You Have Three Seconds: Why New Payment Solutions Are Needed

Consumers are not willing to wait or take complex steps to pay for a product or service. Popular payment solutions don’t always solve the problem, which is why companies create alternative tools for their customers.

Users want simplicity and speed

High speed of processes is one of the main criteria for consumer choice. This applies to almost everything – receiving information, goods and services, making payments.

The most striking example is the behavior of the audience when visiting websites. In 2016, when the mobile internet was still not so fast, Google conducted research on this topic. It turned out that more than half of mobile users leave a web page if it hasn’t loaded within three seconds.

With every second of waiting, visitor satisfaction goes down, says marketer Neil Patel. According to him, today almost half of the audience (47%) expect that the page will load in less than two seconds. “Website visitors tend to care more about speed than all the bells and whistles we try to add to a page,” Patel admits.

This is especially felt by companies that sell goods or services over the Internet. Brands lose about $ 18 billion annually to consumers leaving shopping baskets and abandoning them without paying. The critical timing here is still the same three seconds, confirms in Sleeknote (e-commerce solutions 

developer). If the page does not load during this time, then 57% of buyers will abandon the cart.

In addition to waiting, consumers are discouraged by additional actions on the site or in the application. For example, having to create an account is the second most popular reason to abandon a collected cart. Also in the top 10 reasons – a long and difficult checkout on the site, which involves filling out forms and entering data.

Moreover, mobile users in this regard are even more demanding than PC users. “The smaller the size of the screen, the greater the likelihood that the consumer refuses to buy”, – noted in the company Barilliance, which provides services for the brands in e-commerce.

Popular solutions don’t always work

Simplicity and speed are important not only for one-time shopping, but also for transactions that the user performs more or less regularly. For example, payments for cellular services.

There is no longer any question of going to the operator’s salon or to the terminal just to put money into the account. Archaic payment methods have been replaced by online payment and mobile payment solutions such as Apple Pay or Google Pay.

But not all of them are in demand by clients. Thus, according to MegaFon, there are six people per Apple Pay user today who have a bank card linked in the operator’s mobile application. At the same time, the Google Pay system is much less widespread among Android users than Apple Pay is among iOS users. And 80% of the audience of the MegaFon application are precisely the owners of Android smartphones.

Given the insufficient coverage of existing systems, the operator has developed its own solution for instant payment for communication services – rich-push notifications (rich-push notifications). They work in the same way as regular push notifications that come to the smartphone screen. But unlike standard notifications, they can contain not only text, but also pictures, video, audio, links and interactive buttons.

This method is designed primarily for Android users who are reluctant to use Google Pay, says Grigory Savenok, director of digital solutions at MegaFon. According to him, today reach-push notifications are received by 2.8–2.9 million subscribers. The operator expects that by the end of 2021, 4 million unique users will be sending rich push notifications per month, and the new payment method will become ubiquitous. “As a result, we expect that the share of people replenishing the balance through the MegaFon application will increase, as well as the consumer loyalty index (NPS) of our mobile application will increase,” Savenok notes.

How does payment by means of rich push notifications work in MegaFon?

The subscriber must have the MegaFon mobile application installed. You must link a bank card to it.
The user receives a reach-push on the eve of a possible blocking, if he did not pay for the connection on time.
The reach push displays three options for the amount to be deposited. The minimum amount is to prevent blocking, and two options with a margin – in case the subscriber has additional functions and services connected.
The user selects the amount and confirms the replenishment. Payment takes place in three clicks and takes 3-4 seconds. The operator does not take a commission.
If a person is blocked due to a lack of money in the account, the MegaFon application, unlike banking solutions, Apple Pay or Google Pay, will continue to work. That is, the user does not need to search for Wi-Fi to replenish the account. In this case, a transfer from a linked card will be the only way to replenish an account from a phone.

Alternative tools will evolve

According to Gravitec, which develops services for creating push notifications, such solutions can dramatically increase the performance of marketing campaigns and many other projects. Website traffic increases by 25%, CTR (the ratio of the number of clicks to the number of ad impressions) – by 30%.

In turn, such tools help app creators build audience loyalty. Thanks to push notifications, the user retention rate can be increased by 190% in 90 days. At the same time, statistics show that enriched push notifications work better than regular ones. For example, if you just add a picture to a notification, then conversion rates will immediately increase by 57%.

However, users who are tired of the flow of information can be annoyed by endless notifications. Moreover, they tend to open only those push notifications that potentially benefit them or make it easier for them to do something. For example, for notifications from media or e-commerce, the open rate (opt-in) is only 0.5-6%. For payment and financial services, it reaches an average of 10.5%.

However, experts suggest that push notifications and similar alternative marketing and payment tools will evolve in almost all industries. There are several reasons for this.

In particular, digital marketing agency Single Grain pays attention to the requirements of European legislation and the preferences of new generations of consumers. “The introduction of the General Data Protection Regulation ( GDPR ) and stricter privacy laws have reduced the effectiveness of email marketing. Moreover, young people prefer other methods of communication and want to have fewer points of contact in interaction with brands, ”write the agency’s experts.

The demands for simplicity and speed of Gen Z are higher than those of consumers of other ages, PwC confirms . This means companies will have to provide not just quick, but instant solutions.