The Philippine e-commerce market is set to continue expanding through the next several years. However, businesses that want to get the most from this lucrative sector must be prepared to meet the various technical challenges often experienced by local e-commerce customers.
Technical issues on e-commerce sites can be quite complex to navigate, often requiring effort from your web development, design, and finance teams as well as in-depth assistance from your technology providers. Fortunately, effectively overcoming these often-encountered bumps can put you ahead of the competition, encouraging your customers to stick with your business.
In this short guide, we’ve outlined some of the most typical technical issues faced by Philippine e-commerce customers. Learn about these commonplace challenges and see how you can convert them into opportunities that increase brand loyalty:
1. Payment Acceptance Issues
The inability to accept multiple modes of payment like credit cards, debit cards, digital wallets, or QR Ph can convince your site’s visitors to buy their items elsewhere. To seamlessly accept all digital payments online, sign up for Maya Business and activate Maya Checkout. Maya Checkout easily integrates into your e-commerce website to facilitate all digital payments accepted in the Philippines, ensuring more of your site’s visitors convert into paying customers.
For customers that prefer in-person payments, you can offer cashless on delivery with a Maya Terminal or Maya Terminal Lite. These payment terminal devices offer multiple connectivity options and facilitate all key digital payments so you can accommodate any customer preference, anywhere your customers are.
Indeed, Maya Checkout and Maya payment terminal machines can help you effectively solve your e-commerce business’s payment acceptance challenges.
2. Website Downtime
Slow or unresponsive websites can lead to lost sales and a damaged reputation. Mitigate these problems by using a cloud hosting service with a good uptime record. Hire a good web development team that understands user experience issues to optimize backend code for better loading times and improved visitor capacity. Have your IT and marketing team regularly monitor your website's performance, and have a contingency plan in place to mitigate the damage of extended downtimes.
3. Mobile Optimization
In the Philippines, the vast majority of e-commerce product discoveries and sales are now primarily made through mobile devices. As Philippine customers become more accustomed to using their smartphones for more daily tasks, keeping your site optimized for mobile devices will be a necessary part of keeping it competitive.
To avoid mobile optimization problems like difficult-to-fill online forms and slow-loading elements, prioritize delivering a good experience on small screens. Use simplified navigation with larger buttons and avoid data-heavy elements to ensure a seamless experience on smartphones, even in areas with limited internet connectivity. Make it a point to regularly test your site on various devices to ensure that it remains consistently mobile-friendly.
4. Complex Checkout Processes
A complicated checkout process can deter site visitors from completing their purchases, leading to cart abandonments and poor customer loyalty. Solving this may require your web development, design, marketing, and content teams to go back to the drawing board to build a new version of your site with a simplified process.
Some things you can try include:
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- Minimizing the number of steps required to complete a purchase
- Including a process progress bar to inform visitors where they are in the checkout process
- Offering anonymous guest checkout options
- Implementing auto-fill forms
- Facilitating multiple payment methods with Maya Checkout
6. Product Return and Refund Complications
E-commerce customers are now increasingly becoming used to simplified product return and refund processes. Not having a clear return and refund process on your own site may eventually lead to dissatisfied customers and negative outcomes for your brand.
Avoid these pitfalls by creating straightforward return and refund policies that are easy for customers to understand. For returns, keep the process simple, and partner with a courier that has a good reputation for accepting returns. If you have to provide refunds, don’t make the customer wait for several business days, and find ways to immediately make it up to them. Consider further developing your customer service capabilities so that you can address return and refund issues without further antagonizing customers.
7. Security Concerns
Philippine customers are also increasingly becoming aware of the importance of safeguarding their personal and financial information when shopping online. If your website sets off warnings from visitors’ browsers, it’s unlikely they will complete a purchase.
To avoid typical site security issues, implement industry-standard security measures such as SSL certificates, and use secure payment gateways like Maya Checkout. You can further increase your site’s trustworthiness to both visitors and search engine bots by displaying trust-building elements like genuine reviews and security certifications from trusted third-party organizations on your website.
Expand Your E-Commerce Site’s Horizons with Maya Payment Solutions
Offer your online customers the shopping convenience they deserve with Maya Business solutions. With Maya Business, your e-commerce site can accept all online customer payments, removing a major technical hurdle in building a winning customer experience. Sign up for Maya Business to order a Maya Terminal device and to integrate Maya Checkout into your e-commerce site.
Signing up for Maya Business immediately gives you a high-performance Maya Business Deposit account for settling payments made through your Maya Checkout and Maya payment terminal machine. Your Maya Business Deposit account comes with an industry-leading 2.5% per annum interest rate, ensuring you will earn PHP 25,000 yearly on each PHP 1 million deposit. Maya Business Deposit also provides free InstaPay and PESONet transfers, letting you save on fees when you pay partners and suppliers.
Signing up also qualifies you for a Maya Flexi Loan offer valued up to PHP 2 million in just 3 months. Use your Maya Flexi Loan to develop a reliable e-commerce site that keeps your customers coming back. For bigger and better loan offers, just use Maya as your primary processor for all wallet and card payments.
Complete your Maya Business application today to activate Maya Checkout and to order a Maya.
