It's the gifting season! (all year long)

Xpressflower is one of the largest designer flower and gifts retailers in Singapore with a 24/7 online store and 18 outlets conveniently located in major shopping malls around Singapore. They curate a unique combination of flowers and gifts from various local Singaporean brands for their customers.

Positioning itself as a premium, service-based business, the brand doesn't just sell flowers and gifts. They sell experiences. The brand thrives on providing a safe, quick, and seamless customer experience so anyone can gift their loved ones any time and any day.

Payment — the MVP of pre-purchasing

Timeliness is one of Xpressflower's core values. Since they offer a wide range of delivery period options — up to same-day and 3-hour express — with Delivery Promise (50% refund on late arrivals), the order fulfillment flow must be concise and effective for them to achieve what they promise.

All deliveries are pre-purchased, which means customers must pay before the florists prepare the orders. Any delay or errors in the payment process could end up hindering the order fulfillment process and affecting the total lead time.

Thus, to guarantee a lean and optimized checkout experience for their customers, Xpressflowers pays extra attention to these criteria: local payment options, ease of payment and verification, and data security.

Improving payment experiences for customers and employees

Currently, the brand uses Omise's card payment, PayNow QR, and Payment links solutions for transactions on the website and other channels. So far, the payment gateway has made positive changes for both the buyers and the sales team in several aspects.

• Local payment option
  Within the past few years, PayNow has risen in popularity. It is a national project supported by the Singapore government. Thus, it is now notably the most trusted and looked for payment method among Singaporean customers. With this option available, customers feel more at ease to pay. Reportedly, PayNow transactions now account for at least 20% of Xpressflower's overall transactions.

• Seamless checkout
  For purchases made on the website, buyers can pay with cards via Omise's secure payment gateway and save the card for future use, or scan PayNow dynamic QR codes and pay at a few clicks without inputting additional information.

  Meanwhile, the Payment links feature is heavily utilized for communication on other platforms such as email, SMS, or chat. This feature allows the customer support team to request payment by simply sharing a link directing customers to the payment page. The customers then key their credit or bank information and pay in their safety without back-and-forths with the salesperson.

• Data security
  The brand used to accept card payments through a virtual terminal, where the support team called the card owners to request card information and key it in manually.

  The said payment method could make some customers hesitant to give out sensitive data and eventually drop the order. Omise's payment gateway lets customers make payments privately so that no third person can access their sensitive information. The company could minimize the preventable risk of data theft. Once clients feel more secure, their satisfaction rises; thus, they are less likely to drop off.

• Painless payment verification
  In the past, their order confirmation was done manually, which made it difficult to track payments. At times, the support team would have to heavily rely on the accounting team to match the payment records to each order.

  Now, there is a role-based single dashboard where members of permitted teams can access payment status and other assigned information. The company also integrates Omise APIs into their CS software, allowing the support team to check real-time payment status on their own. As a result, customers’ frustrations are lifted, and there is almost no dependence between divisions, thus, a shorter lead time.

These improvements substantially help to optimize the brand's checkout flow for a better payment experience and provide more time control. The brand can confidently offer a 50% delivery refund, and their clients are happier and more trusting.

A significant leap in customer satisfaction

Mr. Sam Chia, Xpressflower's Chief Experience Officer, shared that since the brand integrated Omise's payment gateway, the payment-related issues impacting customer experience have notably dropped by at least 80-90%. The fulfillment cycle timing is reduced, which has helped them achieve and maintain their high customer review ratings of over 92% with less feedback regarding payment complications. Furthermore, the payment abandonment rate at checkout has considerably decreased by 80%.

With the cooperation of both parties, the integration was up and running within three weeks. The overall technical support is awesome, Mr. Chia said. "The local support team was very helpful in hooking Omise to the web vendor and explaining security implementations. They consistently assisted us from the testing process to launching and post-launch.”

In this era, we tend to express our love more the more we are kept apart, and Xpressflower endlessly explores ways to improve their business to provide the best gifting experience for the senders and recipients. Omise is honored to be a part of bringing smiles to everyone's faces.