Which payment methods exist?
Payment glossary
find the right payment methods
The area of payment services has been the strongest growth market in online business for years. New innovations come onto the market every year and new payment methods can be offered to customers.
Some new methods are fads, others have been successful for years and are an indispensable part of most online shops. But which types of payment are there? Here is a short overview:
Classics payment methods
There are still classic payment methods that have been on the market for decades and that will continue to be very dominant.
This includes the SEPA direct debit (the electronic direct debit system). The buyer gives the seller a permission to collect the transaction amount from his bank account.
The safest and cheapest means of payment for the seller is prepayment or bank transfer. Meanwhile, it is also known as a SEPA transfer. The buyer pays for the goods using a classic bank transfer before the merchant ships the ordered item. A payment default is thus virtually excluded.
The most recent payment method in this category (and still a classic) is credit card. When ordering, the buyer will disclose his credit card details, the transaction amount will be charged to the specified credit card and the item can be sent directly. The risk of default is low and the fees for using this type of payment have dropped significantly in recent years.
Telephone-based payment methods such as telephone payment and mobile payment are predestined for paid Internet content such as eBooks or online games and have been in use there for a long time. Advantage of the telephone-based payment systems is the anonymity of the payer and the lack of time-consuming and complex registration processes. Telephone payment and mobile payment are therefore still popular as fast and convenient means of payment.
Modern payment methods
In recent years, other payment methods have been established on the market, which represent optimal additions to the classic payments and enjoy great popularity.
The best-known online payment method is probably the "wallet system" PayPal. Sellers and buyers register with PayPal. The buyer deposits payment data for debit or credit card in his PayPal account and can pay in the future with each purchase only by means of his PayPal login data. Originally born from the eBay group, the payment method is now so big that you cannot get past her.
Online Bank Transfer has also become a very popular and important form of payment in recent years. This form of payment is a real-time online transfer. The end user logs into his online banking via a special interface and initiates a direct online transfer using the PIN-TAN procedure. Advantage of this payment method is the fast and effective feedback of the successful transaction.
The most recent new release in online trading is the payment method amazon pay. Amazon has long been unimaginable as a trading platform from daily life. Millions of customers have deposited their payment details there, so it was only a matter of time before amazon took advantage of this and introduced its own payment solution. The functionality is the same as with PayPal. The buyer pays with his wallet at amazon and only needs his username and password.
Newcomers
Of course, countless other payment methods have come on the market in recent years, some of which disappeared just as quickly, are very regionally geared to specific countries or are used only by a very small group of users.
In June 2014, German banks and savings banks brought paydirekt online. The payment method paydirekt was planned from the outset as a direct competitive system to PayPal and is slowly establishing itself on the German market.
In addition, there are several equivalents to the Online Bank Transfer such as the Dutch iDEAL, which, however, focus exclusively on their regional markets.
Crypto currencies such as Bitcoin or Ethereum are now on everyone's lips. In this case, a user acquires any number of this virtual currency from a corresponding provider and can thus pay in all shops that accept crypto currencies as a means of payment. Currently, Crypto currencies are used more as a speculative object than that they serve to pay. Value stability is anything but secure.
Conclusion:
The choice of available payment methods is endless. Which payment methods are optimal for your shop depends on the most diverse factors. Which sector do you work in? Do you sell to business or private customers? Do you sell abroad? These and many more questions are to be clarified.
Let us advise you. On our contact page you will find all the important details.
