New episode of the podcast “Przelewy24 Payment Module for WooCommerce“ now available

[00:00:02]PH: Hello! Welcome, dear listener, to the Przelewy24 channel on the "PrzeCommerce" podcast. My name is Patryk Harasimowicz, and my guest will be e-commerce and digitalization specialist, Tomasz Runowicz, founder of mohi.to.

In this episode, we will talk about something phenomenal, because together with Tomek's team, we have great news for you: the new Przelewy24 module for the WooCommerce platform.

In this episode, you will learn what WooCommerce actually is, who this platform is for, what are the pros and cons of this solution, and also what we have prepared for you regarding online sales. Stay with us. Hi, Tomek.

[00:00:42]TR: Hi, Patryk.

[00:00:42]PH: I'm glad you found some time to visit us. It's really a great moment to have you on board with the company.

Let's start with a basic question: what is WooCommerce? Who is this platform for, and what are its advantages and disadvantages?

[00:00:58]TR: Sure. First, Patryk, thank you very much for the invitation. I must admit, I'm extremely pleased to be a guest on your channel. Let's get straight to the point. WooCommerce, in essence, is a free plugin that extends the most common WordPress CMS with e-commerce functionalities. This means we have a typical e-commerce overlay for our often WordPress-based website. We can very easily, one might even say, without significant additional costs, set up an online store that will leverage both the WordPress CMS and its built-in e-commerce solutions.

[00:01:36]PH: Thanks, Tomek, for explaining what WooCommerce is, an e-commerce extension for the WordPress platform. For me, WooCommerce is a platform that identifies WordPress with a host of free solutions that are definitely a must-have for beginner sellers, as I think that's the segment of customers who are starting their online sales journey.

I looked through your portfolio of services and implementations. Do you have any solutions you're particularly proud of when it comes to this platform?

[00:02:13]TR: Yes, of course. You know, we've implemented quite a few WooCommerce stores, but the ones I think are worth mentioning today are solutions that really show the broad spectrum of how WooCommerce can be used, because it's not just a store where we sell physical products. It's a store that allows us to sell digital products. It's a store that allows us to handle subscription models in sales, and even, as in the example I wanted to cite here, the website/store of Marek Ferro and F Design, belonging to the same Ferro S.A. group, a manufacturer of fittings, where WooCommerce acts as a really nice, clear database. The product catalog doesn't have a classic sales function at the moment, but the website is, firstly, prepared for Browse products in a very convenient, you know, e-commerce way: easy filtering, sorting, searching by parameters, right, for the product that interests us. And secondly, we are literally one step away from very quickly launching online sales for this client. So that's one example I wanted to talk about. The second one is the Modern Wine Club brand, which sells or offers wine tastings and purchases in a subscription model, meaning you regularly buy your favorite wines, constantly test new ones, and verify which ones you like for a specific occasion, according to your preferences. And again, WooCommerce is the store that handles this transaction, but also the entire subscription system through, as you mentioned earlier, ready-made plugins, very often plugins that WooCommerce and WordPress offer in their very broad, let's say, environment. Ready-made solutions that, of course, required some customization and adaptation. Nevertheless, we have very good, fully functional and efficient tools that allow us to handle various types of e-commerce businesses.

[00:04:17]PH: Okay, that sounds really encouraging and amazing. Let's touch upon the aspects of this environment we operate in, this element of the payment ecosystem, because it's undeniable that payment behavior, the cart stage, and the product stage are among the elements responsible for "boosting" and engaging the user. We have this in our store, and thanks to this, we jointly created a product – a payment module for the platform with the WooCommerce extension. First of all, let's tell our listeners where to find our solution as Przelewy24, when it comes to the payment module solution. Our solution is available on our website przelewy24.pl in the "Downloads" section, ready-made plugins. The solution is "out of the box," because in fact, you just need to download it and, from the perspective of the back office, as a store administration user, point to our downloaded solution on your desktop and install it.

A crucial element that we developed together, Tomek, with your team, is an intuitive interface. It's undeniable that our old solution, which wasn't perfect, was influenced by comments and feedback from our clients, leading to the decision to collaborate and rewrite this solution from scratch. At the very beginning of the module update installation, we provide a benefit in the form of an interface, where an existing client who has our solution can copy it to the new plugin to ensure backward compatibility for refunds, for BLIK aliases, to process "one-click" payments for cards, or as you said, for example, in the case of projects you have in your portfolio, credit cards, when it comes to subscription payments. So we give the client the option to decide whether they want a clean installation or potentially backward compatibility, because it is extremely important that the elements that the seller has already developed can be adequately transferred to our new solution.

[00:06:35]TR: What I can add, preparing, I must admit, for today's episode and analyzing how this product was built, I can address two aspects. The first is what you've already mentioned: from the merchant's perspective, the interface is very user-friendly. I found my way around it very well, so to speak. I was able to go through the configuration in a very non-technical way, which I think is very important to emphasize, because we have to remember that merchants are sometimes far from technology, as they often have to use external services. In the case of such an installation, no external service is required in any way, because it installs in a very pleasant manner.

And the second point, which I think we should discuss, concerns what this new solution, this new plugin, offers to the end-user and how it impacts, among other things, increasing the conversion rate of the store itself, because the payment element or the transactional element in e-commerce, let's face it, is very often a killer of many conversions. Customers don't feel adequately taken care of, because at this point, they face not so much a difficult decision, but certainly a very delicate one, touching their money, the security of that money. Therefore, anything that disrupts their natural flow at this stage raises certain suspicions and causes them to often withdraw from purchases. So, I think we could confidently move on to discussing what options and features this new plugin provides, but most importantly, that unlike the previous one, it does not send the user outside the store. In no way are we fully taken care of within the store where we are making the purchase.

[00:08:20]PH: Exactly. You touched on an important element regarding payer awareness and the payment process, because, as you mentioned, the product card, that shopping path where the user enters the store, and my first personal behavior is simply choosing a product I'd potentially like to buy. Each of us has certain temptations, right? And we'd like to fulfill those temptations, and of course, we do so thanks to Przelewy24. When entering the product page, I have the option to include, for example, an installment widget, an installment simulator. Certain elements make the payment from the perspective of the simulator's view of the amount, along with the provided installment options broken down by month, simply attract such a customer who, seeing this message, decides to choose, for example, payment through Przelewy24 installments. These are important elements that "boost" conversion, because, after all, the purchase process on the platform varies depending on the type of checkout. In this payment module solution, we support both the old and new, classic checkout. Our old solution had varying success with compatibility with the new component checkout available on the WooCommerce sales platform. We are compatible with both versions, so that's definitely a plus, and primarily the difference between the old and new solutions when it comes to the purchase process.

[00:09:47]PH: You brought up an excellent point regarding the payment process and payment intuitiveness, yes, because the old solution usually directed the payer to the payment operator's gateway, specifically Przelewy24. However, the functionality aspect and our new API solution, which we implemented jointly with mohi.to, allows keeping the payer within the store and providing a better payment experience, accelerating payment, and keeping the payer without the need to leave the sales platform. For sellers, this includes BLIK payment within the store, BLIK payment with various functionalities, such as One Click. We have card options. These are particularly important in international markets, yes, when it comes to card payments. While in the store, we offer the option of in-store card payments, also saving card aliases on the sales platform, which is integrated with the Przelewy24 system, and ultimately, this truly enables the payer to make payments from this option. But also, as a piece of news regarding White Label solutions, we have in-store cards with a click-here option, which is a revolution in card payments, and we, as Przelewy24, provide such capabilities in the payment market also in this solution, which, as you hear, is precise. You just need to install and download the payment module, and all these solutions are available "free by" from the back office, intuitively ready to enable immediately.

[00:11:32]PH: Regarding must-have functionalities, concerning the topic of exposing, "boosting" conversion, and the fireworks of "wallet" solutions like Apple Pay and Google Pay within the store, where payments are finalized without the need to leave the sales store, we also jointly ensure such e-cash registers, because the technology and possibilities provided by card "wallets" allow, for example, in the case of Apple Pay, displaying a QR code on the sales platform on Windows or Android devices, and the ability to scan the QR code on an iOS device to finalize the payment. We touch upon "edge case" topics, because some of these "wallets" are on specific operating systems, but potentially the possibilities offered by Apple Pay, which I mentioned, allow displaying a QR code on even Android devices, enabling payment finalization on your iOS phone.

[00:12:46]TR: One could say, or summarize in one sentence. It's good that we started with this a bit in today's episode. When you said that this product is somewhat the effect or result of information and insights from your clients, what we want to convey now, when talking about this product, is that it is precisely such a synthesis, gathering all truly possible, as of today, the most popular, and even less popular payment methods, while maintaining very high security and preserving the most expected user flow for users who will be using our store.

[00:13:23]PH: That's right. I'm glad you pointed that out, because, as you mentioned, even the back office interface is super intuitive. Each element is described, each element has a visualization that helps you understand what I, as a seller, need to enter for everything to, colloquially speaking, work. And we don't hide that we are aware of the types of customers who are recipients of this platform. Usually, these are sellers who are just starting out, beginning their adventure in e-commerce. So our perspective is that we are aware that these are usually people who, as you mentioned, are not always entirely technical, and we jointly detect the potential to enable possibilities and automatically recommend them to the seller. For example, if we, as Przelewy24, know that our client, our acceptor, has the option of paying in installments, then we help them as Przelewy24 in this solution, by detecting that we have a client who wants to display installments, we help them with all of this, yes, we provide installments at checkout, we provide installments on the product page. All these elements "boost" conversion, increase payment awareness, and especially, as you mentioned, we often close the purchase process within the store, which is crucial when it comes to payment speed and, in particular, shortening the shopping path.

[00:14:55]PH: If you were to pick a game changer from all these functionalities, Tomek, in your opinion, that caused this UX, which we've repeatedly mentioned to our listeners, which functionality or functionalities – because it's an out-of-the-box, all-in-one kind of thing – is, in your opinion, the game changer?

[00:15:16]TR: I would probably point to two, really, that captivated and fascinated me the most. First, the installments you mentioned, and the ability to actually simulate the cost of purchasing a given product already at the product page stage. This first increases the desire to purchase, and second, we don't surprise the customer at checkout, because they know what to expect on the product. So, the fact that we can display this information to them so quickly.

[00:15:40]TR: And the second thing, from my perspective, is BLIK One Click. I'm not hiding it, firstly, it's currently the most popular e-commerce method. Its popularity is constantly growing, and the ability to further lower the threshold of complexity when using this method by having a pre-saved code is simply super convenient, completely.

[00:16:09]PH: Agreed, Tomek, all the functional solutions you mentioned are also my game changers, so I'm glad we have a common status quo regarding this solution. From my perspective, other elements that arose from customer feedback include, for example, providing information about new updates from the back office level. Yes, this is an element that does not require the seller's involvement to go to the Przelewy24 website to check if there is a new version, yes. We, as it were, provide a solution for every new version already at the back office aspect in available modules, where the seller sees that there is a new version, potentially. We always care about performance elements, we always deliver our products and functionalities that we introduce to the market also in our payment module solutions, and this is an element that will certainly make it clear that there are functionalities that Przelewy24, among others, are working on.

[00:17:10]PH: You also mentioned the performance of the platform itself, because in recent years, when it comes to e-commerce, the platform has really started to work on, well, simply speeding up the opening of product pages, "boosting" conversions, which ultimately translates into us being compatible with solutions offered by WooCommerce itself, like High Performance Order Storage, where database relationships are much wider and more optimized, but ultimately, our module is also adapted to these capabilities and functionalities compared to the previous solution.

[00:17:47]PH: To summarize, Tomek, great job, I'm glad you're part of this, because our clients now have an all-in-one product, you could say, where you just need to download the solution, install it, and enter the required details for the plugin to start working on the WooCommerce sales platform. But most importantly, we provide an element of shortening the purchase path, more prominently displayed when it comes to the purchase process, elements that increase conversions, which we mentioned, such as installments, installment calculators, installment simulators, or in-store payments, which are definitely a must-have from our clients' UX perspective, because let's face it, everyone today looks at the purchase process and wants the shortest possible purchase path.

[00:18:34]TR: That's right. Well, Patryk, I can only add that we, as a company, are also happy that we were part of this product, or rather, are part of this product, and we had the pleasure of working with you on it. What I can emphasize, which resonated today, because in our episode and our conversation, it was a product and project excellently prepared in scope, with a very clear goal to achieve. And what we are left with today, or what we are facing, is the result that we believe this product is truly a change that e-commerce, specifically WooCommerce, in this case, has certainly been waiting for, and which brings a new level of shopping experience. So, as I said, we are glad we could help you with this, but I also believe we are still developing this product.

[00:19:24]PH: Exactly. Thank you very much again, Tomek. Dear listeners, I am extremely pleased to announce right now that we have a new all-in-one solution available on our website Przelewy24.pl, ready for download in the "Ready-made plugins" section. I invite you to the next podcast, where we will talk with other e-commerce specialists and delve into information about technology trends. Thank you once again.

[00:19:53]TR: Thanks, Patryk.