How to quickly adapt your business to sell remotely

Back in the hazy summer of 2019, it was predicted that global eCommerce sales would increase by 16% in 2020. Since then, the world has turned upside-down. Stores and restaurants are dark and shopping streets are silent. But, with grocery leading the charge, eCommerce growth is accelerating. And a new stay-at-home economy is thriving as businesses embrace digital sales channels and selling remotely becomes more urgent than ever.

Frontastic technology partner Adyen offers useful tips on how to get an online business up and running as fast as possible.

The COVID-19 crisis is unfolding before our eyes and business conditions are changing almost day by day. Now, more than ever, there’s a need for businesses to move fast. Over the past weeks, we’ve seen many of our customers transform themselves in record time, setting up new sales channels in a matter of days.

During these unprecedented times, the focus is on helping businesses adapt as 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.

Many businesses have 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 include secure customer authentication where 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.

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.