One of the keys to business success is understanding your buyers’ journey from the moment they first interact with your business to when they finally make a purchase.

In marketing terms, this process is called a sales funnel. Understanding your sales funnel of every buyer is important in developing a funnel management system to ensure a high conversion rate.

While setting up a funnel management system, many businesses often underestimate the importance of a payment gateway.

This article delves into why it’s important for payment gateways to be a major part of your sales funnel as a business.

Consider this scenario; if you see a Nike billboard on your way to work advertising a new pair of sneakers, you are at the beginning of Nike’s sales funnel for that product. 

If you actually buy the pair of sneakers, it means you successfully passed through their sales funnel and got to the bottom. 

A sales funnel is a representation of a customer’s journey from the point they first interacted with the business to the point of purchase. 

This journey is funnel-like because, at the top, there are a large number of potential customers who have been made aware of a product, but at the bottom, the number of people who actually take action and make a purchase is much smaller.

A sales funnel is an essential tool businesses use to structure their sales strategies. 

It’s important to note that the awareness and action stages are not the only stages in the sales funnel; they are just the first and last stages. 

We will discuss all the stages in a sales funnel and what they generally entail; we will continue using the Nike sneakers example to demonstrate customer behaviour at each stage of the sales funnel.

Awareness stage

This is the point where a potential customer first becomes aware of a product or service that a business is trying to sell. 

It is the top of the funnel that encompasses the largest number of people because people don’t choose whether or not to see an online ad or a billboard on the street; they just see it.

At this stage, the potential customer has a problem and starts searching for solutions. This is where they start becoming aware of different brands and possible solutions because of different business’s marketing strategies. 

In the context of our example, this is the stage where the potential customer sees the Nike sneakers billboard or online ad or the stage where the individual realises they need sneakers and starts noticing and exploring brands and product offerings.

Interest stage

The interest stage is where the potential customer is very interested in the product and starts comparing options.

In our case, the potential customer recognises they want a pair of sneakers but have yet to decide, so they check out sneakers from different brands like Adidas, Puma, New Balance, etc. Here, a decision has yet to be made.

Decision stage

As the name suggests, this is the stage where the customer finally decides whether to make a purchase after analysing their options.

So, this is where the customer who has come all the way from the top of Nike’s sales funnel decides whether to buy Nike sneakers, buy a pair of sneakers from a different brand, or not buy sneakers altogether. 

Action stage

If your customer has reached this stage, congratulations! It means your sales funnel was effective, and they have decided to purchase your product or pay for your service.

However, the job is not done. This action stage is where an efficient payment gateway is important especially for online payments. 

Imagine that after all this, a Nike customer gets to the end of the funnel and cannot make the purchase because Nike fails to properly link its sales funnel to a payment gateway. 

That potential sale will be lost, and all this effort will be a waste.

For this reason, businesses must ensure that they integrate a payment gateway into their sales funnel at the point of action, whether through a website or otherwise. It is crucial that at the bottom of the funnel, customers can complete their purchase.

Now that we understand sales funnels and the different stages that exist within them, we can talk about payment gateways and why it is crucial for all businesses to integrate them into their sales funnels.

A payment gateway is the technology responsible for authenticating and securely transmitting payment data between different parties involved in the payment process.

Basically, a payment gateway enables your customers to make seamless payments to your business. 

A business can integrate a payment gateway into its website, landing page, app, etc.

Let’s look at some benefits of integrating a payment gateway into your sales funnel

Increased conversion rates

Integrating a payment gateway into your sales funnel simplifies the payment process and makes it straightforward for your customers. They can make a payment immediately after deciding to buy and can move on with their day afterwards. 

This is crucial for increasing conversion rates and reducing cart abandonment because the more time customers have to wait before completing their transaction with a business, the more likely they are to abandon the transaction altogether.

Trust and security

At the end of your customer’s journey through your funnel, you could send them your personal account number or even a dodgy link to make a payment, but that won’t get you closer to your goal of improving your customers’ trust in your business.

This is another reason why you need to integrate a payment gateway into your sales funnel. Encountering a payment gateway that is well-known for its security and efficiency at the action point will fill your customers with a sense of security and give them peace of mind. 

How a customer feels when interacting with your business is what turns them from one-time customers to recurring customers, so in order to achieve this, you should integrate a payment gateway like Fincra into your sales funnel.

Fincra is the type of payment gateway that will enable your customers to feel safe when transacting with your business because it complies with industry standards for data protection (PCI DSS compliant) and takes other necessary security measures.

Improved customer experience through multiple payment options

Every business sets out to satisfy its customers, which is why it is necessary for businesses to take all the necessary steps to improve their customers’ experience. One such step is integrating a payment gateway that provides your customers with multiple payment options.

Getting to the end of the sales funnel and encountering only one payment method can be very frustrating for customers, especially when that method isn’t their payment method of choice. Customers might even abandon the purchase because of this.

It is crucial that you integrate a payment gateway that provides your customers with as many payment options as possible—one like Fincra—to ensure that your customers’ experience is amazing and that they keep coming back.

Fincra offers different payment options, allowing your customers to pay with their cards, bank transfers, PayAttitude, mobile money and M-Pesa.

It was important to first discuss sales funnels to understand that moving a customer from the top to the bottom of the funnel takes work and effort. 

So, when a business has done this effectively, it is crucial that it is equipped with all the necessary tools to finish the job and efficiently accept payments for its goods and services.

Fincra is that payment gateway that will never let you down. The one you need to take your sales funnel to the next level and get rewarded for all the hard work you put in.

To get started with Fincra, click here.