How optimization can help you deliver a great payments experience

To remain competitive in today’s global e-commerce economy, businesses must meet diverse and escalating shopper expectations around security and personalization, while managing ever more-complex back-end systems.

Pre-transaction: Upgrade back-end systems for better experiences

Delivering a satisfying shopping experience starts long before checkout, and optimizing back-end systems that support the entire customer journey and important metrics like authorization rates is vital.

Businesses can level up their back-end systems — and increase their auth rates — with the following powerful tools:

• Personalization of the customer experience with AI models that analyze transaction data and present relevant offers to each shopper throughout the website
• Account updater tools to automatically keep stored card information up to date, which can reduce declined transactions, improve retry success, and smooth checkout friction
• Payment orchestration to create a simple, connected, streamlined ecosystem with PSPs worldwide
• Network tokenization, which securely stores payment information, reduces fraud, and minimizes declined transactions

During transaction: Boost authorization and increase conversion rates with smarter checkout

Any additional hurdle or negative experience can reduce the chance a shopper will complete a purchase and return to your site. Even limited payment method options can deter shoppers — a 2022 study found that 68% of surveyed customers said they will not shop at a retailer that doesn’t offer their preferred payment type.¹

Businesses can optimize their sites to streamline the shopping experience, increase conversion rates, and boost auth rates by:

• Offering a wide range of local and alternative payment methods to let global shoppers check out with preferred methods familiar to local banks
• Simplifying checkout with low-friction logins and auto-filled card, shipping, and delivery fields
• Applying stringent verification schemes — like 3D Secure — only to risky transactions or where regulations require, minimizing checkout friction for good shoppers
• Managing risk dynamically with advanced fraud filters that catch potentially fraudulent transactions in real time while helping to reduce false declines and prevent chargebacks
• Intelligently retrying failed transactions with machine-learning tools to reduce retry fees and improve the shopping experience

Post-transaction: Manage chargebacks and keep customers engaged

Checkout might be complete, but the post-transaction period has challenges and possibilities that an optimized system can help a business manage and maximize.

While an inevitable part of online business, chargebacks are costly and time consuming to handle, and too many can lead to lower authorization rates. PSPs’ relationships with card issuers and experience with large chargeback volumes provide an advantage to businesses that choose to manage the dispute process with them.

On the customer end of a completed transaction, package tracking is broadly expected, and can help:

• Reduce disputes by increasing visibility
• Decrease operational costs by freeing up customer service resources
• Speed payment release with real-time delivery confirmation

Businesses can also elevate the post-purchase experience with personalized receipts powered by AI-driven insights. These targeted follow-ups provide customers with rewards or offers based on what they might want to purchase next, encouraging them to return.

Help your business do more with PayPal’s optimization suite

As a trusted PSP with decades of data drawn from a vast, global customer and business network, PayPal provides AI-powered insights and integrated optimization tools that help organizations worldwide navigate payments complexities while delivering seamless checkout experiences.