This article originally ran in AVN and Intimate magazines.
That headline may seem like a rhetorical question, and let’s face it, as a services provider for e-commerce we here at CCBill ask ourselves that question quite a bit. No doubt countless online merchants do as well. In a relatively short time period, we have gone from low consumer trust for paying for items online to a complete “digital destination marketplace,” not only full of reputable payment processors, but one in which consumers actively prefer to shop and pay for their goods and services in an online environment. With that reality, the question really becomes, what is it that those buyers want? Or perhaps more importantly, how can merchants provide whatever “it” is?
Today’s e-Commerce
In the new world of online, what the “it” buyers are looking for might just be convenience. They also want responsive support, a quick sales process, and self-service. More importantly, they are looking to buy more from a single, trusted source. It really is just a natural evolution of what has been going on in the brick-and-mortar industry for decades. There’s a reason supermarkets are successful. It’s because they offer an extensive variety of products, within one physical space. Should this approach also be applied to online storefronts? Consumers seem to believe it should.
The Consumer Experience
Any way you look at it, e-commerce has had a meaningful shift toward the consumer. The addition of tablets and phablets, smart TV devices, streaming media players, gaming consoles, and ApplePay are increasingly catering to the new consumers and their desire for mobility and portability. Yes, technology is a driving force, but it is complemented—or maybe even superseded—by consumer purchase behaviors. Consumers want access to content and/or products from wherever they are, on whatever device they happen to have on, and at any moment.
Interestingly, we have also seen a revival in the subscription model for online content. Consumers today have become comfortable with buying, accessing and connecting to a breadth of new and existing media, whenever and however they want.
From Pandora to Netflix to The New York Times, the new consumer is accustomed to the subscription model and now embraces it. What does all of this mean? While it’s impossible to get into the minds of millions of individual consumers, one thing does become a bit more evident. The buyer visiting a site that offers intimates and toys is likely looking for a tangible product, sure. However, that same buyer could also be drawn to an online subscription for content. And merchants that provide those sorts of up-sale purchase opportunities are the ones getting ahead. After all, one source and one checkout makes for an easy purchase and a smooth consumer experience.
The Merchant Wants
As a provider of e-commerce services, CCBill supports many online markets, including the adult space. For years, many of our adult industry merchants have stated they would like to be able to offer digital goods/subscription services along with tangible products through their websites, with a single purchase. The same holds true for more traditional sellers of tangible products, as they would like to supplement their sales with subscription services.
The thing we have found is that the merchants and businesses that have taken the step to offer both tangibles and digital subscriptions are the ones reaping the benefits of more sales.
Making It Happen
So we have seen that consumer behaviors are shaping online sales, and merchants want to be able to offer different types of goods to attract and retain their buyers. That’s not exactly earth-shattering news. But when you really look at the market, some things are rather eye-opening. For instance, according to a Consumer Payment Choice study performed by TSYS, almost half (48 percent) of the respondents made a purchase with a credit card that they had on file with the online retailer that they use the most. Additionally, more than one quarter of them (28 percent) registered their credit card with the online retailer they use the most. That all speaks to one very publicized growing trend: e-wallets. We’ve all seen what ApplePay has done, and Google has now announced Android Pay. Plus, think of all the sales Amazon has enabled with its 1-Click feature.
The point here is tech solutions are being built to specifically cater to the new consumers. But not everyone can be an online destination offering just about any product ever, like Amazon. Or develop a wallet pay system like Apple or Google. For the rest of us, partnering with complementary businesses and e-commerce providers can be the answer. So, if you have a site that sells tangibles, and are looking to also offer digital subscriptions, it’s important to seek out partners and relationships that can help you achieve that goal. Many payment processors have tools and features to help, including CCBill.
Some things to ask when looking for a payment processor to help you integrate new types of products into your storefront include:
• Can the payment processor help you reach and interact with other organizations that sell complementary goods?
• Is the payment processor positioned to help you easily cross-sell digital goods or tangibles?
• Does it present payment forms that can work for the wide variety of devices that today’s consumers are using? And work in the multitude of geo-locations in which those consumers are located?
Those are just a sampling of some questions to think about, and perhaps ones to ask of your payment processor. But what about the answer to our initial question: What do buyers want? Put simply, they want everything.
They want a purchase process that is highly convenient. They want one online “store” that can offer them a variety of tangible products and digital goods—and increasingly, one that can store their payment information. They also want to be able to buy a complementary product with the click of a button. And they want to make the purchase in their native currency, and have the payment form in their native language.
If you think all of that sounds a bit daunting, you’re likely thinking the same thing as many other merchants. However, with the right partners and e-commerce providers, meeting those consumer wants can be achieved, giving you happy, returning buyers … and also more sales.
This article was written by the staff of CCBill, an online payment processing and merchant services provider based in Arizona.
