No matter where your business is based or what industry it belongs to, making payments smooth and simple should be a top priority.
This is especially true for online businesses, which have to contend with around 70% of customers abandoning items they have added to the on-site shopping cart, according to Shopify. If you want to encourage customers to follow through with their digital transactions, you need to tailor those transactions to their needs.
One of the most impactful ways to do this is by offering multi-currency support (MCS). In a nutshell, this means allowing your customers to make payments in a variety of currencies.
It also means allowing customers to view pricing in the currency of their choice. MCS requires greater resources, but the payoff can be more than worth it. Read on to find out when it’s time for your company to implement multi-currency support.
When your customer base is transnational
This one might seem obvious, but it bears emphasis. If you have a large overseas customer base, especially if that customer base comes from a variety of countries and regions, then MCS is essential. If customers cannot figure out how much your service will cost them in terms of the actual cash in their bank account, they will be tempted to look elsewhere.
Allowing your overseas customers to make payments in their own currency will build their confidence and facilitate quicker, smoother transactions. This is exactly why platforms such as AirBnb and Uber, which derive most of their revenue from customers outside of the United States, offer payments in dozens of currencies.
When your service involves large transaction volumes
If your company’s revenue comes from large volumes of small transactions, you should consider multi-currency support. Customers may be subject to greater fees for each transaction they have to make in a non-native currency. This adds directly to their costs and will make it more expensive for them to do business with you. If your company is an app that relies on microtransactions, you should seriously consider adding MCS for this reason.
This is also why online real-money gaming platforms tend to offer payments in multiple currencies. Take for example this platform for digital slot machines. Instead of charging for each spin of the slot machine in a single currency, Betway allows users to use USD, CAD, GBP, EUR, and more. This gives customers convenience, savings, and choice.
When you need to get more competitive with pricing
If you are feeling the heat of the competition closing in, now might be the time to get more competitive with your pricing. You do not need to slash sticker prices to do this. Simply by adopting multiple currency support, you can make your goods and services cheaper to buyers who are paying in a foreign currency.
As mentioned, MCS gives you the chance to do away with those extra fees that can be enough to convince a digital shopper to abandon their shopping cart. These savings might seem small to you, but they can make the world of difference to the customer.
When your customers use bank transfers
US customers do not typically pay for online products via bank transfer and usually opt for credit card payments. However, this makes the US market an outlier. According to Ecommerce News Europe, Europeans are much more likely to choose bank transfers to make payments online.
By offering MCS, you are instantly choosing to make bank transfers quicker and cheaper for those who prefer to use this payment method. You can capture more sales and grow your revenue by making this very minor adjustment to your payment architecture.
When you want to build customer trust
Finally, we should not understate the importance of customer trust. If you offer fixed, consistent pricing in a variety of currencies, you can help to secure that trust. If you do not offer multiple currencies, the amount that your overseas customers actually pay will depend entirely on exchange rates.
Since these rates fluctuate on a second-by-second basis, it means that your price can change significantly by the time your customers make it to the checkout. This might not be your fault, but it can still dent trust nonetheless.
Giving your customers more ways to pay is never a bad thing. If any of these apply to you, you should adopt multi-currency support today.
