Purchase on invoice

The invoice is a payment option for customers, other payment methods including credit card, debit card or PayPal. If the customer chooses to pay his online purchase by invoice, he receives an invoice with a payment request. After the delivery of the goods, the invoice must be paid by bank transfer. The settlement is made either directly or within a specific time frame. It is also possible to stipulate a different date for the settlement.

Popularity of payment on invoice

Invoice transactions are an attractive choice for customers for many reasons:

• The buyer disposes of more time to prepare the sum needed for payment.
• If the product does not meet the expectations, it can be returned without any payment.
• Security-oriented buyers are not willing to provide sensitive banking or credit card information via the Internet.

In definitive, another strong incentive is the simplicity to cancel a non-delivered order.

An e-commerce favourite in Germany, Austria and Switzerland

The purchase on account is the most popular payment method in Germany. According to the EHI study "Online-Payment 2016", 29 percent of the e-commerce revenues are invoiced. The share of sales generated by invoice sales even grew by one percent compared to the previous year. In Austria and Switzerland, the purchase via invoice is an increasingly popular payment method, which augment the conversion rate in the online shop. The popularity of this payment method is independent from demographic variables. It is especially popular with women in the high-fashion sector and with men in ticketing.