You have the ideal product. And you might have the perfect sales page. But if your clients cannot checkout and pay, the sale likely won’t happen. Unfortunately, the average cart abandonment rate rests at a whopping 70 percent—frustrated customers are quick to opt out of a purchase. A less-than-optimal payment experience erases a lot of consumer goodwill.

Such high rates of abandoned shopping carts are tied to a deeper issue: the customer experience (CX). A payment is not just a rote or emotionless exchange. How a customer feels has an impact, from loyalty to word-of-mouth marketing to repeat sales. The payment experience directly determines things like consumer satisfaction and brand perception.

Luckily, you can fix an underperforming checkout process (and by extension, improve the customer experience). Let's explore Stripe solutions and how the payment gateway can help you build a positive payment experience.  

Understanding the Checkout Experience

What exactly do we mean when we talk about the "checkout experience"? In brief, the checkout process refers to steps involved with finalizing a purchase. It's the admin tasks needed to complete a transaction. The client has already decided to buy, now they must handle the logistics. That includes things like filing in shipping information or selecting a payment method.

Such checkout tasks affect customer sentiment. If the work is too unwieldy, it creates friction. Imagine wanting to buy a product and only reaching pages of confusing forms, surprise fees, or faulty buttons. That exasperates what would be a happy customer.  

How Stripe Enhances Customer Experience

So how can you update your checkouts? Here is where Stripe can help.

Stripe is a payment service provider. The company solutions that let merchants accept customer payments. Stripe builds the very checkout journey you provide to your customers. And Stripe has numerous services that help optimize that checkout:  

Customer experience features

First, Stripe has several direct CX features that you can deploy, such as:  

• Frictionless payments: Frictionless payments require as minimal action from the customer as possible. Think of how easy it is to tap a credit card or how fast you can pay with a smartphone digital wallet. These customer-friendly payment options require advanced technology (biometrics, near-field communication, IoT devices), all of which Stripe integrates.  
• One-click payments: Filling out long payment forms can annoy busy customers. Still, you must collect those all-important security details, even if it adds additional work for users. That's why Stripe offers One-click payments. With a press of a button, your customer can auto-fill pre-saved account and financial info. Data remains encrypted and safe, while the consumer can check out faster.
• Tokenization: Instances of fraud can ruin the customer experience. Data breaches and money scams certainly hurt consumer trust. That’s why Stripe tokenizes data. It replaces customer information (card numbers, names, etc) with scrambled characters that are hard for a fraudster to read or use. That provides high-grade security. Stripe even reuses tokens from returning customers to help drive safe, repeat buying.

Integration capabilities

Second, Stripe supports an integrated payment structure. No merchant uses just one single payment technology and calls it a day. Instead, you take advantage of the many available eCommerce tools and add them to your digital checkout. For example, you might want to offer your customers the option to use Buy Now Pay Later. Or maybe you want to set up automatic shipping rate calculations. These features create convenience and transparency for your customer (and are essential ingredients for good CX).

Stripe understands the need for connected eCommerce tools. And so it supports simple API integrations. That includes things like low-code embeddable payments (meaning you don't need to be a developer to add in the feature). Or opt for automatic invoicing with zero-code email services. The use cases are plenty, from setting up recurring payments to automatic dispute handling.  

Improving global access and inclusivity

Third, Stripe helps you access a global market. It is one thing to take cash dollars at a brick-and-mortar store. But to accept payments in multiple forms of currencies and from countries around the world requires a little bit of preparation. Each country has its own payment rules, which complicate things. And you do not want to lose money with incorrect exchange calculations.

Luckily, Stripe lets you accept 135+ currencies. It will also settle any foreign payments in the currency of your choice. And it uses the exchange at the time of the purchase to protect against market fluctuations.

Better yet, Stripe can automatically apply the correct tax rates. It can also link to the relevant authority (that keeps you compliant). This means your worldwide customers  see fair and legible pricing in their native currency. It's how you offer a global yet simple payment journey.  

Security and trust

Lastly, Stripe manages pertinent security details. This is crucial since the payment process attracts the attention of criminals. Even with the best of efforts, accounts are hackable. Credit cards can be stolen. And as always, a payment involves sensitive personal data.

But consumers demand that their data, information, and finances be protected. Failure to do so leads to a lack of trust. And that has consequences—81% of customers refuse to do business with or buy from a brand they don’t trust. Fraud ruins the customer experience.

Stripe takes numerous steps to protect your payment process. That includes things like creating organizational controls. All Stripe terminals have EMVco standards. You can choose from several multi-factor authentication options. And Stripe mandates Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption to help protect financial payments as they transact from web pages. All efforts follow the requirements of PCI-DSS v4.0.

A safe shopping cart is an ideal checkout. Use Stripe to fortify your transaction defenses.

Enhancing Stripe Integration With Chargeflow

How does Chargeflow help support your payment experience? Well, a dispute can become a moment of high customer friction. Plus, most disputes occur because a customer feels there is a problem or issue with a charge. Chargebacks and the payment experience are closely related.

For that reason, Chargeflow is an official Stripe Partner. We leverage the Stripe App platform for seamless integration within the Stripe dashboard. That means we can use the advantages of Stripe to create better chargeback defense strategies. Here's how:  

• AI-powered chargeback automation: Chargeflow intelligence automates the entire chargeback dispute process. That includes everything from evidence collection to submission and revenue recovery. Save your time and effort for important business issues.
• Success-based pricing: Chargeflow only charges for cases we win on your behalf. That model lets you limit risk and protect your resources.
• Chargeback alerts: Chargeflow provides an alert system that proactively prevents chargebacks. Reduce dispute rates by deflecting disputes before they become outsized problems (and skip out on card monitoring programs).
• ChargeScore: Chargeflow has a unique ChargeScore feature. With high-quality data and proprietary algorithms, we assess the odds of winning a dispute. That means you apply your resources to those cases with the best chances of revenue recovery. Better yet, that same data gives you critical insights into your business, showing what checkout elements are working and what needs improvement. It's a data-informed way to make better decisions regarding your chargeback strategy.
• Secure by design: Chargeflow is committed to security and privacy. We hold SOC2 and GDPR certifications and remain updated to achieve industry compliance.

Conclusion

Customers want rapid and secure buying experiences. Unfortunately, finalizing a payment can include some moments of friction. Complex forms, unexpected fees, or limited payment options can make a customer feel like abandoning their carts. Luckily, Stripe and Chargeflow can help address those instances of friction. From AI-powered dispute handling to one-click options, you can build a seamless payment experience.

Do you want to add Stripe and Chargeflow to your checkout process? Contact our service reps to see how we can help you improve your customer experience. ‍