Andrew Sirianni

The words 'Christmas' and 'Shopping' go hand-in-hand. Food shopping, gift shopping and personal shopping are the typical examples. While the official figures are yet to be released, the Australian Retail Association (ARA) predicts spending of $48.1b in Australia over the Christmas period. Don't think this is all in physical sales in-store though. Given that in 2015 we spent approximately $3.3b online, a 28% growth on 2014's number, this upward trend would suggest an even larger number this year. Coming out of the 2016 festive season, it's good to look at what these numbers mean and opportunities they open up for you.

In the USA, online christmas spending is up 11% at $91.7b with this accounting for approximately 25% of online sales in the US alone. In Australia, we are predicted to spend at least $2.8b in online sales alone just pre-christmas Globally, the second week of December sees the most conversions for online retailers, more than likely due to shipping cut-off dates sitting around this time.

The most interesting statistic to come out of this is the change in how consumers are engaging online.  Based on the device statistics, 50% of consumers are using desktop, but 41% are using mobile devices - a massive shift towards the prevalence of these devices in online sales.  But the conversion rates of mobile users was dramatically less than their desktop counterparts - suggesting that mobile users were more likely to browse rather than convert (69% of purchases were made via desktop compared with 21% on mobile devices).

One element that is important is the design and usability of your site. Have you designed it correctly to achieve the best conversions with your users? We are discussing this in more detail over here

It’s that last statistic that begs the question - what’s caused the sharp drop in conversion rates on mobile devices? In our experience, the checkout experience (including payment gateway) can be one of the biggest barriers to your online sales.

Online_Sales_with_Mobile

Whenever you buy anything online, the most critical part is the payment gateway. Without it, nothing happens. There’s an array to choose from - eWAY, PayPal, Worldpay, BigPay, ePay, G2A to name a few. Integrating payment gateways can often be confusing with out-of-date documentation referring to conflicting versions as well as pricing and usability problems.

But, in our opinion, there is one that outperforms the rest and that’s Stripe.

Launched in Australia in 2014, Stripe is a simple set of API’s and tools allowing for ease of use when integrating a payment gateway into your site for both yourself and your customer. For your consumer, the process is simplified - allowing checkout via a simple pop-up or directly through your own site, ensuring a streamlined and seamless process for the consumer.

Stripe uses a very simple pricing model allowing for easy budget management for transaction costs and unlike many payment gateways, you don’t need a merchant bank account. Amongst the 100,000+ businesses that use Stripe, customers include Xero, Slack, Facebook, Adidas, Squarespace and Deliveroo - a testament to Stripes usability and scalability.

With Australian business coming out of the 2016 festive season in a strong position, it’s never been a better time to reconsider how consumers are making purchases through your online store.  Part of this should also include your payment platform and how your consumers are making payments online.

With the average person spending up to 90 minutes a day online on their mobile, (and with that number continually increasing), it’s a prime moment to ensure that users can easily engage and transact with your business via their mobile.

At DCODE GROUP, we have been using Stripe for some time - leading to great success for our clients. If you wish to implement a payment gateway on your website, but are not sure how to get started then get in touch to discuss your options. We have experience in a number of gateways and can provide a wealth of experience in implementing these into your site to get you selling more effectively online faster!

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