Quickly adapt your business to sell remotely

Back in the hazy summer of 2019, it was predicted thatglobal ecommerce sales would increase by 16%in 2020. Since then, the world has turned upside-down.  Stores and restaurants that had once gone silent are steadily returning to the new normal. Withgrocery leading the charge, ecommerce growth is accelerating. And a newstay-at-home economyhas thrived as businesses have embraced digital sales channels.

The COVID-19 crisis unfolded before our eyes and business conditions changed almost day-by-day. Since the pandemic, businesses are ready to move fast. We've seen many of our customers transform themselves in record time, setting up new sales channels in a matter of days.

Our focus remains on helping businesses adapt quickly as possible, setting up new sales channels or dealing with a sudden spike in refunds and returns. As a part of that, here are some best practices for remote selling that will keep your customers and employees safe and your payments secure.

It’s possible to turn your existing website into a webshop quickly by setting up a hosted checkout page. This is the fastest way to manage online sales if you don't want to host your own payment form. The page is branded to match your site and has all the functionality you need including built-in risk checks and secure authentication. You can also choose to display a targeted mix of payment methods based on the customer’s location.

We’re currently working with a high-street beauty retailer to ensure shoppers are still able to access their favorite items during the lockdown.

If you previously relied on the personal touch, your team can now sell remotely to loyal customers via email or live chat. This can be done securely with a payment link that's pasted into the email or chat thread.

One luxury retailer is using this solution to make online sales during customer support calls. And a high-end watch retailer uses it so customers can pay for bespoke or limited-edition timepieces that they previously collected in store.

Luxury jewelry retailer,Monica Vinader, also uses payment links to sell to customers during live chat sessions. They use it to cover additions to existing orders, like shipping upgrades, and services not available through its website, such as repair services.

Many businesses had to shut down their call centers to keep their teams safe. And, while a call can be taken from anywhere, payments require a secure environment to capture payment details in a compliant way. Fraudsters may well target remote call centers since the unsupervised transactions can be vulnerable. But, by issuing the customer with a payment link, the payment becomes an ecommerce transaction. So it’s protected by your online risk settings which includesecure customer authenticationwhere necessary.

Example: A large coffee supplier was faced with closing its call center, at a time when orders for coffee were increasing due to people working from home. But, by using payment links, sales agents can take calls from their homes, texting payment links to customers during the call. They receive a notification once the payment is complete and the order is shipped.

As we get back to business-as-usual at a time when people are still wary, we have to adopt safe measures.

One luxury retailer, for instance, is supporting distant-selling from stores once they’ve reopened. In-store staff notify regular shoppers of items in-stock and issue a payment link once a shopper is ready to buy. The items are then delivered to the shopper’s home the same day, keeping contact to a minimum but still providing the instant gratification of an in-store experience. In another example, a leading toy manufacturer is using payment links to allow customers access to stock from local stores while still keeping their distance.

In another example, a leading toy manufacturer is using payment links to allow customers access to stock from local stores while still keeping their distance.

Payment links can also be used to ensure a smooth money flow between you and your corporate clients and suppliers.

L’Occitane is using it for wholesale invoices. So when hotels buy their products and wish to pay by corporate card, L’Occitane issues a payment link. And Christian Louboutin equips its cobblers with payment links that can be issued directly to the customer once shoe repair is complete.

To make it easy for businesses to create secure payment links for selling remotely, we developedPay by Link.It’s incredibly simple and can be implemented with very little development and integration work.

To use Pay by Link, you just need to create a payment page from the Adyen Dashboard using drag-and-drop elements and upload your branded assets. You can then either set up links manually to create one-off payment pages. Or you can create links automatically where your system pings our Checkout API with payment details such as country, currency, amount, and link expiration date. A link is then generated and embedded in whichever communication channel you choose.

You can also choose to create one-off links, which helps to limit mistakes as well as track and reward your sales team. Or you can create a multi-use link, which can be shared to multiple customers via a newsletter or social media post.

Learn more in our documentation.

Our priority is to help businesses with the challenges they are facing at the moment. If you need advice on how Pay by Link could help your business, or you’d like to explore other solutions for selling remotely, please get in touch. If you are an existing Adyen customer you can contact your account manager or customer success manager,chat to sales support,or click below for more information.