When the Internet first opened up to commercial availability in the early 90s, the possibilities for business and commerce online were seemingly endless, albeit still nothing but imagination. Today, the ecommerce industry is much more than imagination. About 1.6 billion people do their shopping through the Internet in 2016, and the number is expected to hit 2 billion people by 2019.

Most of these people pay through credit card. In fact, as per the online publication Entrepreneur, credit cards are still the most significant online payment option available. And why not? They’re ridiculously simple. There’s very little calling or communication needed to set up a card for online purchases. Banks love selling credit accounts.

But the market share for payment methods has been diversifying, and the growing trend shows that right now, businesses need to consider the fact that there is an increasingly large percentage of customers requesting to pay not through their credit cards, but through more modern payment methods.

Conventional v Modern Payment Methods

As banking becoming digital, conventional payment methods like cash and bank cheque are slowly but steadily are being replaced by faster and easier methods like Internet banking, credit card and debit cards. In 2016, Credit card adoption has increased 16 percent year on year growth in India.

Having said that, how small and medium business facilitates online payments for their customers is still a big issue in India. That is where payment companies like PayUmoney, Citrus pay and Instamojo are making their mark by making it easier for small business to accept online payments.

PayUmoney specifically is massive in India, with more than 2,00,000 Indian merchants on its platform, it allows business to collect payments without any setup cost. Any individual can register online within minutes and can start accepting payments through debit/credit card and  Internet Banking at a minimal cost of 2% per transaction.  Any user can send bills to your customer’s email, WhatsApp, SMS or use payment gateway solution to facilitate payment collection on website.

Why You Need Multiple Payment Methods

Market share is the term you’re looking for here. If you want an easy way to boost sales, make it easier for cardholders to buy your goods without having to resort to their credit card or do a back-and-forth with any financial institution. Often, a purchase is prevented simply because it’s not easy to buy something – as per the Guardian, simply making payment easier can boost your sales.

Simply put, you cannot run an ecommerce platform successfully and expect any amount of serious traffic and sales without a comprehensive credit card acceptation. Be it Visa or Mastercard or a different provider, if it’s a piece of plastic with lots of money on it, it should be a viable way to pay for your goods and services through the Internet.

As per eMerchant Pay, alternative payment options make up about 22 percent of the total ecommerce market’s transaction value. That’s a significant percentage. According to an article in Yourstory, for companies like Flipkart, 30 percent orders are paid though online payment instruments.  Imagine losing out on 30 percent of potential sales – one fifth of all your potential customers – because you neglect to utilize alternative payment options.

In Short: Payment Flexibility is a Good Thing

The fix is simple – search for different payment options available in market to choose payments service provider and start using some of the more modern and effective payment options available today to win your customers back.