There’s an art to getting people to sign up and pay for anything these days. More often than not, they’ll turn tail at the first sign of a registration page. If that doesn’t scare them away, the “Enter Credit Card” field surely will.
Maybe that’s thanks to widespread abuse of recurring payments: Once a customer forgets to cancel the next payment, he’s locked into that subscription, and that feels like a dirty trick from the consumer side.
Or maybe it’s just thanks to an evolutionary sense of skepticism toward anyone or anything that aims to part people with what they’ve collected or earned. How does the consumer know that what he’ll receive in the future will be worth what he’s being asked to invest now? Until he’s familiar with the brand behind the offering, any amount spent is a gamble.
Thus products, services, media and pretty much any type of subscription have come to be viewed through that skeptical lens, and the good ones struggle just as much as the bad ones. The consumer is starting the conversation with his heels dug in, and that’s a poor recipe for conversions.
LaterPay CEO and board member Cosmin Ene compared it to going out for sushi – in fact, that’s what gave him the idea for LaterPay, which lets customers buy now and pay later, once they know (and know they like) what they’re getting.
At a sushi restaurant, said Ene, the customer approaches the buffet table or watches rolls float by on the conveyer. He chooses the ones that look appetizing, eats them and then pays for them. If an employee greeted him at the door and asked him to pay $100 before he’d even seen the menu, the restaurant would never do any business, Ene said.
To give another example, if a coffee shop wanted customers to sign up and pre-pay so they could enjoy 100 cappuccinos a month, it doesn’t matter how good of a deal the shop is offering on those fancy drinks – customers will run the other way sooner than reach for their plastic.
However, giving things away for free creates an expectation that the freebies will continue, said Ene. This is what happened to online journalism. Giving content away up-front dilutes the value and does not help drive conversions, since once the free trial is over, customers can just go try the next thing for free.
Ene said that’s why it’s so hard to make money on the internet, and it’s why a different approach is needed – something like a paywall, which allows free access up to a point before putting payment or subscription options in front of the customer.
In a recent interview with Karen Webster, Ene explained how LaterPay is translating the paywall concept for business-to-business (B2B) and software-as-a-service (SaaS) contexts to drive conversion rates as high as 75 percent.
Registration Is the Biggest Point Of Friction
Sixty to 75 percent of carts are abandoned before checkout, because that is the step that requires a purchase decision, Ene said. A registration flow that requires payment info too early (or when the customer is just signing up for the 14-day trial and has not decided whether to commit to the service) only encourages that natural human inclination to abandon the cart when it comes time to put their money where their mouths are.
So why not do away with that pesky registration process altogether – or, at the very least, kick the can down the road so that customers are committed to the product or service before anyone mentions their credit card?
When you put it like that, it seems simple and obvious. Many people in the industry are talking about removing friction leading up to registration, but so far no one else has had the chutzpah to remove the biggest friction point of all: the registration itself.
Trust Drives Value Perception
For customers to give their trust to a business, said Ene, they must first experience trust from that organization. The business must entrust customers with its services and entrust them to pay later.
It may sound like just another gamble – only this time, it’s the business that must go out on a limb and hope that Lady Luck will meet it out there.
Yet there’s more to it than luck, Ene said: When customers are given a chance to try software products up to a certain point, more than three quarters of them will go ahead and pay for it when they pass the threshold of the free trial – whether that’s paying up once they’ve read €5 worth of articles or investing hundreds to thousands of dollars on SaaS offerings.
That’s why Ene said it’s important to start by establishing value. If that is not done up front, he pointed out, then customers won’t see the value later when they are asked to submit payment and they will fail to convert.
Conversely, when customers know from square one that the product they’re using is going to cost them X dollars at some point in time, it’s no surprise when they are later asked to pay those X dollars, and LaterPay isn’t getting hit with chargebacks when it happens.
“People aren’t thinking of this as free stuff,” Ene said. “They’re thinking of it as stuff they’ll pay for later.”
In short, when the customer is in the loop and in control, his perception of the experience is completely different, said Ene … and he’s paying for a meal he’s already tasted.
Younger consumers are much more open to trying new payment methods, and payments players must be prepared to offer them the spear-tip mechanisms they crave.
These digital-first generations, like Gen Z and millennials, prioritize convenience, speed and security in their payment choice. As merchants look to navigate an increasingly complex payments landscape, a new contender is emerging that promises not only cost savings but also enhanced customer experiences: pay by bank.
Against a backdrop where these consumers’ comfort with digital banking and FinTech apps is creating fertile ground for the widespread adoption of pay-by-bank solutions, PYMNTS sat down with Christina Potter, head of eCommerce at Trustly, and Vivian Chang, vice president of eCommerce at GNC, to discuss the technology.
“What we’re seeing — and I think what everyone’s seeing — is more interest around pay by bank as a way to accept payments,” Trustly’s Potter said. “It’s obvious that it’s a lower-cost payment method utilizing ACH rails. But there’s more to it than just that.”
For merchants, pay by bank offers a compelling financial case. According to Potter, merchants can save up to 50% of the costs associated with debit card transactions by adopting this payment method. These savings, in turn, can be reinvested into loyalty programs, driving higher average transaction values (ATVs) and improving customer retention.
The process is simple: Consumers log into their bank accounts, eliminating the need to input 16-digit credit card numbers or worry about card expiration dates and lost or stolen cards.
“Most Americans have had their bank account for 17 years or more,” Potter said. “It’s truly an opportunity to simply log into your bank account … and now with OnlineAuth, you can use your app and biometrics to log in.”
Pay-by-bank technology, which allows consumers to make purchases directly from their bank accounts, is gaining traction among retailers looking to streamline payments, boost customer loyalty and improve margins.
This frictionless experience is a significant draw for merchants aiming to reduce cart abandonment — a critical metric for eCommerce success.
GNC’s Chang emphasized the importance of a smooth payment process in converting potential sales. “At the end of the day for eCommerce, I am most concerned about what is that end-user consumer experience,” she said. “If you get consumer experience right, then it naturally opens up the path to both acquire and retain [customers].”
“I think what I get really excited about when you think about adoption is really that younger consumer,” Chang added. “Everything that I’ve seen — and it plays out in our data [at GNC] as well — is that this is the demographic that is most willing to go try something new.”
Potter agreed, noting that pay by bank is particularly attractive to “credit diverse” individuals and those accustomed to a digital-first experience.
“As we start to see the flywheel spinning, especially in the eCommerce and retail space, I think you’re just going to get more and more consumers expecting to see that pay-by-bank option,” she said.
While pay by bank offers numerous benefits, consumer adoption is not yet universal. However, incentives can make a difference, with offering targeted rewards and integrating incentives into loyalty programs a potential way to accelerate adoption.
“We’ve seen studies where pay by bank actually jumps up to 81% with incentives versus 47% without incentives,” Potter said. “I think merchants need to not just look at it as like, ‘Oh, I’m paying an incentive for this plan,’ but I’m actually able to then utilize all the future cost savings … to drive back into a loyalty program.”
Beyond the cost and user experience benefits, pay by bank also offers operational and security advantages. The method allows consumers to make payments directly from checking or savings accounts, broadening payment flexibility. Additionally, merchants can pre-populate shipping and billing information, further reducing friction at checkout.
“It’s a set-it-and-forget-it option,” said Potter. “Once they log in once, they don’t have to keep changing that information if the expiration date comes up or the card is lost and stolen.”
For retailers like GNC, which offers subscription-based services, this seamless payment method is a game-changer.
“We do have consumers who are on subscription programs as well. It’s not just like you are buying once and then they, you leave us. The question is, how do we make it easier every single time that they visit?” Chang said.
For merchants considering whether to integrate pay by bank into their payment strategies, the initial setup may seem daunting. However, the long-term ROI can be substantial. As pay by bank continues to gain momentum, merchants who adopt early may gain a competitive edge — not only by reducing costs but by creating frictionless, loyalty-boosting experiences that keep customers coming back.
“Whatever that initial incurrence of that integration, when you look at the ROI in terms of cost savings, it really feeds into itself,” Potter said.
Chang echoed this sentiment, emphasizing the need to offer consumers diverse payment options to capture a broad audience. “We just want to offer lots of options to consumers,” she said. “We are seeing good adoption right now.”
“Now’s the time. You don’t want to be a lagger in this space,” Potter concluded. “I think you want to be part of the start so that you’re prepared and ready to go as your consumers start to expect this.”