Things to Know Before Choosing A Payment Gateway for Your Business |
Posted: October 17, 2019 |
Over the last decade e-commerce websites have become a huge success, just think of Amazon and how it has grown into an e-commerce giant. One of the most important parts of running a successful e-commerce business is being able to process secure online payments, this is where a payment gateway comes into play. A payment gateway is a merchant service that manages the online financial transactions between a business and its customers. There are many things a business should consider before choosing a payment gateway and we will discuss those points but before we do that, we need to understand why is a payment gateway crucial. Why Is A Payment Gateway Crucial?
As mentioned, a payment gateway is a third-party merchant service that is used to process payments between businesses and their customers. With the increase in e-commerce sites and mobile applications, a consumer can buy anything online, right from a toothbrush to a house, anything can be bought. The customer can choose to buy something from a local business or buy the same thing from a business across the world. This ease of access is possible because of the secure payment options these businesses provide and these businesses are able to provide this ease of access by using third-party merchant services. By using a payment gateway a business can accept payments through; credit cards, debit cards, online banking, mobile banking, and other online payment wallets. If you are a business that wants to sell its products or services online, then you need a payment gateway. Without a secure payment gateway, an online business cannot survive. Types of Payment Gateways
Today there are many different types of payment gateways but to break it down in an easy way, there are two kinds; one is the traditional payment gateway and the other is the modern payment gateway. Traditional payment gateways are mostly managed by banks and require the business to have a merchant account, this is different from a bank account the business has. When a financial transaction is made the sum is transferred to the merchant account before it is released to the business bank account. A modern payment gateway or hosted payment gateway does not require a merchant account when a financial transaction is made using a payment gateway the sum is transferred into the business account much quicker than a traditional payment gateway.
What Are the Things to Consider While Choosing A Payment Gateway?
A business needs to consider quite a few things before choosing a payment gateway, let us discuss them in details.
Type of Business
The first thing to consider is the type of business you have, for example, if you have an e-commerce store you need to get a payment gateway that can be incorporated with the shopping cart on your online store. You need to check if your CMS (Customer Management System) supports the payment gateway. If you have used OpenCart to build your shopping cart then the good thing is that you can almost integrate any payment gateway into it. So, you need to make sure that the payment gateway you pick, can be integrated into your website and or mobile application. Accepted Currency
Knowing where most of your customers are from is important to make sure that the payment gateway you choose has access to their currency. For example, if most of your customers are from Australia then the payment gateway should accept Australian dollars and not only US dollars. You need to see if your payment gateway accepts oversea payments for not. Setup and Transaction Fees
You need to look at the setup and transaction fees that your payment gateway is charging. Some payment gateways do not have a setup fee but have a higher transaction fee. Some have a fixed monthly fee for a number of transactions and some charge of each transaction. Traditional payment gateways require a lot more work to get started and they also delay your payments by a day or two by using a merchant account but their transaction fees are cheaper than host payment gateways. You need to calculate and see if the fee methods if best for your business. Check the contract length, cancelation fees, refund policies, and any other hidden fee. Security
Keeping your business and its customers secured is one of the most important and toughest things to do. With hackers getting away with millions every year, it is your responsibility to make sure that you have a safe and secure payment method for your customers. Security is a shared responsibility of your business and the payment gateway. You need to make sure that you create a secure website/mobile application, use experienced and trustworthy developers while building your online business. Whether you are using a Java developer, a PHP developer or building your website/mobile application on Python or ROR, you need to make sure that developers you hire are able to create a secure application. If you are using OpenCart or building a shopping cart from starch it has to be made secure to protect you and your customers. Apart from this, you need to make sure you choose a payment gateway that adheres to the highest security standards and policies. Research to see if they have had any security issues in the past, do your due diligence before choosing your payment gateway. Support
A good payment gateway should not need a lot of support but you should have access to it just in case you need it. Some providers do not have 24x7 support options, some charge you extra for getting support. This is something you should look into as a business you can’t afford to be stuck without support when you need it. So, try to get a payment gateway that offers 24x7 support. Conclusion
As a payment gateway is something that an online business can’t do without, getting the right one is of utmost importance. Before getting a payment gateway, a business should know all the things mentioned in this article. The best thing to do if your business can is to get at least two payment gateways. This way you have access to more customers who use different types of payment options. Also, in case there is a technical error with one gateway your business does not come to a halt as the customer can use the other one. In simple terms, you should choose a payment gateway after thinking about what the customer needs, what your business needs and how secure is it. Below are some of the most famous gateways, you can look into their prices, security policies and then make your decision.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|