Not all consumers and webshops have welcomed the option to pay later through Klarna or Afterpay. Webshops are particularly concerned about susceptibility to fraud, whereas consumers are not entirely sure how retrospective payments work. However, webshops and consumers are gradually becoming less and less concerned about these issues. The retrospective payment option is becoming more and more popular. On average, retrospective payment options showed the highest rate of growth over past year compared to all other payment options.
Are webshops obliged to offer retrospective payment?
As a webshop, you are obliged to offer a payment solution that allows the customer to pay at least 50% later. This only applies to webshops that sell products to consumers. You can easily meet this obligation. At the moment, various service providers make it easy for you to offer retrospective payment at your webshop’s checkout.
Not all webshop owners are convinced by the option to offer a retrospective payment option through one of the service providers. After all, there are quite some costs involved per transaction. However, these parties do ensure that you don’t spend time and energy carrying out customer credit checks and dealing with collection problems. So there are still reservations about outsourcing retrospective payment as a payment option. That’s why we explored this for you and formed our own opinion about it!
Our thoughts on offering retrospective payment.
- At the moment, offering retrospective payment seems to be one of the most expensive payment solutions for webshops. You could recover the costs that you incur from your customers in addition to shipping costs, for example. However, remember that the fee you ask for may not exceed the actual costs you incur.
- A study by Thuiswinkel.org shows that only 2-3% of retrospective payments are never paid. That’s not a very high percentage, and as a online retailer you don’t need to worry about it if you use the services of Klarna or Afterpay, for example. After all, you are paying a fee and in turn transferring the financial risk and any other action that needs to be taken.
- Paying retrospectively allows consumers to order something and try it out at home before deciding whether or not to keep the order. This is a godsend for consumers – especially when it comes to clothing products. It allows them to try on the items they order before paying. This significantly lowers the threshold for making a purchase. As a result, customer experiences a very positive level of the service and convenience through your webshop. In other words, it will improve the customer experience and boost your sales!
- Following on from the point above, one consequence is that paying retrospectively results in more returns. Consumers can order multiple products and return the products they do not want to keep. However, research has shown that this eventually results in consumers ordering more than they return. Ultimately, this is a good thing for your webshop. We also found that customers who can return items end up coming back. This is also good for your webshop.
- Parties such as Klarna and Afterpay provide a system that prevents as much identity fraud as possible and also carries out lots of risk assessments – so you don’t have to worry about it. They do this in order to protect webshop owners on the one hand and consumers on the other.
Conclusion
Online retailers and consumers are placing more and more trust in retrospective payment, as evidenced by the growing popularity of this payment option – especially when providers such as Klarna and Afterpay are involved. That’s understandable. In our opinion, offering retrospective payment through one of those parties is a good solution. On the one hand, they enable you to meet your obligations as a webshop and on the other hand, they take on the responsibility for any action that might need to be taken. It means you don’t have to worry about customers defaulting on payments or potential fraud.
Now we’re curious! Do you offer a retrospective payment option, and do you use a service provider to do so? Let us know – you can always contact us.