2022 eCommerce Strategies

Localization and customer support are merchants’ main challenges for the year
Recently, localizing payment methods has become an even greater challenge, especially as businesses worked to build their cross-border activities during the lockdowns of 2020 and 2021. Whereas at the start of 2020 only 19% of surveyed merchants recognized payment method localization as a struggle, in 2022, more than half of those questioned (52%) say they are looking for ways to offer more relevant payments in their checkout. 

On the topic of eCommerce struggles, customer support (27%) and fraud and chargebacks (19%) were found to have also grown in urgency, up 6% and 4%, respectively, from last year’s survey.

Additional challenges noted by merchants surveyed included: 

• Conversion optimization (25%) 
• Returns and refunds (24%) 
• Cross-border sales (22%) 
• Global compliance (16%) 
   

Bigger budgets for bigger plans
Also revealed by the survey results: an astonishing 96% of those questioned said they will increase their budgets, with specific departments topping their priorities:

• Marketing budgets will grow the most, 42% of respondents reported.
• Sales budgets follow at 30%.
• eCommerce department budgets will also increase, according to 29% of respondents.
• Product budgets will increase for 25% of those surveyed.

When questioned about the department responsible for eCommerce within their company, 32% of survey respondents answered that their marketing departments are the main owners, with sales at 22%. This year, however, eCommerce teams seem to have started gaining traction, with 6% more respondents claiming they have dedicated teams for eCommerce versus the previous survey. 

New implementations & new payment methods to supercharge growth in 2022
Merchants’ growth plans for 2022 will be aided by new tech implementations, as the survey found. Deep personalization (46%), mobile apps and mobile optimizations (46%), as well as advanced upselling/cross-selling (45%) are the types of tactics businesses are looking to implement in their systems, according to respondents. Automated email marketing appears to have grown in adoption since the previous survey installment, with just 38% looking to add this tactic to their marketing stack in 2022.

When questioned about the payment methods they are looking to adopt in 2022, the survey revealed that most merchants are already accepting debit and credit cards, digital wallets, and bank transfers. This year, the merchants surveyed said they are planning to focus on adding the following payment methods, in order to boost the customer’s experience: 

• Prepaid cards (32%) 
• Buy Now, Pay Later (28%) 
• Local payment methods (28%)

Cross-border plans for 2022
With the COVID pandemic continuing to affect consumer behavior, merchants are increasingly focused in expanding their cross-border offerings. As a result, a larger percentage of respondents (82%) have already been planning cross-border expansion for 2022, versus 76% in 2020. The main regions targeted for scaling in 2022 include the Americas, with 35% of respondents reporting they are targeting this region, Europe, with 21%, and the Middle East and Africa, at 14%.

To view the full survey results and get more insights, review our Verifone Survey Insights - 2022 eCommerce Trends infographic.