A workshop on payment technology is probably the last place you’d imagine jokes. But Justin Woo of PayPal had jokes in spades at his appropriately -titled workshop “Making Payments Fun” along with PayPal startup advocate Sneha Menon. The workshop started with Mehon’s list of the top three mistakes that startups make before starting up online payments:
- Understanding that not all business models are the same for payments. Laws and regulation are different for every business model, and falls under different risk categories (alcohol, for example. is a high-risk category.) Knowing what risk category you are in can make a huge difference in the financial health of your startup.
- Missing Analytics. It’s much more than just Google Analytics! Make sure you have analytics that focus specifically on transactional behavior.
- Not accepting multiple payments, not everyone is tech-savvy, not everyone uses credit cards to buy things
The workshop was an introduction to dos and don’ts in online payments, but it was also a debut of sorts for Woo. ” I want to thank you for making my dream of performing in Vegas come true,” he told the crowd before talking about his pet peeve”not fun” online payment functions:
- Captcha
- Asking users to register before being able to pay
- Don’t allow to users to store credit card information
- No auto detect for credit card type
- Not identifying credit card security number (the codes on credit cards have different names
- No validated credit card field
- Not showing appropriate keyboard layouts
- Not disabling autocorrect
- Not providing a calendar review when selecting dates
- Making it difficult to enter credit card and phone info.
Woo talked about some examples of companies that do succeed in making payments fun, like Google and its reCaptcha feature. He also ran through a live demo of ugly payment features and some pretty fun ones, inadvertently revealing his credit card information in the process. (Whoops!)
Making payments fun also involves making them intuitive and responsive for users, and Woo mentioned two examples of companies that do this. Starbucks, for example, has an app function where a cup of coffee can be reserved for you on your way to the cafe, and Zappos has a feature that tells you when to order a new pair of running shoes, based on your original purchase. So see, payment can be a lot of fun!
On October 4-6, Tech Cocktail Celebrate Conference is gathering hundreds of attendees, industry leaders, and inspiring speakers in downtown Vegas to meet the hottest startups and investors from around the country, learn and collaborate with others turning their communities into startup cities, and enjoy music, parties, and llama spotting. Check out more Tech Cocktail Celebrate Conference coverage here.