Over the last two years, online shopping has experienced extraordinary growth all over the world and Portugal has been no exception.
From according to the Electronic Commerce and Interactive Advertising Association (ACEPI), in 2021, 52% of citizens living in Portugal made online purchases, a figure that represents a growth of seven percentage points (p.p.) compared to 2020 and which translates into the biggest annual increase since this information has been collected.
However, despite these figures showing the good momentum of e-commerce, the truth is that the increase in the use of e-commerce ended up "uncovering" a series of problems associated with this type of platform, including payment methods that are unsuitable for consumers' habits and needs, a lack of optimisation of e-commerce websites for mobile devices, complicated purchasing processes and concerns about data security and privacy.
Join us to find out more about each of them and how your online business can overcome them:
Main barriers to online shopping
Inadequate means of payment
According to a list drawn up by the Digital Economy Association (ACEPI), ATM payments with 78% are the payment methods most used by the Portuguese for online purchases, followed by Debit/Credit Cards with 68%, bank transfers with 61%, PayPal with 55% and MB WAY with 50%.
When analysing this list, we should also mention the growth of digital wallets, such as UNIBANCO digital account, who already have 21% of the preferences in the online paymentsThis trend is largely related to the increased use of smartphones for online shopping.
The absence of one or more of these types of online payment invariably leads to the customer abandoning their shopping basket before check-out (finalising the purchase) and to losses for your business.
→ Read also: 5 ways to avoid abandoned carts in the age of online shopping
So that this doesn't happen and your online business offers the most innovative online payment methods to its customers, REDUNIQ offers you two online payment solutions: o REDUNIQ E-Commerce and REDUNIQ@Payments.
Let's start with REDUNIQ E-Commerce.
As well as allowing your online shop to receive online payments with Visa and Mastercard debit and credit cards from all over the world, this solution has no membership costs or monthly fees, and also allows you to add MB WAY and Multibanco references to your online shop. e-commerce payment methods which it makes available to its customers.
If your idea is to sell online without a website via social networks or marketplaces, the REDUNIQ@Payments is the right one. As well as having no membership costs, fixed costs or monthly fees, this turnkey solution requires no integration and allows you to receive online payments by e-mail, SMS, WhatsApp, by Multibanco or MB WAY reference and by card, Visa and Mastercard.
Complex site navigation
As we all know, the world of e-commerce is very competitive, and a simple difficulty is enough to make consumers look for another site to make their purchases. One of the most common barriers encountered by e-shoppers is the difficulty in finding what they are looking for when they open the site.
In order to ensure that navigation on your e-commerce site is as smooth and simple as possible, it's important to include classification, ranking and filter options, smart search, as well as naming and intuitive product grouping. As well as simplifying the search, these actions make shoppers stay on your site.
With more and more consumers shopping online via their smartphones, it is essential that you optimise your e-commerce website for mobile devices.
This involves, for example, a responsive design that serves the same HTML code on the same URL, regardless of the device you're on (computer, mobile device or tablet), which will make the site respond based on the size of the screen.
Difficulty visualising the product
When buying remotely, trust is an essential element. This includes things as diverse as the presence of videos, images and reviews on the product pages of your site, which help the consumer make a decision.
Without them, users end up navigating to another, larger website, where the risk of losing the sale increases. To prevent this from happening, consider including chatbots in your customer service that can, among other things, answer questions about a product or discuss a complaint.
Chatbots are also joined by interactive product visualisation technologies that offer potential customers a tangible experience in your online shop.
Lack of price comparators
The lack of an easy way to evaluate different versions of products and understand price/value trade-offs leads thousands of consumers to abandon e-commerce platforms.
One possible solution to this problem is, for example, to use side-by-side comparison tools and thus give consumers all the information they need more easily and quickly.
Delivery charges
Delivery fees strongly influence online consumers' purchasing decisions. A good way to overcome this difficulty is to offer free deliveries or set a minimum order value for free deliveries.
Whatever you decide, it is important that this information is made available to the user as soon as they enter the site.
No return or refund policy
The return of items and refunds continues to be a puzzle for many consumers, leading them to abandon an e-commerce site that doesn't have them or that advertises them in a non-transparent way.
Publicising the return and refund policy will make consumers trust the site more and consequently increase sales.
