The biggest challenge that online merchants face, especially those in the B2B marketplace, is receiving timely payments. Delay in payments and constantly chasing customers to clear their dues is a hassle that thousands of businesses suffer from. In the B2C space, some of these include subscription-based businesses, platforms that provide short-term credit, ride-hailing apps, freelancers, and many more such entities. 

The lag in payments can affect the cash flow for the business and result in delayed vendor payments, salaries, and a severe cash crunch. This proves the need for quick payment receiving software that can help 63 million+ small businesses in India. With the advent of online payment, these businesses have a scope of scaling up their revenues to significant margins. 

Nevertheless, there is one easy way to combat this issue. Payment links can open up a vast number of opportunities for these small businesses. Not only do they help reduce payment delays, but payment links can also help enterprises to accept instant online payments without having a website or an app. 

What is a Payment Link?

A payment link is a simple URL that gets redirected to a payment gateway where customers can complete the online transaction. A payment link allows the customer to pay via multiple payment modes like Credit/Debit Card, UPI, Mobile Wallets, Pay Later, and Net Banking. 

Payment links do not require any integration with the website. The customer can directly click on it to land on the online payment page, which has the merchant details, including the amount to be paid. The merchant can share the URL with the customer over Email, Message, WhatsApp, or other Messaging Services/Social media Apps. The link can be shared with a single click at any time. Moreover, merchants can create bulk payment links within seconds and send them off to customers in one go.

Benefits of Payment Links

Small businesses can benefit from payment links in the following ways:

• Easy Merchant Setup

Small businesses lack capital in terms of both finance and human resources. Usually, they do not have a website, or the website maintenance increases their overhead costs. Even if they have a website, some merchants lack the technical expertise to integrate into a payment gateway and do not want to hire a resource. 

Payment links are the best solution for them since they do not need a website to get started. They need to register with a payment link service, like Zaakpay, and set up a dashboard. Even freelancers or home-based small businesses can get started with payment links quickly.

• Customer Friendly Payment Process 

Every business aims at making the customer experience friendly and smooth. Payment links make the process of online transactions secure and easy. With payment links, customers can make payments in just a few clicks.

• Diverse Payment Options

Payment Links make the payment process for the customers simple and easy. They support diverse payment modes. Customers can click on the link and choose a suitable payment mode to initiate the transaction. The liberty to make the payment through any suitable medium leads to customer satisfaction and retention. This also ensures that no sale is lost as the business can accept payment from a range of mediums that the customer prefers.

• Flexibility to Choose Sales Medium

A payment link is a URL that has to be shared with the customer. It is up to the merchant to decide how they want to share it. The merchant can send the link to the customer using any medium like email or WhatsApp, or SMS. This helps the small business target customers on any platform. Customers also find this process easy as they can request the link to be shared with them through the desired medium.

• Ultra Secure Payments

Customer security is imperative to online transactions. A customer will immediately abandon the purchase if the medium of payment seems insecure or doubtful. On the other hand, customers can return if they find the business using a secure payment process. Merchants should select the payment link service keeping this in mind. Zaakpay, a leading service in this segment, is equipped with the safest payment processors in the industry and enables secure transactions without jeopardizing user information. 

It provides the highest possible security to the customers’ credentials. For mobile payments, it also offers an additional layer of protection in 2-factor authentication or OTP. It also notifies the customer of a successful transaction immediately after the payment.

• Easy Tracking

Most online payment link services offer dashboards where the merchant can check the status of each transaction in real-time. They can manage and create records of the same. The data generated can be used to maintain records or be analyzed to understand customer behavior. Zaakpay supports SMS or email alerts for each successful transaction as well.

• Gain a Competitive Edge

Small businesses can boost revenues by acquiring an edge over their competition. The competition, being a small business, would also be restricted by funds and similar limitations. In such a scenario, using a more secure and easy online payment system will add to customer satisfaction.

• Low Associated Costs

The costs associated with maintaining a payment link are low and small businesses can easily afford it. The benefits earned by using a payment link far surpass the minimal cost.  

• Send bulk payment links

Payment links ensure that merchants do not generate the same payment link repeatedly. The bulk sharing feature with payment links allows businesses to create a large volume of payment links in one click and share it simultaneously. 

• Automate payments 

Payment links can be used to automate payments, especially for businesses charging their customers on a recurring basis. This reduces the need to generate a link every time the payment becomes due.

Conclusion

With progressively inclining towards shopping and paying online, small businesses need to equip themselves with the changing times. Businesses that can cater to the market needs in the most efficient way tend to generate decent revenues in the long run. Adapting to accepting online payments is a step in that direction. There are several payment links services that small businesses can choose from to get started with the process, Zaakpay being one of the leading in the list.