Payment Links: Receive Payments from Customers All Over the World

Accepting online payments gives businesses the scope to operate on a global basis, but facilitating online payments isn’t always straightforward. If you want to receive payments from customers all over the world, it’s vital to have simple and secure payment options that accelerate the customer journey.

Fortunately, payment links are an easy way for businesses to facilitate online payments, regardless of who your target audiences consist of. In this article, we take a closer look at how payment links work, what benefits they offer and how they can be used to maximise sales.

What Are Payment Links?

A payment link is simply a link to a webpage that displays a unique payment page. When the user clicks the link, they are taken directly to the payment page and prompted to input their details to complete the purchase.

A payment link can be in the form of a URL, but they can also be integrated via call-to-action (buttons) or QR codes. This increases their applicability and enables businesses to utilise payment links in a wide variety of ways.

You may want to share a payment link via a social media post or SMS message, for example. Alternatively, you can integrate payment links into marketing emails or place them in strategic locations throughout your website to shorten the sales funnel.

As payment links can be opened on virtually all devices and browsers, they are a flexible tool that companies can leverage to optimise the sales process and enhance the customer journey.

What Are the Benefits of Payment Links?

If you already accept online payments via a website checkout page, you may be wondering whether you need to use payment links at all. However, there are many benefits associated with this type of payment facilitation, including:

Functional with Any Type of Website

Although eCommerce retailers commonly accept online payments, these aren’t the only types of business that need to facilitate online payments. If your website doesn’t have eCommerce functionality or an online checkout, you can rely on payment links to facilitate purchases or orders without having to create or integrate a checkout webpage.

Simplified Transactions

When you’re accepting payments online, ‘basket abandonment’ can be a major issue. Understanding why users abandon a purchase at the checkout can help you to optimise the customer journey and increase sales. Notably, many users report abandoning a purchase if the checkout process is too long or complicated.

While a dedicated checkout can be overwhelming, a payment page that’s accessible via a payment link is typically simpler and delivers a faster payment experience. As a result, users can be more likely to complete the process when they make a purchase via a payment link.

Customisation and Branding

Although many businesses use payment links, there is plenty of scope to customise the payment page that your link redirects to. In fact, you can add branding and custom media assets to integrate your payment links and payment pages into your existing online presence.

When it comes to payment links and payment pages, customisation doesn’t just promote your brand; it inspires confidence amongst users. If a user can see that the payment page is genuine and clearly linked to your business, they’ll be less likely to abandon their basket and more likely to proceed with their purchase.

Target Different Audiences

If you’re targeting more than one audience segment, it can be difficult to implement a checkout process that appeals to everyone. When you use payment links, however, you can use a different link and a different payment page for each target audience. This gives you the flexibility to create custom payment assets for each target audience segment and ensures that their needs are met throughout every step of the purchase process.

Offline and Online Transactions

While online payments enable you to receive payments from customers all over the world, offline payments are ideal for in-person sales. If you’re promoting your brand, products or services at an exhibition, for example, payment links are an easy way to facilitate payments without the need for specific hardware or software. As a result, you can expand your payment options to include face-to-face sales and ensure that every interaction is an opportunity to increase your revenue.

Multiple Payment Methods

Although a simple payment process is critical to retaining customers, it’s also important to ensure users can access their preferred payment methods. When you utilise payment links, you can choose to accept a variety of payment methods via your payment page, such as debit and credit cards, Apply Pay, Google Pay, cryptocurrency etc.

By simplifying the process via a direct payment link but retaining multiple payment methods, you’re meeting the customer’s need for simplicity and speed while still delivering optimal flexibility and functionality.

Social Selling

Social media is a great platform for businesses to engage new customers and nurture existing leads, so why not facilitate direct sales from here too? When you add a payment link to your post, customers can make a purchase within seconds of seeing your post, which means the sales funnel is significantly shorter than average. As a result, you’ll find that conversion rates can increase, and sales can skyrocket.

AI-Driven Sales

Businesses are increasingly using artificial intelligence (AI) to boost sales and enhance the customer experience and payment links allow you to integrate direct sales into AI-driven processes. When you program a conversational chatbot to share a payment link following specific prompts, for example, you can direct users to a customised payment page that includes the product or service they were enquiring about and make the purchase process as easy and straightforward as possible.

Integrate Payment Links with PayAlly

If you want to take your business global or you’re looking for effective ways to shorten your sales funnel and increase conversion rates, payment links can help you to achieve your goals. To learn more about using payment links to optimise your online purchase process, talk to our expert team about our range of online payment services now.