Why do you need to support different payment systems

Hi, Habr.

Walking through the hubs dedicated to monetization, you can see a bunch of publications about how to motivate a user, delay a user, how to manipulate a user in an application, how to increase the conversion of non-paying users into paying users, and so on.

I will not challenge the right to life of all these tricks and attitudes, but one thing I’ll say to you boldly: screw PayPal with a credit card and sit down exactly in anticipation of the golden mountains is not enough. Very often the user does not pay, not because he is a redneck, but because specifically he cannot pay as you want, or as much as you want. Specifically, in this publication we consider the first case when the user is faced with the problem of the lack of the required payment method. Unfortunately, not everyone has credit cards, or the ability to replenish the balance of PayPal. This is a cruel reality.
')
On the website of my friends Web-payment.ru , whose blog contains this publication, there is enough information about payment systems and there is monitoring of exchangers, I think it can help you when making changes to which the material below may lead you. And I offer you in my article the author's vision of the situation.

So, each time while working through the monetization of your service, game or application, you did everything so that the user could comfortably deliver his money to you?

From the "majority" to the "minority"

As a resident of Belarus, where electronic payments are very limited and from e-mail. it is possible to buy money only webmoney, the currency of the local payment system and, more recently, PayPal and Yandex.Money, like I have not forgotten anyone, you can not help wondering why the developers do not like certain categories of users.

While bank cards with the possibility of international payments with automatic conversion into payment currency did not come to my country in full growth, the world of Internet services was closed to me completely from the word. Now the species diversity of online payment methods for residents of the same Republic of Belarus is quite acute, since in the light of recent events, international payments in foreign currency using bank cards with a ruble account for us are now available only with a commission of 30%. In the Russian Federation / CIS now with the stability of the exchange rate / purchase of email. Money and the size of commissions in the light of the latest news is also not all smooth.

I regularly donati in one browser project, now there is a New Year sale on Steam, soon a new-old Lumia 920 will arrive from China, which will have to be covered with all sorts of applications, and also it is necessary to renew the pro-subscription on several web services. All this was done by "credit card", but now what? How to pay? How to make payment to people who do not have an international card?

Lazy VS developer prudent developer

Very often, when developing a service, I heard from people about such a concept as Central Asia. The target audience is good, those who are the backbone, those who bring the lion’s share of the profits. But many people forget that the voices of the dissatisfied sound much louder than the voices of those who are satisfied with everything. The forgotten minority, which would be glad to share its blood with the project owners, unfortunately, is unable or doomed to pay fantastic fees for currency conversion, or transfer between payment systems. As a result, for the project this results in lost profits and reputational damage.

Lazy developer focuses on target audience. Provident - at all. A small example from our own practice, a browser game in which a donate can be tens of thousands of euros:


Of the available payment methods, the ubiquitous PayPal is plastic and highly eccentric for our latitudes UltimatePay. We do not take into account the payment by mobile, for the base game, in order to keep up with the others + a couple of times you need to entertain 100 euros a year. In the period from 2011 to summer 2013, they had to pay webmoney through a crutch, which allowed me to continue playing, because I did not have an international card. But in 2013 the webmoney fell off, I lost the opportunity to make microtransactions during the shares (packs worth ~ 85 euros for 9.99 euros). People like me were in the minority ranks, but we were, we paid. If I had abandoned the game, then from the moment I had an international card, Romanian developers would have received less than 200 euros from me in a year and a half. Yes, against the background of one mastercard infusing this amount for the week sounds frivolous, but everyone has long known: drops of microtransactions eventually turn into a turbulent flow, which is enough not only to support the project, but also bring a decent profit.

But the most striking example of how to do it is not worth it if you want to monetize your project, is PSN - Playstation Sony Network. I have not met a more disloyal system in terms of receiving payment and I don’t think that I’m meeting and believe that I’m not meeting. Fines and state fees are easier to pay than a subscription to this brainchild of the Japanese. Even accepting credit cards does not help: they are not always attached, and if they are attached, then, at times, with great difficulty. Payment cards also do not save, for example, I am too lazy to go somewhere and buy a box with a PSN payment card with a surcharge, especially since they also work exclusively for the stated region. Darkness, horror, pain. We play on the PC.

In the eyes of the user

The more actively a person begins to pay for services, services, make purchases in stores and applications in the open spaces of the network, the more his zoo accounts of payment systems. Unfortunately, at the moment, if the developers are thinking about the comfort of the user, then it is very one-sided (according to the user, of course). They accept credit cards and webmoney, webmoney and Yandex.Money here, credit cards, PayPal and webmoney, and here it’s generally more profitable to pay through a QIWI wallet or send SMS. Your bank card is not supported here, but here you have restrictions on the region, and you need a subscription. Thus, we get 5-6 accounts of various payment systems and a couple of spare payment methods, up to Western Union in cash (SIC!).

Why is this so? In the user's opinion, this looks like a mockery and whim of a developer. But if the author is a cosmopolitan and is willing to pay at least in Mexican pesos with a transaction from Kazakh tenge purchased for Russian rubles, in turn acquired for Belarusian rubles, then many users are adepts of one, well, maximum two payment systems. And if you think that transferring money, even with a commission of 1-2%, does not make any labor, then some may simply refuse your product, because it is inconvenient, it offends their feelings of adherents, for example, Yandex.deg, but You only accept credit cards, kiwi and webmoney. And these users will go and give money to a competitor, because he has, among other things, Yandex.Money, and as a result you don’t have enough 50 rubles.

How to make the user "good" so that he does not "float away" from you

First of all it is necessary to understand in what territory, if you like the market, you will work. If your project is Russian-speaking, then it is necessary to add automatically not only the systems most popular in the Russian Federation, but also the payment methods operating throughout the Russian-speaking "world" (CIS countries), residents of neighboring countries will be grateful to you. Those. in addition to PayPal and credit cards, you need to fasten the possibility of payment through the entire zoo of payment systems, including, if capable of, and regional (via terminals). To do this, you can fasten each payment system separately, or use the services of electronic "cash", you decide.

Never shy to write a FAQ with screenshots how to give you money in a roundabout way. How easily a user refuses to pay, he can be persistent in his desire to pay / buy something, especially if he does not want to attract cash or a credit card.

A lot, by the way, depends on the whole billing mechanism of your project. Sometimes the ability to bind payment information to your account will increase the percentage of additional services sold, the purchase of which is done impulsively (taking the opportunity to say hello to Gabe Newell and Valve). Resources that work under the subscription scheme usually do not miss this moment and even by default offer to renew it automatically. As far as it’s fair to the user, we’ll leave it on the developers ’conscience, but one thing that needs to be clarified is that the process of parting with money should be as quick and simple as possible. At times it’s quite tiring to drive in your billing information. Now I broadcast not with the words of experienced marketers, but as a simple person. Sometimes I’m too lazy to go for a credit card that is in my coat pocket, and someone doesn’t get enough of their bread with a chop. And you could get it.

It is always worth remembering that the funds from the network with a 95% probability that have just entered the network through the terminal or the replenishment of an electronic account with a card are not displayed. Very often, users replenish the balance with a margin and if you were not the primary payee, then, in any case, you can qualify for a “balance” account, if, for example, the user plays your game, or uses your application. This is no longer the target expenditure of funds for a person and if he encounters any difficulties in the process of payment, then most likely you will not even receive this residual money.

If we summarize our reasoning on the topic “how to do well”, we get the following “TO DO” list:

• The maximum variety of payment methods, from the application, from the web, directly from the store of goods / services.
• Minimum number of steps when re-paying.
• Constant monitoring of new payment methods.
• Accounting for regional features of making payments.
• FAQ, FAQ, FAQ and once again FAQ for all occasions, not all Internet-literate.

Instead of conclusions

Who is this article for? From the user to the developer, of course, not from the developer, to the developer.

Was this article a captain? And why should she not be like that?

Did she express the opinion of an ordinary user? Why not?

Does it make life easier for ordinary people if you reconsider the methods of payment for your projects and add something else? Of course!

Sincerely.

PS Yes, the material turned out to be purely subjective and, possibly, one-sided in some places. I deliberately do not provide lists of cash desks and services for receiving payments, statistics, analytics, and other charts that are so loved by marketers. I did not want to advertise them here, and the selection of the service for receiving payments should be done individually. For those who have doubts about which payment systems to connect on their site and through which services to work, my comrades from Web-payment.ru provide free advice. Feel free to write to mail@web-payment.ru.