Better payment solutions for a better business!

Once upon a time, there was a businessman. He dealt in clothing and had his own website for selling it. He used to take orders online, deliver them at the mentioned address and collect payments. He was a happy man until the online world changed. Mobile transactions and online payment solutions revolutionised the way business was done on the internet. He suffered huge revenue losses. People no longer wanted to pay in cash.

The businessman was confused. He wanted to scale up his business but how, was the question? How could he find the best payment solution for his business?

Almost every other businessman faces the same dilemma at some point. The option that they have is to go online. Going online would also require them to get a platform to collect payments. And this is what has been happening around the world. According to a Google-BCG market study, 75% of the merchants believe that using digital payments would accelerate future sales. It is also said that in India, 50% of the internet users will use digital payments by 2020. The potential that online payment solutions provide for a business to scale-up is tremendous. It is an easy and quick option for the businessman to adopt for increasing revenues and customer base.

Looking at the market survey we find that the mobile-based transactions have increased to 2860 million in 2016 from a mere 224 million in 2014. It is almost an increase of 1177% over the previous year. The world is shifting to the internet for payments and is accepting this mode. Despite this, about 69% of online transactions are abandoned costing the retailers about $4 trillion every year (Business Insider survey). Of this about 35% are easily convertible if the providers improve the checkout and payment process (Baynard Institute).

To improvise, payment gateways in India need to work on building quicker and smoother payment solutions with multiple payment options. If you take the example of Easebuzz, a recent entry in the payment gateways in India list, it has almost every option that a customer could choose while making a payment - netbanking, card payment and wallets. It has recently started giving UPI as an option for payment as well. Apart from this, the transaction failure rate is almost negligible (less than 0.05%) due to the backend technologies Easebuzz uses. It has helped many businesses to scale up and has gained the trust of more than 15,000+ merchants in a very short time. The support services provided by the team also ensures that the customers making payment through Easebuzz do not face any issues. Customers paying through Easebuzz also get the option to avail 50% returns through coupons of A-listed companies.

All this combined together provides an excellent payment experience to the customers and builds the trust of the businesses on the payment solutions. Eventually, this leads to increase in the revenues of the business by tapping the 69% of the people who never go ahead and complete payment processes due to its glitches!

Isn't this a really simple method of scaling business which is also aligned to the current market trends? We hope you will agree with us!

Once upon a time, there was a businessman. He dealt in clothing and had his own website for selling it. He used to take orders online, deliver them at the mentioned address and collect payments. He was a happy man until the online world changed. Mobile transactions and online payment solutions revolutionised the way business was done on the internet. He suffered huge revenue losses. People no longer wanted to pay in cash.

The businessman was confused. He wanted to scale up his business but how, was the question? How could he find the best payment solution for his business?

Almost every other businessman faces the same dilemma at some point. The option that they have is to go online. Going online would also require them to get a platform to collect payments. And this is what has been happening around the world. According to a Google-BCG market study, 75% of the merchants believe that using digital payments would accelerate future sales. It is also said that in India, 50% of the internet users will use digital payments by 2020. The potential that online payment solutions provide for a business to scale-up is tremendous. It is an easy and quick option for the businessman to adopt for increasing revenues and customer base.

Looking at the market survey we find that the mobile-based transactions have increased to 2860 million in 2016 from a mere 224 million in 2014. It is almost an increase of 1177% over the previous year. The world is shifting to the internet for payments and is accepting this mode. Despite this, about 69% of online transactions are abandoned costing the retailers about $4 trillion every year (Business Insider survey). Of this about 35% are easily convertible if the providers improve the checkout and payment process (Baynard Institute).

To improvise, payment gateways in India need to work on building quicker and smoother payment solutions with multiple payment options. If you take the example of Easebuzz, a recent entry in the payment gateways in India list, it has almost every option that a customer could choose while making a payment - netbanking, card payment and wallets. It has recently started giving UPI as an option for payment as well. Apart from this, the transaction failure rate is almost negligible (less than 0.05%) due to the backend technologies Easebuzz uses. It has helped many businesses to scale up and has gained the trust of more than 15,000+ merchants in a very short time. The support services provided by the team also ensures that the customers making payment through Easebuzz do not face any issues. Customers paying through Easebuzz also get the option to avail 50% returns through coupons of A-listed companies.

All this combined together provides an excellent payment experience to the customers and builds the trust of the businesses on the payment solutions. Eventually, this leads to increase in the revenues of the business by tapping the 69% of the people who never go ahead and complete payment processes due to its glitches!

Isn't this a really simple method of scaling business which is also aligned to the current market trends? We hope you will agree with us!

The Players of the Payments Industry!

The payments industry is one of the toughest industries. The competition level is very high with a plenty of payment solutions providers. It doesn't take much time to overrun others. To survive and succeed in this world, you need to provide the best services to your merchants and customers. From quick payouts and great transaction rates to an excellent after sales support - the payment solutions need to be adept at every single service in this rat race to the top. When it comes to online payment gateway, the list is never ending. There are a multiple players in the market of payment gateways in India. Let's have a look at them.

1. CCAvenue - One of the oldest card payment gateways. Launched in 2001, it is very popular in the ecommerce market. With a free startup plan to a paid privilege plan, CCAvenue charges a transaction fee which can vary anywhere between 1.99% to 2.99% and a flat fee of INR 3. It also charges an annual maintenance fee. Providing its customers with multiple payment options including cards, netbanking and a few wallets, CCAvenue has been revamping its UI of the merchant dashboard and the website to improve its services.

2. Citrus Pay - Launched in 2011, Citrus has been aggressive in its market capture. In very less time it has acquired a good share of the market of payment gateways in india. With zero setup fees and INR 1200 maintenance fee, it charges a transaction rate of 1.99% plus INR 3. Despite its quick rise to fame, merchants have faced issues when it comes to support team response. The entire documentation process commence the services is also a lengthy one. Seeing all the loopholes in responsiveness and customer support, Citrus has been acquired by PayU. Its customers now can only hope for better services and leave it to their experience.

3. PayU - PayU has two versions one is specifically for large enterprises (PayuBiz). This card payment gateway provides different plans based on the needs of the enterprises ranging from INR 4900 to INR 29000 in addition to the annual maintenance fee of INR 2400. It charges a transaction fee ranging between 2.20% to 3.90%. Another version is PayUMoney. It is specifically built for SMBs (small and medium businesses). With zero setup and annual maintenance fees, the transaction rate is also as low as 2%.

4. EBS - The child of a France based global leader in payment processing services, EBS is apt for small and medium sized businesses. Though it has a mixed review form its customers, it has tried to remain competitive and not lose out on the opportunities. With plans varying from INR 4799 to INR 23999, it also charges an annual maintenance fee of INR 2400. The transaction rate varies from 1.25% to 3.75% based on the plan. It provides good service when it comes to multi currency processing and has a good UI.

5. Instamojo - Started in 2012, Instamojo gained the trust of many customers by offering services at a lower cost and quick on boarding. With zero setup and maintenance fees, its transaction rate was fixed at 2% plus Rs 3 per transaction. Started as a platform to sell digital goods, it slowly expanded into a multitude of products and services selling. It is well recommended for small business, thanks to its rates and smooth transition phases.

6. Easebuzz - Started in 2016, Easebuzz is paltform which provides integrated payment solutions to all types of businesses. Large enterprises, small and medium businesses or freelancers - there is something for everybody. With differential transaction rates, zero setup and maintenance fees; Easebuzz has gained the trust of 15,000+ merchants over the last 1.5 years. It provides varied services ranging from payment links, web stores to online payment gateway. It also gives multiple payment options including the latest UPI feature to make payments. In addition to this, it provides 24*7 support and a dedicated relationship manager to handle your account. Any problem, anytime anywhere, and Easebuzz is ready to solve it.

Some other payment solutions that are slowly entering the market and trying to make their space include - Zaapakpay, DirecPay, payment gateways in india by HDFC and ICICI etc. In addition to this there are multiple wallets that have come into play especially after the demonetisation in the country.

Every now and then you see, many enter this industry and many are unfortunate enough to leave either by shutting down or through acquisition/merger. A small mistake and there would be others to replace you. Hence it is advised to be at your best game in this industry and provide the best service for customer satisfaction. A Happy customer after all is a sign of a growing business!

Before we end, let's have a look at the summarised table for your ease of understanding and comparison. For any queries you can also write to us at sales@easebuzz.in

S. No.	Features	Easebuzz	CCAvenue	PayUBiz	Instamojo
1.	Days to start a transaction	Immediately	6-7 days	Immediately	Immediately
2.	24*7 support	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
3.	Annual Maintenance charges	No	Yes	Yes	No
4.	Differential TDR	Yes	No	No	No
5.	UPI as payment option	Yes	No	No	No
6.	Relationship Manager for a healthy support	Yes	No	No	No
7.	Enhanced Analytics	Yes	No	Yes	No
8.	Server to Server coupling for lesser dropout rate	Yes	No	No	No
9.	Multiple payment solutions like link, payment gateway, web stores etc.	Yes	No	No	Yes
10.	Marketplace Aggregator Model	Yes	No	No	No

 *To understand the marketplace aggregator model, check out our previous blog @ https://easebuzz.in/blog/

Top 5 platforms to sell products online

Hey, are you listening? The digital era is calling out to you. Your business growth today is not a game of offline sales alone. The digital arena has a major contribution to make in it. As Seth Godin, the bestselling author of All Marketers Are Liars, says "Selling to people that actually want to hear from you is more effective than interrupting strangers that don't." And this is a possibility only on the digital platform; not on print, not through Television and definitely not through brick and mortar shops, which reduce your business radius to less than 5 Km. Also don't forget the digital payments! Thanks to the evolving online payment gateway systems, cash payments are definitely a thing of the past.

We bring to you some of the best online platforms wherein you can easily sell your products and reach out to a broader audience. With numerous products surfacing with each passing day, your business needs an edge and what better platform for it than the digital world? Here is a comprehensive list that will help you in your endeavours to go digital -

1. Magento - With a multitude of plugins and extensions available, Magento is best known for its scalability and SEO- friendliness. Almost 21% of the top 100,000 eCommerce sites are built on this platform. It can easily be integrated with emailing platforms and help you in the process of lead nurturing. Magento provides wide-ranging options from community open source to large scale enterprise systems.

2. Woocommerce - Though there are a plenty of plug-in options that WordPress provides to its customers, the one with the maximum popularity is Woocommerce. Woocommerce holds a market share of 41% in the e-commerce domain. It is a user-friendly and cost-effective platform for businesses and has an excellent support system.

3. Shopify - With a share of 10.74% in the top 100,000 websites, Shopify provides its customers with a multitude of themes and templates to choose from. It has over 1,200 different plug-ins available to select from related to accounting, inventory management, marketing, social media, etc. It also provides 24/7 support through its online live chat, phone support and email.

4. Kartrocket - It is one of the rare few online platforms providing integrated solutions - from an online store to product pick-ups and shipping solutions. Kartrocket ensures that all its solutions are India-focused and innovative. They have a good understanding of the local market and provide the same feel to your business platform as well.

5. Easebuzz - A new player in the market, Easebuzz provides integrated solutions to its customers. Right from an online web-store (selling platform) to an integrated payment gateway, it eases the process of going digital for the sellers. One does not have to look to separate vendors to simplify their payments with Easebuzz at their service. With 15,000+ businesses on board, it not only provides a user-friendly interface, but also ensures 24/7 support. With 50% returns to shoppers through coupons of A-listed companies, Easebuzz is revolutionising the online arena of digital selling.

We hope that this list clears your mind of all doubts and queries regarding embracing the digital platform for your business. We also hope that you are able to give your business the right head start this new year, preferably in the digital way.