication for low value transactions (less than €30), low risk analysis transactions (TRA), recurring transactions and transactions framed within a whitelist.
Exceptions are those transactions that fall outside the scope of the application of double authentication. This is the case for transactions originating from or directed to a country outside the EU, or transactions initiated by the merchant without the presence of the user (so-called MIT transactions), MO/TO (Mail Order/Telephone Order) transactions and B2B transactions.
Most used payment methods in ecommerce
Card
The most widely used payment method in Spain for online purchases is still the credit and/or debit card. On some occasions, when making an online purchase by credit card, the user may have to corroborate his identity and confirm the purchase, being redirected to his banking app to enter a confirmation code. This option for verification of the purchase by the customer is done to confirm that the one who is making the payment is the owner of the card.
There are also prepaid cards, often used specifically for online purchases. One of the characteristics of this type of card is that they are not linked to any current account, so that if the customer loses or suffers the theft of the card, the amount committed will be the amount charged at that moment.
Bizum
It is another payment method that has also experienced great growth. The success of Bizum for sending and receiving money between individuals has led to its use to cover more and more possibilities and they have decided to incorporate online payment and payment in face-to-face commerce. In this regard, Sipay announced last January the strategic collaboration agreement with Bizum, which makes it the first certified Spanish PSP to offer this payment method in multi-acquirer mode.
Thanks to this collaboration, merchants will have the option to include in their checkout process the possibility of paying with Bizum for their products, exponentially increasing their conversion rates and increasing the loyalty of a greater number of consumers.
Global payment methods
PayPal is one of the payment options most used by Spaniards when paying for their online purchases. It is a fast and flexible method that does not require customers to provide their bank details every time they make a purchase, but only to enter their access data. To do this, it is necessary to have an account on the platform and link a card to start using it.
Other payment methods
The pandemic has not only caused a change in the way we shop but has also had a direct impact on many sectors of activity that have been affected, such as, for example, the tourism sector.
The drop in Asian tourism in Spain has caused payment methods such as Alipay, WeChat Pay or the use of UnionPay cards to experience a significant decline. Until before the pandemic, these payment methods were commonly used due to tourism from China, which is currently at a standstill due to COVID-19.
Sipay, a payment gateway at the forefront of innovation, highlight the importance of offering customers fast and secure payment methods. The payment methods sector is constantly evolving, and businesses must be able to adapt to them, following the pace set and without forgetting the leading role that customers play in this process. In addition, it is expected that with the gradual recovery of tourism, some payment methods that have decreased in their use in our country due to the pandemic, will be used more frequently again.
