Single Click is the most talked-about new feature of the Payforit scheme since it first launched. This feature offers a number of important benefits for content providers, helping them get more repeat visits and improving their conversion rates.

Mobile users are offered a very similar approach as shopping online at sites such as Amazon and iTunes. As a result they enjoy a faster and better purchase experience.

Here in our interview with Anil Malhotra, SVP Marketing & Alliances, we get answers to all the questions about the Single click feature to help you fully understand how it works and how you can benefit from it – take a look:

What is Single Click?
What problem is it expected to solve?
Do you think it will be successful?
I’m a content provider – how do I gain access to the Single Click capability?
How can a content provider make it easier for its customers to opt-in to Single Click?
What other talking points are there around the new Payforit scheme?
How well is the scheme performing overall?
Will Payforit start to appear in other countries outside of the UK?

What is Single Click?
It’s a new Payforit feature that allows users to purchase mobile content in one click. When users select Single-Click payment, for any future purchases they simply click and complete the purchase from one button on the mobile site then proceed directly to the download. They enjoy fast, streamlined payments with fewer clicks from purchase to download. The customer simply re-confirms they wish to continue with single click payment each month, or after they have spent £20 with the content provider.

What problem is it expected to solve?
At the moment the standard Payforit purchase experience requires the user to click once on the content provider’s page to choose the item they want to buy, to wait until a second page is sent to their phone which gives the purchase details again in a standard format, click to confirm the purchase then wait for the billing to complete before seeing a third page that confirms the purchase and allows them to download the content.

This takes time, increases the possibilities for interruption, for connection loss, for delays and not least of all for consumer fatigue! So the problem is one of how to maximize the number of successfully completed Payforit transactions, the conversion rates.

Do you think it will be successful?
There is no doubt that companies marketing services to mobile users will like it. They want to offer the best available purchase experience and to capture the highest ROI on all the marketing money spent to attract users to mobile content and services. It’s something that’s familiar to PC web shoppers and rewards frequent shoppers with a much slicker way to pay.

The outstanding question, then, is will mobile customers be interested in taking-up the Single Click option? The answer to this critical question depends on the perceived value to consumers and, more fundamentally, will they actually notice the option when it’s offered to them and understand what it means? We’ll find out soon…….

I’m a content provider – how do I gain access to the Single Click capability?
In the Bango model, it’s pretty straightforward. Technically speaking, you don’t have to do anything if you are a Bango platform user. We take care of all of the consumer experience elements of the flow from sign-up to the payment functionality. We also maintain the logic that controls whether or not to offer the customer the Single Click checkout process. If you’re not a Bango customer, what’s keeping you…..!

What you will need to do is fill out a registration form that we provide you with, and we will have this processed through the UK network operators. The networks want visibility into the companies using the Single Click functionality to ensure that what is designed to be a great user experience isn’t exploited to try to by-pass basic Payforit rules. This is not an onerous process and first experiences show that the processing is quick.

How can a content provider make it easier for its customers to opt-in to Single Click?
The basic method by which a phone user selects Single Click is during the standard Payforit checkout experience. They will see a brief description of Single Click with a check box next to it. The customer needs to select Single Click by checking this box. Once they’ve done that, Bango takes care of presenting the Single Click payment experience next time they purchase from you.

By content providers offering special promotions and bonuses to their customers, it will encourage them to select the Single Click method for future purchases, this will benefit content providers by increasing their conversion rates

What other talking points are there around the new Payforit scheme?
The most significant new feature is that consumers by default are opted-in to receive marketing messages from the first party – i.e. the content provider they’ve just bought from. This will mean more customers can receive offers and updates, and of course can still opt-out by replying Stop to any of these messages.

There is a new Payforit logo, which incorporates the network operator’s name alongside the Payforit logo. We expect this will increase a consumers understanding that the payment is endorsed by their network operator, and therefore can be trusted.

The other new feature is a shopping basket, again a familiar idea from web shopping. This allows a customer to select multiple items and check out in one payment for the total amount due.

How well is the scheme performing overall?
Experience at Bango is that, a year after the scheme really saw the light of day, content providers are now starting to ask for it. We receive regular requests for Payforit billing, including from international mobile businesses wanting to market to UK phone users. The browse-and-buy model is something instinctively understood by mainstream on-line brands and businesses.

We continue to see good technical performance from the billing platforms and the same extremely low levels of customer complaints and refund requests.

Consumer awareness of Payforit – defined as recall and understanding – is low, but with Payforit now starting to appear a little more as the payment component of some on-portal services, that recognition should grow. We’d like to see it become the de facto mobile content payment brand in the UK, which means more comprehensive adoption in the on-portal services offered by our operator colleagues.

Will Payforit start to appear in other countries outside of the UK?
Something like Payforit already exists in a number of markets. The degree to which Payforit has been standardized across the networks here is approached only really in the USA at the moment, through dedicated work by the Mobile Marketing Association there.

The extent to which a standard scheme has been branded hasn’t been accomplished in any other major market, and I think the UK can be proud of its leadership here. I was recently invited by one of the UK networks to present a “users view” of Payforit to their international operating company colleagues. There was a great deal of interest in what we’ve done here in the UK and acknowledgement that this is a really positive step. I think European markets such as Spain, France, the Netherlands and so forth might be tempted to adopt the scheme wholesale, and potentially also in Australia, South Africa, India and looking further out.

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