Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, many businesses now face brand new challenges and are forced to adapt their operations almost overnight.
One of these challenges is the necessity to limit the contact of their employees with clients, which can be quite problematic for certain merchants. In order to help these merchants in this uneasy situation, TrustPay launched a new service called “payment links”.
Merchants, which accept orders via a phone or e-mail and so don’t usually sell their products via an online store, struggle to find an effective payment method. Their customers usually have to pay with cash or by card via a physical POS terminal during a personal collection of their order. These are exactly the merchants, who can benefit greatly with payment links.
Payment links are extremely easy-to-use for merchants as well as customers. After accepting an order from a customer (for example via a phone), the merchant just has to put two pieces of data into a displayed form in an online environment: the amount, which the customer should pay and a reference, to be able to identify the payment when it arrives. Afterwards, the merchant generates the payment link with a single click, which can then be shared with a customer via an arbitrary communication channel (SMS, WhatsApp, e-mail and more). The customer then clicks on the link and executes the payment just like he would in a regular e-shop. Once the payment is completed, the merchant receives a confirmation via e-mail with seconds and can safely dispatch the order with no further delay.
This service solves a number of problems. It limits the need for interaction between employees and customers, it improves cash flow (as customers pay upfront) and it also enables remote sales for those, who were dependent on personal selling up to now. There is no integration needed to launch the service and no prior experience with online payments either.
“Small and medium enterprises suffer the most under these extreme circumstances and market changes, as they often do not have the necessary capacities for such swift transformations or their business model simply does not allow for such adjustments. Nevertheless, we believe that our service can help ease the situation,” says David Rintel, TrustPay’s CEO.