With the influx of new digital payment options entering the market, it’s not always easy for consumers to understand which solutions they can trust. So, how can a bank or retailer reassure its consumers? The overall experience is a major driver - the more seamless it is, the better.

As technology advances, the market has seen the introduction of multiple new payment methods. And while they mark welcome advancements towards modernisation, their success relies on whether or not consumers will use them. The 2023 Modernised Payments in South Africa Report highlights the importance of offering digital payment methods that consumers can afford to use, access conveniently, and trust. Building consumer trust isn’t a once-off action, but rather an ongoing demonstration that you offer a superior digital payment experience.

“... Any partner or any person participating in the payment space must come with credibility, together with the skill, and they must also understand the risk associated; these three variables equal trust and, arguably, participation rights.”

- Source: Modernised Payments in South Africa Report

‍A digital payment experience that works

A seamless digital payment experience is one of the cornerstones of successful day-to-day transacting for consumers. Having a digital payment experience that works as intended is key to ensuring that consumers are able to complete transactions, and will return in future to conduct more. There are four elements of offering top-tier digital payments, as highlighted by speakers at the Open Payments Conference:

1. Providing safer payment options

Safer payments equal increased consumer trust. When it comes to the digital payment experience, consumers prioritise the channels that they can confidently use without worrying about falling victim to online theft or fraud. 

It’s imperative to offer digital payment methods that have built-in fraud prevention measures, such as identity verification, password protection, or multi-factor verification. This helps consumers feel secure enough to use the range of payment options available to them, in line with their personal preferences.

2. Reliable refunds

Mistakes do happen in digital payments, from a consumer buying an item that needs to be returned, to transactions failing for various reasons. The flow of refunds and returns is a significant part of the digital payment experience. 

Embedded payments allow consumers to complete the entire transaction, including refund requests, without leaving the website or app. By implementing embedded solutions, businesses can establish and apply clear refund policies. This way, it’s easier to determine where refunds are due and settle them timeously. 

3. Simpler payment processes 

Nobody wants to use digital payments that are too complicated. The consumer experience can be enhanced by having fewer steps in the digital payment process, and more intuitive interface design. A simplified digital payments platform makes for a quicker, more convenient experience. 

An example of a recently launched digital payment initiative with a simple process is Capitec Pay, which enables consumers to make digital payments using their mobile phone numbers as the identifier. Consumers don’t need to enter their banking logins or card details, which reduces the number of transactions that fail due to typos and timeouts. Capitec Pay also protects consumers from the risk of online fraud through its in-app authentication function, which speaks to the importance of offering safe payments. By September 2023, Capitec Pay had processed 52 million secure, card-free transactions since its launch six months prior.

4. Giving consumers the flexibility they expect

Establishing consumer-centric use cases helps businesses give the end user what they want. It all boils down to offering consumers the flexibility to choose how they make payments and receive refunds. 

One example of this is if a consumer buys a pair of boots online from a retailer that sells shoes both in-store and on a website. The consumer receives the boots and realises that they aren’t a suitable fit, so they decide to return them. Ideally, the consumer should be able to choose whether they return the boots and request a refund in-store or on the retailer’s online channel. This would only be possible if the retailer has an omni-channel payments platform. As businesses operate from multiple channels, the payment platforms they use across these channels should be able to speak to each other to ensure that the experience is frictionless enough for consumers to return.

Great technology is the key to unlocking customer satisfaction 

One of the topics that emerged repeatedly during discussions at the Open Payments Conference was choosing the right technology partner for your payments processing. Banks, retailers, and third-party payment providers (TPPPs) alike highlighted that the right solution, built by trusted experts, can help optimise your business with:

• Cloud-hosted services: enabling you to scale your offering quickly, and when needed, in order to meet consumer demands as adoption increases.

• Single-point integrations: allowing easy, fast integrations with multiple TPPPs through the same, pre-existing system.

• Agility: allowing you to quickly and easily make changes and updates to your system to keep up with market developments.

• Standardised services: including tools for automated reconciliation and fraud detection, which help with settling refunds and providing a safe payment experience.

• Quick time to market: because technology partners have existing solutions, and teams of dedicated, specialised software engineers, it takes less time to take your payment solutions live.

Partnering with a technology expert, such as Electrum, can enhance the process of introducing new digital payment methods to your business and improving existing ones. Electrum’s Payments solution can help you streamline your digital payments to improve the experience for the end customer.

Read more about the topics and themes that were discussed at the Open Payments Conference.