Multiple payment methods: Everything you need to know

The payment methods you offer at online checkout play a vital role in shaping your customer’s experience—and your bottom line. With multiple payment methods available globally, relying solely on cards is no longer enough to meet customer expectations.

Research shows that 9% and 59% of customers would abandon their shopping carts if their preferred payment methods weren’t available. 

Can you afford to lose those sales?

Expanding your payment options isn’t just about preventing abandoned carts—it’s proven to build customer loyalty and differentiate your brand in a competitive market. 

By offering the right mix of payment methods, you’re meeting customer expectations and removing barriers to purchase, creating a smoother, more enjoyable shopping experience that drives repeat business.

Let’s explore the benefits of offering multiple payment options and how to set them up quickly and efficiently.

In this article:

• Four reasons to add multiple payment methods
• What are the different payment methods?
• Barriers to adopting multiple payment methods
• Three steps to implementing multiple payment methods
• How Primer is making it easier to implement multiple payment methods
• How Conforama used Primer to launch new payment methods in days rather than months 
  
  

Looking for a solution that can help you add new payment methods in just a few clicks? Book a call to learn more about Primer. 

‍

Four reasons to add multiple payment methods

So why should businesses consider offering multiple payment options in the first place? Here are four reasons to do so: 

1. Maximize conversions by addressing cart abandonment

Offering multiple payment methods at checkout ensures customers can choose the best option, significantly increasing the likelihood of completing their purchase.

It’s important to remember that payment preferences vary widely by region. For instance, 71% of all eCommerce transactions in the Netherlands in the first half of 2023 were completed with iDEAL. In the UK, 85% of online transactions were made using a debit or credit card over a similar period.

Moreover, 17% of consumers abandon their carts due to concerns about the security of credit card data. Businesses can address these worries by offering trusted alternative payment methods and converting hesitant shoppers.

Read more about payment trends in Europe: A guide to alternative payment methods in Europe

2. Deliver a frictionless checkout experience

Online shoppers prioritize speed and simplicity; a clunky checkout process can quickly drive them away. Research by Primer revealed that requiring customers to create an account or fill out long forms is one of the biggest pain points, often leading them to abandon their purchases.

One way that many businesses are using to create this frictionless experience is by offering customers the ability to pay using digital wallets like Apple Pay and Google Pay. These digital wallets remove the need for customers to manually enter their card details, allowing them to checkout in just a few taps.

Additionally, digital wallets inherently cover 3D Secure (3DS) authentication, removing another layer of customer friction. By incorporating these payment methods, especially on mobile devices, merchants can quickly improve the checkout experience and drive higher conversions.

Read more: Top reasons for cart abandonment and how to address them.

3. Enhance brand perception

Offering a wide range of payment options doesn’t just boost sales—it also elevates how customers view your brand. For example, according to a PayPal study, 71%of consumers are more likely to make a purchase, and 62% feel more positively about a brand when digital wallet options like Apple Pay or Google Pay are available.

Offering Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) options can significantly benefit merchants by enhancing brand perception and increasing conversions. 

A study by Bain found that 54% of merchants reported increased brand exposure to new customers through co-marketing activities with BNPL providers.  Additionally, 46% of merchants experienced an increase in average order value when customers used BNPL services. 

4. Gain a competitive advantage

In today’s crowded marketplace, a seamless payment experience isn’t just a differentiator—it’s becoming a necessity. Tailoring your payment options to meet the diverse preferences of your customers ensures you offer the choice and flexibility they expect, making your business more appealing to a broader audience.

At Primer, we’ve seen countless examples where merchants achieve almost instant success after enabling new payment methods. From reducing cart abandonment to boosting conversion rates, adopting the right payment strategies can quickly translate into measurable results and improved customer satisfaction.

Take a look at our case studies to learn more.

What are the different payment methods?

• Credit and debit cards: Widely used globally and a must-have for any business. Accept major providers like Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Discover.
  
  
• Mobile wallets: These wallets store payment information securely and allow users to make purchases with just a tap or scan, either in-store or online. Examples include Google Pay for Android users and Apple Pay for millions of users in the Apple ecosystem.
  
  
• Digital wallets: Combine ease-of-use and security, with the ability to “top-up” balances. Many of these digital wallets are highly trusted by consumers. For example, according to a 2023 survey, 60% of consumers trust PayPal more than their bank. Digital wallets are particularly popular among unbanked populations.
  
  
• Account-to-account (A2A) payments: Direct bank transfers that bypass traditional card networks. A2A payments are a cost-effective and versatile payment option for bill payments and online purchases.
  
  
• Buy Now, Pay Later: This option provides customers with flexible payment plans, allowing them to split their purchases into smaller, manageable installments—often with no interest. This option appeals particularly to younger, budget-conscious shoppers.
• Cash-based electronic payments: These typically commence with issuing a voucher containing a barcode given to the customer upon checkout. This voucher can be utilized at any participating physical store or bank, allowing the customer to pay using cash. 

Barriers to adopting multiple payment methods

Like anything in business, there are always barriers to adoption, and offering multiple payment methods is no exception. Here are a few obstacles to watch out for:

• Fees: Different payment methods come with various costs, including implementation and transaction fees. It’s essential to understand transaction volume in different regions as well as conversion and authorization rates. This allows you to work with providers to maximize return on investment.
  
  
• Build vs buy: Introducing multiple payment options can increase the complexity of a payment stack. Additional engineering resources may be required, which can be costly and extend your product roadmap. Businesses must carefully assess the time and resources needed to build and maintain payment connections.
  
  
• Expertise: Many businesses didn’t set out to become payment companies. Managing a wide range of payment products and services can distract engineers and pull them into the complexities of the payment ecosystem. Before expanding your payment stack, evaluate your knowledge and expertise to ensure you can focus on core business priorities.
  
  
• Localization: For businesses operating globally, localization at checkout can be tricky. It’s not practical to offer every payment method to every customer, as many won’t be relevant in specific markets. Additionally, displaying the wrong language or irrelevant payment options during checkout can lead to cart abandonment. 

Three steps to implementing multiple payment options

1. Evaluate and negotiate with payment providers

Start by assessing your payment needs—consider transaction volumes, customer preferences, and target markets. Approach payment providers to negotiate lower fees or explore cost-effective alternatives. Focus on solutions that align with your business model and offer competitive pricing without compromising features.

2. Invest in scalable, integration-friendly technology

Select a payment stack that’s easy to integrate and can handle multiple providers seamlessly. Look for platforms with APIs or plugins that reduce implementation time and complexity. Prioritize solutions that offer scalability, allowing your business to grow and access new markets without requiring costly system overhauls.

3. Partner with secure and compliant providers

Minimize security risks by working with payment processors with robust fraud prevention measures, encryption protocols, and compliance with industry standards like PCI DSS. Ensure these partners also provide tools like tokenization and two-factor authentication to protect customer data and boost trust.

How Primer makes it simple to implement multiple payment methods

Ambitious merchants looking to rapidly execute and scale a dynamic payment method strategy that meets consumer needs globally are increasingly looking to harness the capabilities of a unified payment infrastructure like Primer. 

With Primer, merchants can integrate with the payment methods they want to offer globally without compromise or complexity. Beyond streamlining integration, Primer empowers businesses to dynamically present the most relevant payment methods to their customers in every market, ensuring a tailored and frictionless checkout experience that drives conversions and builds trust.

Add multiple payment options quickly without any code  

Integrating payment methods typically requires considerable engineering effort. It’s common to hear merchants taking several months to integrate a single new payment method as engineering teams grapple with the quirks and nuances of each payment method.

With Primer, that timeline shrinks from months to hours. By integrating with our Unified Payments API, merchants gain instant access to a wide range of payment methods—like Apple Pay, Google Pay, Klarna, ClearPay, and local options like iDEAL—ready to activate without any extra engineering effort.

With Universal Checkout, you have complete control over which payment methods your customers see. For example, that could mean presenting iDEAL to customers with a Dutch IP address or showing Apple Pay only to users of Apple devices. 

Configure Fallbacks to recover up to 22% of failed payments

When payments fail, it’s more than just lost revenue—it can lead to frustrated customers and reputational damage.

Offering multiple payment methods can reduce this risk, but integrating multiple payment service providers (PSPs) as part of your strategy can make your business even more resilient.

Primer allows companies to easily integrate with multiple processors and set up automated Fallbacks. This feature retries a failed payment immediately through the same or an alternative processor to try to secure a successful authorization.

‍

In contrast, doing this manually—setting up retry logic, integrating multiple PSPs, and interpreting inconsistent decline codes— can take weeks. But with Primer, it takes just a few clicks.

Many of our merchants using Primer’s Fallback solution are seeing impressive results, with an average recovery rate of 20% when immediately retrying payments with an alternative processor. That’s a significant boost that directly impacts the bottom line.

Read more: Banxa deploys Primer to break down barriers to crypto adoption

Monitor the performance of all your payment methods in one place 

Understanding payment method performance is crucial for optimizing your strategy, but fragmented data and clunky dashboards often stand in the way. Each payment provider uses its own data structures, forcing merchants to manually reconcile inconsistent formats, resolve discrepancies, and navigate conflicting reporting standards. The result? A disjointed payment ecosystem that’s time-consuming to manage, prone to errors, and lacks the clarity needed for effective decision-making.

Primer’s Observability solution solves this by consolidating data and real-time insights from all your payment methods and providers into one unified platform.

Observability offers 100+ visualizations and 30+ filters, enabling companies to slice data by payment method, region, customer segment, and more.

For instance, you may want to compare the success rates of Apple Pay and credit card payments in a specific country. With Observability, you can quickly see where Apple Pay might outperform credit cards or identify issues causing failed transactions. This helps optimize your payment setup, reduce declines, and improve the overall customer experience.

As well as the above benefits, Primer can also help companies:

• Minimize 3DS friction and enhance approval rates with our Agnostic 3DS.
• Boost authorization rates by as much as 4% and cut fraud by up to 30% using network tokenization.
• Maximize cost efficiency and transaction success with intelligent payment routing.
• Partner with a team of experts committed to helping you refine and elevate your payment strategy.

Ready to improve your payment strategy? Book a call with our experts.

How Conforama used Primer to launch new payment methods in days rather than months  

With operations spanning in-store, online, and marketplace channels, Conforama needed a payment solution that could handle complexity while staying customer-focused.

Their search for the right partner led them to Primer. By leveraging Primer’s unified payments infrastructure, Conforama gained the flexibility to adapt quickly to regional payment preferences and roll out multiple payment methods without burdening its engineering team.

“Primer lets us launch new payment methods, like account-to-account payments, in days instead of the months it would take us in-house,” explains Lucas Quinio, Conforama’s Head of Payments.

Since adopting Primer, Conforama has streamlined payment flows and optimized its payment lifecycle, from checkout to reconciliation. These improvements have delivered measurable results: higher authorization rates, smoother transactions, and a better overall checkout experience.

For Conforama, payments have evolved from a backend necessity to a strategic tool for driving conversions and enhancing customer satisfaction.

Learn more: Reimagining the role of payments at Conforama

Accept multiple payment methods as a competitive advantage

Offering multiple payment methods is essential for businesses looking to succeed in today’s fast-paced and competitive payment landscape. By providing a variety of options, businesses can maximize conversions, reduce cart abandonment, enhance brand perception, and gain a decisive edge over the competition.

Merchants that cater to diverse payment preferences attract more customers, foster loyalty, and ultimately drive stronger growth and revenue.

Speak to Primer today and find out how we can support your payment options.

FAQs

Do multiple payment options help conversion rates?
Offering multiple payment options can help increase your conversion rate by providing customers with more convenient and flexible payment choices. When customers have a payment method that they trust and are comfortable with, they are more likely to complete the purchase.

What is the most common payment method?
The most common payment method varies by region and industry, but credit and debit cards are generally the most popular payment methods globally. For example, in the United States and the United Kingdom, wallets such as PayPal, Apple Pay and Google Pay are widely used.

How many payment options should I offer?
The number of payment options you should offer depends on your business needs and customer payment preferences. Too few payment options limit your customer base, while too many can overwhelm customers.

A good rule of thumb is to offer at least three payment options, including a card option, a mobile wallet, and an alternative payment method like Apple/Google Pay.