The psychology behind micropayments & how they match our modern world
Best micropayment campaign? Greenpeace with it’s adopting a bee. Crucial to our environment creatures could be saved just with one dollar, and your “personalized” bee could be “saved” with a one time payment or a monthly subscription. Why did it work so well for the global organization? The issue is important, has an element of endangerment, based on our basic emotions of fear & an element of moral need to help out those in need. And besides that, it’s cheap. No one will ever notice a missing dollar from their account, so the project can be massive. Can this example work for e-commerce too?
The micropayment mindset
Prices are a crucial point of our decision making processes, and we lean on the cheaper-looking solutions, even when the annual payment can be calculated as higher. This comes as no surprise — almost all of us have a some kind of credits, loans or installments, that force us to pay higher rates. Still, it’s seems less of a fuss to pay just a smaller amount in a regular period, than pay all at once, and banks, stores, e-marketers use wisely that comfort zone. In online purchases, such as SaaS platforms, using the software or a service for a monthly micropayment seems “nothing”, and if there are no hidden cost behind the subscription, the cancellation mechanism does not trigger the users that often. We tend to like small payments, even when the service is used rarely, just in case we would like to have the comfort of browsing through it again. Small prices & emotional value is something that keeps us tuned with the services.
Micropayment channels
Messenger has just provided us with an option for micropayments in groups, Google wallet has them implemented for some time, and PayPal can work with a group of friends as well. We have a multiple banking methods for placing an online payment directly from our account and the world of payment systems is growing to be the most convenient for it’s users. Multiplication of channels allows us to choose the most beneficial way of placing a payment, and for that reason micropayments become more handy. E-commerce is always present with us — we see the ads on Facebook, so maybe paying on Facebook will be more quick & user friendly? Same with Google — a pinned payment option seems nice. How about a Bitcoin account and managing digital sales through the platform? Bringing salespoint to most popular pipeline, without switching the medium or a platform, can have a beneficial effect on how & how fast we place orders online.
Global SaaS success
Booming revenue on micropayments comes to live because of the usability & how popular it is to have a monthly subscription for services. We begin with food & subscription for lunches and end with a monthly payment for an alarm clock app. It’s so popular, that nobody really questions the logic behind
