Crafting payment solutions that improve customer experience

Today, online projects account for 20% of all retail sales, and even more — some industries exist predominantly online, such as online games and slots. Given this, it is crucial to be particularly attentive not only to development and market positioning of your product but also to your payment solutions.

As we often mention in our articles, payments are a functionality that every user encounter, meaning they are intrinsically linked to the overall impression of your services or products. Therefore, we have developed five essential steps from our experts that will help you create payment solutions capable of enhancing the efficiency of any iGaming site. Let's explore them in detail.

Choosing the right payment system provider

So, let’s start with the main one. The most important element of online payments is your Payment Service Provider (PSP), which acts as a payment gateway and/or processor. Most often, these are third-party companies that enable online payments through cards and alternative methods. Not every business owner wants or can develop their own payment gateway, preferring to focus on their own product and business. This is a perfectly valid approach for most, even though it necessitates collaboration with an external vendor — a payment system. 

This company also offers robust technical support, including integration with e-commerce sites or virtual POS systems. Finding a suitable PSP that ensures efficient payment processing can be quite challenging. However, there are several basic criteria to consider. First, look for a platform that complies with PCI-DSS standard to ensure that all your payments are secure for users. Good level of service and reasonable transaction fees will be the next point. Additionally, you can consider other features that may be important for your specific business. If we are talking about iGaming websites, you should focus on credit card transactions and strive for minimal transaction processing time. It is also important to provide a high level of customization for payment pages and quick settlements. By properly considering all these factors, you will be better prepared to operate at both international and local levels, meet the needs of your users, and effectively manage overall process.

Apply fraud detection and -fighting tools

Fraud is one of the main issues when it comes to processing payments in online casinos. Among genuine players, there are often fraudsters and dishonest users who target poorly protected sites to conduct their fraud activities. To avoid an influx of such malicious actors, you need a robust protection system.

There are various protection methods that can be used for e-commerce websites: credit card verification, ID verification, two-factor authentication, and even the use of internal customer databases. These tools help combat various types of fraud, including but not limited to:

• Credit card fraud;
• Identity theft;
• Account takeover;
• Return fraud;
• Chargeback fraud;
• Phishing.

First and foremost, we recommend implementing a risk assessment system that ranks transactions based on their risk level for your business.

For gaming sites, we strongly advise using this system, evaluating transactions based on the history of previous payments and creating an additional layer of protection against identity theft and account takeover. This is particularly important in this industry due to the higher risks involved.

As experts in this field, we have long worked with anti-fraud tools and have extensive experience in combating real fraud. Therefore, we emphasize the importance of implementing such tools. Losses arising from inadequate security systems can amount to significant sums, which in turn can slow down the profitability of your business. For small projects operating in high-risk regions, a few large-scale fraud incidents can literally spell the end of the business. Moreover, competitors often resort to similar methods in an attempt to reduce the market potential of their rivals. Investing in this area will also help prevent data breaches, which is especially important for iGaming companies, as they store private and confidential information about their clients.

Leverage payment optimization

It’s never perfect on the first try, but optimization is your key to success. Using various payment routing strategies allows you to minimize the likelihood of transaction declines. Payment routing specifically explores ways to direct payments along the shortest path so complete transactions faster and cheaper. A payment gateway can be configured to sort payments based on speed, transaction cost, or risk. This may seem complex, but experienced payment specialists are proficient in this technique and can set it up to work effectively. Savings on fees and ability to enhance customer satisfaction are definitely worth it. Monoup offers payment routing development services and is ready to help your project operate more efficiently. Contact us to learn more about this service.

We also recommend using the cascade tool, which focuses on picking alternative payment solutions when the initial route (chosen by your routing) fails. This can happen due to a declined transaction, a non-functioning payment system, or any other rules you have set in collaboration with the payment gateway.

Payment solutions can be configured to consider declined transactions, processing fees, payment risks, the payer's country, and many other factors. You can also track specific transactions based on the type of card used, user's IP address, and even the frequency of transaction approvals by the issuing bank. All this data can significantly improve your payment processing, regardless of the type of business you own. If you process a lot of transactions, this will definitely help you.

Our main recommendations for creating an effective solution using payment routing:

• Collaborate with a payment system to set up the cascading order for alternative payment methods. It is important to understand the capabilities and limitations of your payment partner.
• Define rules for identifying declined payments by payment methods. Here you can let your imagination run wild and then apply it to your specific situation to arrive at a truly effective option.
• Choose a payment gateway that can integrate the necessary payment methods required for your iGaming site. Otherwise, you may need to build a complex integration that is difficult to manage.

Localization for each operating market

Creating localized content for each domestic market can help boost familiarity with the brand and be the start needed for customer loyalty. Many strategies exist that utilize localization to increase approval ratio such as:

• Gaming sites can utilize region-specific holidays to create promotional campaigns and bonuses;
• Familiar elements and service descriptions tailored to the local language can help attract new players;
• Gathering data from domestic players can guide pricing decisions and marketing efforts;
• SEO Campaigns that focus on locally searched phrases, whether in English or the local language.

These strategies have proven to be effective in improving the approval ratio of a new brand when entering emerging markets. Aside from marketing, you should also look into the localization of payment solutions and this can help you build confidence in customers since they would be familiar with domestic payment methods already. This is especially true for younger customers who have expressed a preference for online payments.

Some brands go further than others by customizing written content according to region-specific nuances. Keep in mind that 26% of the 5 billion users of the internet understand English to a conversational level with the rest having trouble navigating around 64% of all websites. Capturing this audience requires effort in localizing product or service pages, improving checkout pages with local payment solutions, and adapting key parts of websites to the local language.

Localized content means not only proper translation but also truly local payment experience. Your user shouldn’t see any difference between your website and any local e-commerce platform. Achieving this can be quite hard, but it definitely pays off. Monoup offers services of payment localization and analytics for specific countries that may be very helpful in your local journey. Reach out to know more.

Conduct regular reviews and updates

And last but not the least is keeping up with what is happening around you. When you have built the proper system and all goes well, don’t miss regular updates on ecosystem and adaptation to industry changes. Estimates on the growth of the e-commerce industry found that 33% of customers ceased their purchases after their card was declined. Only 25% will re-attempt with another card which poses a difficult problem of preventing these incidents from occurring. This requires constant review and updates to payment solutions according to user preferences and feedback.

Therefore, you have to be very attentive to your customers and their needs and timely update your flows and systems to meet those needs. Approval ratio of payments can drop down significantly in case you don’t catch something important. 

Long story short

Improving payment solutions can bring significant benefits to gaming websites, providing customers with a smoother online payment experience. Choosing a payment system provider that integrates all planned payment methods helps in setting up payment routing. All five steps play a crucial role if you want to create the best payment structure and maintain it at a high level in the long term.

The advantages of continuously working on payment solutions range from increasing payment conversion rates to improving customer experience and enhancing brand loyalty. In the iGaming industry, trust between players and the site is fundamental, so this work cannot be left for later.

Overcoming these five steps may seem like a daunting task, especially if you are encountering these issues for the first time. To help you implement the right payment solutions for your gaming site, Monoup experts offer a range of services, including consultations tailored to working individually on your specific project. Mono Talks contains even more useful recommendations, and for a detailed discussion of your needs, please contact us through any convenient method!