What to do if customers can’t complete a payment on your website
Cover designed by Freepik
Are you still struggling with customers failing to complete payments on your website? Customers have added products to the cart, chosen a delivery method, but been forced to abandon their purchase at the final step due to checkout failure. This results in lost sales, frustrated customers, and a disrupted shopping experience, which may even lead to a loss of trust in your brand and deter future purchases.
In this article, we will explore the negative effect of the transaction failures and how to tackle them by identifying common causes and offering solutions for optimization. Silkpay helps you minimize failures caused by incompatible transaction methods, ensuring smoother and more successful transactions for your customers globally.
Negative effect of payment failures
Payment failures can lead to several negative consequences for your business, including:
Customer frustration: If consumers fail to pay, they will feel dissatisfied, lowering trust in your brand.
Increased support requests: Customers may contact support, leading to more tickets and potential delays.
Cart abandonment: Checkout failures often result in customers leaving their carts behind, increasing bounce rates.
Brand reputation damage: Repeated issues can lead customers to write bad reviews about their experience in forums and review platforms. This could harm your brand’s image, deterring potential customers.
Lower retention: Customers who face difficulties may be less likely to return, reducing repeat business.
To avoid these effects, let’s identify the causes of payment failures and take steps to resolve them.
Causes and solutions of payment failures
Only by pinpointing the issue can targeted solutions be implemented. Generally, payment failures fall into the following :
Limited payment options
This is one of the most common reasons customers fail to pay. If their preferred checkout method is not available on your website, they may abandon the purchase due to inconvenience.
For example, Chinese tourists often prefer Alipay, WeChat Pay, and UnionPay, but if your website only supports traditional card payments and lacks these options, it could lead to transaction failures and even customer loss.
Solution:To ensure you don’t miss out on sales, it’s essential to diversify your payment options. Offering a variety of payment methods helps you reach more customers. This includes those who prefer mobile wallets, international cards, or localized payment systems.
Silkpay supports nearly all popular payment methods worldwide (e.g., Visa, Mastercard, UnionPay, Alipay, WeChat Pay, and more), and provides flexibility to your customers.
To integrate these payment methods, Silkpay offers various payment integration options, including API, QR codes, in-app, and PaybyLink.
By simplifying the integration of these payment methods, Silkpay helps reduce failures caused by incompatible options, and ensures smooth and seamless transactions for your customers worldwide.
Unsupported payment methods
Another reason could be when the customer tries to pay with a method not supported by your website. This happens if you only accept certain payment methods, (For example Visa), but the customer tries to use another method, such as UnionPay or other. This can also lead to transaction declined issues.
Solution: Ensure that customers are clearly informed about the available payment methods before proceeding to checkout, or at the beginning of the checkout process.
Consumer bank restrictions
Some banks have security measures that block payments. This can happen when there are large transaction amounts, frequent transactions in a short time, or unusual transaction locations, especially for cross-border payments.
Solution: When a transaction is blocked, customers typically need to check their bank app in case there is some restriction. Or, contact their bank themselves to lift the restriction.
Technical issues
Payment system failures are another major cause of transaction failures. Website crashes, slow-loading pages, and network disruptions can all create obstacles during the paying process.
For example, after entering purchase details, the customer might experience prolonged loading times or be redirected to an error page, leading to frustration and potential order abandonment.
Solution: If these issues occur, simply contact Silkpay, and Silkpay will promptly address and resolve the problem, ensuring smooth transaction processing.
Customer input errors
Don’t forget that customer mistakes are also a common cause of purchase failures, including:
Incorrect card number, CVV code, or expired card
Insufficient account balance, preventing the transaction from being processed
Solution: Encourage customers to verify their details (card number, CVV, expiration, and balance). If the issue persists, suggest trying a different payment method or contacting their bank for further assistance.
Conclusion
Payment failures can have a significant impact on your business. They can lead to lost sales, unhappy customers, and a damaged reputation. By understanding the common reasons for failures, such as unsupported payment methods, bank restrictions, technical problems, and customer mistakes, you can take steps to fix them and reduce the chances of them happening.
Offering a wide range of payment options, optimizing your paying process, and providing clear guidance for customers can help ensure a smoother and more reliable purchase experience.
While issues like bank restrictions or customer errors may sometimes be outside of your control, partnering with Silkpay allows you to receive quick support in handling payments.
Silkpay's solutions help ensure that transactions are completed smoothly and minimize the occurrence of payment failures. With the right strategies and support, you can reduce failures, provide a seamless purchase experience for your customers, ultimately driving more sales and fostering long-term loyalty.
About the author: Silkpay
Based in Paris, Silkpay provides omnichannel and secure payment solutions to help physical stores and e-commerce in Europe and the Americas accept more than 30 of the world's most popular payment methods: Visa, Mastercard, CB, UnionPay, Alipay+, WeChat Pay as well as Asia-Pacific’s major e-wallets.
Silkpay is a winner of the LVMH Innovation Award. The company was also selected as a finalist for the "Money 20/20" Best Startup and in the "MPE Berlin” Startup Awards. Silkpay also won the "Best Fintech" awards from Capgemini and BPCE.
Silkpay helps merchants deliver the smoothest payment experience to their customers. We are a talented and international team driven by a single goal: to improve the customer experience and make payments simple and secure.