How to choose the best payment solution for your online store

Setting up an online store is easier than ever, but to achieve the best results, it's crucial to carefully consider your needs to avoid stalling your growth. A key part of building a successful online store is selecting the right payment solution. Coop Pank’s Head of Everyday Business Banking, Erje Mettas, shares insights on how to choose the best payment solution for your online store.

You may have an excellent product, but if your online store doesn’t instill confidence or the customer has to jump through hoops to make a payment, they are more likely to turn to a competitor for their needs. Therefore, every successful online store should have payment options that build customer confidence and allow them to pay in their preferred way. How can you achieve that?

Estonians still love using bank links when shopping online. Therefore, the online store’s payment solution should provide access to bank links from all Estonian banks. While this may seem obvious, some foreign e-commerce platforms and payment providers still do not offer this option.

More and more customers use card payments for online purchases. Consequently, nearly half of online merchants expect card payment options from their service providers. Card payments are especially important for businesses selling durable goods directly to consumers, as some banks offer purchase insurance with credit cards. Not having a card payment option might lead customers to choose a different online store where they can get this added security without extra cost.

If you do business outside of Estonia, you should cover international payment services like PayPal, as foreign customers may hesitate to enter their card details on a lesser-known Estonian internet store. Estonian shoppers have also increasingly adopted Apple Pay and Google Pay. Some merchants still value offering payment by invoice, so covering as many payment methods as possible helps prevent transaction abandonment due to the lack of a suitable payment option.

Experienced online shop owners know how critical payment conversion is—that is, ensuring you don’t lose customers who have added items to their cart. The simpler the design and faster the technology supporting the payment process, the fewer customers abandon their cart before completing the purchase. Choose a service provider that minimizes the steps a customer has to go through to make a purchase.

To better understand the customer experience, go through the entire purchase process from start to finish. This includes actually completing a purchase and paying for it. This can reveal any issues with the current solution that simply adding items to the cart might not uncover.

Local payment solutions are generally faster than foreign ones and are tailored to meet the needs of the domestic market. An added benefit of choosing an Estonian service provider is the convenience of communicating in your native language and customer support that operates in the same time zone. This reduces the chance of anything being lost in translation and allows for smoother problem-solving.

Alongside ease of use, the price of the service plays a significant role when choosing a payment provider. Payments should be affordable without high fixed costs. High fees are one of the main reasons businesses may drop a payment service provider. Reasonable fees benefit both the merchant and the customer. Typically, all transaction costs are factored into the product price, which the customer ultimately pays. Lower costs allow for more competitive product pricing, giving an edge over competitors.

For a long time, there wasn’t much competition among payment providers. However, the market now includes domestic providers that offer user-friendly services at affordable prices. To help businesses grow faster with lower costs, Coop Pank has partnered with the local payment and delivery solution provider Montonio through a merchant bonus program. Merchants who join the program receive a bonus from Coop Pank for using Montonio’s payment solution, covering up to 200 payments per month.

When choosing a payment provider, consider your brand development as well. Keep in mind that a payment solution supporting the merchant’s visual identity is more memorable to the customer and fosters greater trust. Montonio, as a solution provider targeted at businesses, has this capability, which is actively used by merchants.

It’s good to note that switching payment solutions is often easier than expected. For example, if you’re using WordPress and WooCommerce, you only need to remove one provider’s plugin and replace it with another. The same applies to template-based platforms like Voog and Shoproller. Changing the payment solution of an online store usually takes only a few minutes.

Read more about the Coop Pank and Montonio bonus program here!