A new secure online payment service from Barclaycard has been designed to help firms break into international markets as they look to expand their reach beyond the UK.
Barclaycard offers new online secure payment service
A new secure online payment service from Barclaycard has been designed to help firms break into international markets as they look to expand their reach beyond the UK.
SmartPay offers local payment methods and gives the retailer the ability to brand the payment page to their requirements, cutting down abandonment rates at the point of payment.
The system also means that the retailers themselves can have greater control and access to data without having to become compliant themselves with new PCI DSS regulations, brought in to combat fraud.
An increasing number of UK online travel firms, notably the likes of Lowcost Travel Group and the On Holiday Group, are taking advantage of website translation to expand into other European markets.
However, while the firms’ products and websites can be tailored to suit local tastes, existing technology means the retailer can lose control at the point of payment.
Customers are sent to an external site to complete the payment and this can lead to them abandoning the transaction.
A key barrier to entering overseas markets is the different payment methods preferred, and more critically, the low use of credit and debit cards in countries like Germany and northern Europe.
Barclaycard said its new SmartPay technology represents the next generation of online payment technology to overcome these issues.
Stewart Roberts, business development director, global payment acceptance at Barclaycard, said the system was developed putting the consumer at the heart of the process.
“When you shop online trust is a critical element,” he said. “That comes to a sensitive point when you ask for someone’s personal details.
“For all our customers sales conversion is their key metric. They have to get consumers to their site, but crucially they have to get them to buy. What you don’t want it to lose that customer because when they come to payment process they get upset.
“A diversion will not only stop that sale but will probably dissuade that consumer from coming back and there is no way you can explain to that consumer that their experience will be better next time round.”
Roberts added: “The biggest players in e-commerce are becoming more international. Customers expect to see something in their own language, if they do not they don’t trust it.
“And they expect to see the payment methods they use. While credit cards are the most prevalent method they are not within some individual borders.
“We expect larger merchants and retailers will adopt this not only to make complex markets simple but as a stepping stone so they can expand and add new markets without making a technical change to their payments infrastructure.”
