As is the case with people, in business no two companies are exactly alike.
And neither are their paths through the digital age.
After all, crafting the means to an end — where bringing consumers and customers on board to browse, click and buy or subscribe — can vary wildly depending on the vertical, depending on the audience and whether the business is D2C or B2B, a platform or an online storefront.
In the “Digital Payments Flip the Script: 10 Merchants and 10 Visions for Digital Transformation” series, a PYMNTS and PayPal collaboration, we queried executives from healthcare (Walgreens), firms focused on food (Food52), high fashion and beyond to get a sense of what it takes to craft a winning payment strategy.
There were some common threads. Speed matters, and so does convenience. The same goes for an omnichannel approach flexible enough to meet consumers where they want to be met — in-store, online and through a melding of the two.
As J.C. Penny Chief Digital and Transformation Officer Katie Mullen told PYMNTS’ Karen Webster: “Some of the things that we are experiencing right now, I think, are the product of many years of transition … that customers walk around physical stores with their phone open, with an app open, and they’re looking at a listing on their app or on mobile website at the same time as they’re looking at physical product.”
Along the way, payments choice is becoming an important consideration for any merchant. After all, having several options — and, importantly, the right options, such as buy now, pay later (BNPL) – on hand can mean the difference between making the sale or losing out to a competitor. Payments wind up becoming embedded into the mix and in some cases become almost invisible.
For merchants that get it right — placing payments and commerce in context and bringing the two together in a way that focuses on the consumer journey — the payoff can be huge. Not just in terms of topline torque but in terms of bringing together online ecosystems that have relatively low customer acquisition costs and long customer lifetime values. Download our eBook for details.
