The biggest mistake is treating “e‑commerce” as a catalogue and keeping payment offline.
The real problem behind “please call to pay”
For a lot of Canadian small businesses, “going online” means putting products and a contact form on a website, then asking customers to email or call to complete payment. It feels safer and cheaper at first, but it quietly kills conversion.
From the customer’s point of view, it looks like this:
- They browse like it’s a normal store.
- They pick what they want.
- At the moment they’re ready to buy, the site throws them off a cliff: “Contact us to order” or “Call to pay.”
That’s where you lose them. Modern buyers expect to:
- See total cost (including tax and shipping) before committing.
- Pay instantly, at any hour, with a familiar method: credit card, Interac, digital wallet.
- Get an immediate confirmation/receipt.
When that doesn’t happen, three doubts pop up immediately:
- “Is this legit?” – No clear checkout and no automated receipt feels sketchy.
- “This will be a hassle.” – Now they need to call during business hours or wait for a quote.
- “I’ll just buy from the competitor that lets me check out now.”
So even if your products and prices are good, you’ve turned your site into a brochure, not a store.
Why Canadian businesses fall into this trap
A few patterns show up again and again:
- Fear of fraud and chargebacks, especially with card‑not‑present transactions.
- Worry about PCI compliance and storing card data.
- Concern about transaction fees eating margin.
- Using a generic website designer who can build pages, but not workflows and payments.
- Legacy habits from B2B: “We always quote, then invoice.”
Those are real concerns, but the way out is not to avoid online payments; it’s to use the right tools so you never touch raw card data and you price in the fees.
How to avoid the “call to pay” trap
Here’s the practical path out of it:
- Use a platform with built‑in payments and checkout
For most small businesses, that means something like Shopify or Addio Commerce. These handle PCI compliance for you and give you a standard, trustworthy checkout flow.
- Turn online payment into the default, not the exception
Configure the store so the normal path is: add to cart → shipping + taxes → pay now. If you still want to allow manual payment (e.g. PO, e‑transfer for B2B), hide that behind an explicit alternative, not as the only option.
- Offer familiar payment methods
Beyond credit cards, enable at least one of:
- Interac debit
- Apple Pay / Google Pay
These instantly increase trust for Canadian shoppers who are wary of putting in card numbers.
- Be explicit about security instead of hiding behind the phone
Add a short, plain‑language reassurance near checkout: you use a secure payment processor, you don’t store card details, and you comply with local privacy laws. That addresses the same fears that make you want to keep payments on the phone, but in a way that builds online trust.
- Price for fees instead of trying to dodge them
Build transaction fees into your margin model. A predictable 2.9%–3% fee on a sale you actually close is better than a 0% fee on a cart that never converts because the customer didn’t want to call.
- Tighten your risk controls instead of adding friction
Use the fraud tools in your gateway (AVS, CVV, risk scoring, 3‑D Secure where available). For genuinely risky orders (large B2B, unusual destinations), you can add a manual review step; but don’t make every $40 order go through a phone call.
- Make exceptions clearly exceptional
If you absolutely must say “call or email to pay” for certain edge cases (custom work, freight shipping, regulated products), keep that off the core catalog. Use separate “request a quote” flows so your standard products still benefit from clean, one‑shot checkout.
In one sentence
True e‑commerce means letting customers choose, pay, and get confirmation in one seamless flow; every time you push them into “please call to pay,” you’re telling them to go finish the transaction on someone else’s website instead.
Going further
Thinking about getting your business into the e-commerce game? Our ebook, "From Brick to Click, Implementing Online Sales into an Existing Business Model" it a great place to start.
Ready to move forward with e-commerce? Tell us about your project!