There are many places for students, life-long learners and professionals to learn online. But if your payment methods don’t align with student needs, you might be losing out on countless potential customers.
Today’s online education market is growing more international by the day. Digital learning is surpassing traditional brick and mortar classrooms, and many students are unlikely to head back to in-person learning.
A Digital Learning Pulse survey showed that more than 73 percent of students want to continue taking fully online courses in the future. However, reaching more international students requires offering diverse digital payment methods. Here are some ways to make it easier to gain and keep more international students than ever.
Unlock New Student Markets Through Best Practices for Cross-Border Payments in Online Education
Make Sending Payments Easy
Preferences for payment methods and mobile purchases vary significantly around the world. For instance, almost half (48%) US consumers reported making a mobile purchase within the past month. (Hootsuite)
In China, consumers have a strong preference for in-app purchases. And 16% of customers will abandon their cart when their preferred payment method isn’t available (FuturePay).
No matter what, you’ll want to make sure your payment provider can adapt to global preferences. If you are selling internationally, you need a checkout solution that localizes and optimizes checkout with your customers’ payment methods.
Streamline Payouts to Employees by Using Their Desired Payment Methods
The best payment partners will let you disburse funds to your teachers and content creators in many different currencies using their preferred payment methods, including direct bank payouts and split payments seamlessly into multiple sellers’ accounts. Ensure timely payouts by using fintech-as-a- service solutions to greatly speed up worker payments and drive loyalty.
Many online learning platforms need to pay instructors as well as accept payments from students. If you operate a platform and need to accept and make cross-border payments, you can significantly reduce your workload and costs with a single solution that can do both.
Reduce Fees with Global ACH
Wire transfers and bank foreign exchange fees can add up quickly for you and your online instructors. Make efficient global disbursements using a global bank transfer network, and by avoiding bank mark-ups on FX fees to save your recipients’ money and build participation, loyalty and satisfaction.
Offer Card Acceptance Plus Local Payments
Many western countries favor cards. Around the world, it’s a different story. In Southeast Asia, offering bank transfers and ewallets is a must. Cash vouchers and digital wallets are indispensable in Latin America. Work with a payments provider like Rapyd to simplify global commerce by offering local payment methods across 100+ countries with one integration.
Consider Issuing Pre-Paid Cards to Pay Educators
A pre-paid card issuing program can be extremely helpful if you are working with educators in countries like Mexico, with a high number of unbanked or underbanked individuals. Pre-paid cards give you the ability to reliably and cost-effectively push funds to workers while improving financial inclusivity.
Make Recurring Customer Payments and Issuing Refunds Easy
Having clear refund policies or offering a trial period will build trust and put your learners at ease. This will allow learners to get a taste of your content so then they will be eager to pay for more.
Online Learning Is Now Borderless
The pandemic sparked an era of unprecedented change in online learning. The global edtech market grew 22 percent in Q1 in 2020, and has a bright 19.9 percent CAGR forecast through 2027. (Market Study Report) Online learners expect more flexible learning and payment options. That’s why reaching more students around the globe requires offering diverse digital payment methods.
Make your Payments in Online Education Truly Global
No matter where in the world they live, you need to offer your students, instructors, and creators the option to pay and get paid how they want. Today’s education is truly borderless, and your payments must be as well to capture this unprecedented growth.
Rapyd Payments and Payouts
Send and receive payments, issue cards and drive adoption with students worldwide. Over 50% of global online payments are made with local and alternative payment methods. Local payments drive customer conversions. Rapyd is the fastest way for two-sided platforms to accept and disburse funds via locally preferred cards, bank transfers, ewallets and cash everywhere you do business – all through a single payment platform.
Sources
Digital Learning Pulse. Pandemic-Era Report Card. 2021. https://info.cengage.com/wrec_PulseSurveyResults_1470945
Hootsuite. We Are Social, a Survey by GlobalWebIndex (2020). Page 228
Market Study Report. “Global Education Technology Market Size study, by Sector.” Market Study Report, Bizwit Research & Consulting LLP, 2021, https://www.marketstudyreport.com/reports/ global-education-technology-market-size-research
Photo for Pexels by Julia M. Cameron
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