There are several ways that your business can accept payments from your customers. Bank transfer, cheque, direct debit, cash on delivery, and card reader payments are only a few of the available options.
In this day and age, online payments are becoming increasingly popular. Offering secure online payment options to your customers provides several advantages to bank transfers or in-person payments.
What are online payments?
Online payments, also known as electronic payments, are any payments made on the internet. This may include bank transfers made via a bank’s mobile app, direct debit, an integrated credit card form on an online store, a payment link on an invoice, or any other payment made using the internet.
This article discusses invoice payment links and payments made on a website rather than bank transfers via a bank’s app. These payments involve the customer entering their card information online and the payment being accepted or declined immediately. This also includes payment via digital wallets such as Apple Pay and GPay.
The advantages of online payments
Faster payments
When you offer an online payment option, your customers can pay instantly online, meaning you can receive your money faster. They can also pay at any time, even outside of business hours.
Traditional bank transfer payments require the customer to open their bank’s app, manually enter your sort code and account number and submit the payment which can take a few days to process. With online payments, these steps are removed.
Increased sales
Offering an online payment option means that you could provide your goods or services to a wider, even global audience. Your customers can pay from anywhere in the world, meaning you’ll see an increase in sales and profit.
Lower fees
Bank transfers can be tricky and incur large fees, especially for cross-border payments. Online payments can process foreign payments instantly and usually incur much lower transaction fees.
Since online payments are automated and happen instantly, this also reduces the cost of manual labour, for instance, employing a cashier or employee to chase up late invoice payments.
Automatic reconciliation
If your online payment solution is integrated into your invoicing software, you can benefit from automatic reconciliation. This is the process of matching a payment with its relevant invoice document. This can save you time and money in manual reconciliation and paying an accountant to check your records.
Payment security
Online payments are very secure and highly regulated. Online payments are instantly verified by the acquiring bank and the customer’s bank.
Accept online payments with SumUp Invoices
IPSE members can benefit from 30% off SumUp Invoices Pro plan.
SumUp Invoices is invoicing software that helps you create professional, compliant invoices quickly. You can set up online payments to automatically include a secure payment link directly on your invoice so your customers can pay instantly with a card or digital wallet online.
Once the payment has been received, it will automatically match with your invoice, saving you time in manual reconciliation. Only a small transaction fee is charged if the customer pays via the invoice payment link.
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