Agility with e-commerce: Enabling e-commerce payments is no longer negotiable

By Dustin Siner, Chief Revenue Officer, Agile Financial Systems

The rise of e-commerce and social commerce is unmistakable. What was once viewed as an alternative shopping method for a select few is now the preferred shopping method for a significant portion of consumers. A report by Statista forecasts that by 2025, the online e-commerce sector will make up close to a quarter of total global retail sales, suggesting robust growth in the years ahead. A separate report by Insider Intelligence states that U.S. e-commerce sales will cross $1 trillion for the first time by the end of 2022, significantly sooner than pre-pandemic projections that forecast reaching that milestone in 2024 at the earliest. E-commerce is ahead of schedule—and here to stay.

But more importantly, the transformation of the payments landscape as a result of the e-commerce wave has signaled a shift in the behavior of almost every consumer. Even if a customer is not inclined to transact via an e-commerce store or a mobile channel, there is an innate understanding that optionality should still exist should they desire it. This shift is a complicated one for merchants, unloading new sets of challenges on the shoulders of small businesses already juggling proactive and reactive attempts to navigate the omnichannel demands of today’s consumer.

Meanwhile, social commerce and live commerce represent a natural evolution to the kind of convenience that e-commerce offers, introducing an entirely new wrinkle to what consumers have come to expect from their checkout experience. The ability to transact directly via social channels that are designed to be mobile-friendly has conditioned the buying public to expect easily accessible online and mobile checkouts more than they ever have before. A 2022 study reported that 92% of active mobile users access the internet through mobile devices, but mobile users have a cart abandonment rate of nearly 86% — compounding the need for merchants to optimize their e-commerce websites for mobile. But while optimizing e-commerce platforms for mobile should be a given for any merchant dedicated to meeting their customers where they want to buy, harnessing a unified payment system can alter the relationship between merchants and consumers in an even more rewarding way.

APEXOnline is an all-in-one e-commerce platform built for small businesses, and a feature product of the APEX Omnichannel payment processing platform. APEXOnline is a cost-effective solution that allows retailers to sell their products online through a visual shop builder. This builder allows complete drag and drop control, with thematic templates that quickly enable business owners to create beautiful e-commerce sites. This powerful platform is optimized for mobile site viewers with an unlimited number of products that can be uploaded for purchase. APEXOnline easily integrates with shipping vendors to include automated shipping fee calculation and automates structured data and sitemaps for search engine optimization. With customizable gift and loyalty features combined with integrated newsletters, blogs, and other consumer outreach capabilities, APEXOnline is uniquely positioned to aid business expansion.

Finally, all transaction data from APEXOnline is processed through APEX Gateway and is combined with transaction data for retail sales through APEXNow. This offers business owners the ability to meet

consumers where they are ready to transact and consolidate all of that data to easily interact with consumers to address questions or add to existing sales – the optimal omnichannel solution.

For a limited time, all merchants using AFS’ payment processing will be able to access the APEXOnline platform, including custom drag and drop website templates, for free.

For more information, reach out to AFS (Agile Financial Systems) at go-afs.com.