How to grow your business with digital payments

(Advertorial) 80% of retailers consider a smooth payment system to be of great importance to their growth strategy. Customers expect to be able to pay with their local payment methods, and at the same time, retailers need to better protect themselves against fraud. How can a retailer best tackle this? PayPal offers four tips.

1) Know your checkout, know your customer

In today’s rapidly changing retail environment, digital payments have become an essential part of growth and operational efficiency, whether in e-commerce or in the physical store. Digital payments simplify things not only for the retailer, but also for the customer – who wants a smooth and efficient checkout.

A recent survey by PayPal among retailers in five European countries shows that 79 % of retailers consider payment processing to be important or even very important to their growth strategy. In Belgium, this percentage is even higher at 83 %. Keeping up with innovations such as cryptocurrencies and digital wallets is the most important argument, but reporting and transaction data follow closely and are the priority for 35 %.

After all, payment transactions offer particularly valuable data: many companies want to strengthen their payment options to gain insight into their customers. More than 28 % of Belgian retailers want to use their payment platform to better understand customer preferences.

2) Welcome local payment habits

Companies emphasise the need to offer local payment methods and integrate payment platforms with other providers to offer a seamless customer experience. Retailers who want to be able to expand internationally, are noticing even more how crucial local payment methods are.

Facilitating cross-border growth is the most important objective for retailers in Belgium: while on average 79 % of companies find it important to offer consumers local payment methods, that number rises to almost 85 % in Belgium. Around 80 % also find it important to have a payment platform where they can integrate other payment providers.

PayPal’s Advanced Checkout not only accepts PayPal payments but also debit and credit cards, digital wallets, instalments (in selected countries) and various local payment methods. This helps retailers to cater to consumers’ local payment needs.

3) Protect against fraud

While digital payments offer many benefits, they also pose challenges, such as cybersecurity and fraud. One in five retailers identifies cybersecurity as their top concern. Fraud is on the rise, with 83 % of retailers reporting an increase in fraud attempts in their e-commerce operations. In Belgium, that number is almost 85 %.

To address these threats, businesses are prioritizing robust fraud and risk management strategies. Key measures include advanced fraud protection and compliance with regulations. In order to help prevent fraud and reduce risk, PayPal’s customizable solutions also use machine learning, automated decision-making, and decades of data-driven insights.

4) Align payments strategy with your business goals

In essence, effective payment processing is becoming critical to successfully addressing the many challenges a retailer faces, ensuring operational stability, and driving sustainable growth in an increasingly digitalized marketplace. After all, an end-to-end payment solution does much more than just let customers check out.

An excellent customer experience requires a strong back-end system that is tailored to the needs of the business. PayPal payment processing solutions can help your business achieve just that. With a powerful back-end, your business can streamline its operations and access all data insights in one place.

To learn more about how to choose the right payments strategy to grow business, read PayPal’s latest Payments Infrastructure report, based on research with businesses in Belgium, Netherlands, Ireland, Sweden and Denmark.

All data is taken from Payments Infrastructure Report by PayPal, 2024 as well as a study based on the results of a survey among 1,503 merchants with revenue above 10 million euros, in Belgium, Denmark, Ireland, Netherlands, Sweden (minimum of 300 merchants per country). The survey was conducted between 12 December 2023 and 27 December 2023 by Censuswide.