Choose The Right Payment Gateway Providers To Take Up Your Business To Certain Heights
Whether you own an eCommerce platform or simply maintain an online presence, you want to provide your customers with a secure, quick, and simple payment system. The payment solution you select must meet the needs of both your customers and your business. As a result, it must be secure, accept a variety of payment methods, be easy to use, and be compatible with your platform.
A payment gateway is used by a merchant to accept electronic payments and process credit or debit cards. The currencies you can accept, the transaction fee, how quickly money arrives in your merchant account, and the payment methods you'll offer are all determined by the payment gateway you use.
Over 23% of customers abandon their shopping carts due to a complicated checkout system (11%) or too much information required to complete it. These statistics confirm that selecting the right payment solution provider is just as important as choosing the right eCommerce website. But, before we can choose a payment solution, we must first understand what a payment gateway is and how it works.
What Exactly is a Payment Gateway?
A payment gateway is a service that authorizes and processes payments in both online and traditional retail locations. A gateway acts as a medium for transactions between customers and merchants. To ensure the security of transaction data, it employs security protocols and encryption. Data is transferred back and forth from websites/applications/mobile devices to payment processors/banks.
Payment Gateways Can Process the following types of Transactions:
Authorization - Authorization is a type of transaction used to determine whether a customer has sufficient funds to pay. It doesn't include the actual money transfer. Instead, a merchant verifies that a cardholder can pay for an ordered item during authorization. For orders that take a long time to ship/manufacture, an authorization transaction is used.
Capture - Capture is the actual processing of a previously authorized payment, which results in funds being transferred to the merchant's account.
Sale – a transaction that combines authorization and capture. The cardholder must first be authorized. The funds may or may not be captured at that point. It's a regular payment method for one-time purchases such as subscriptions or e-tickets.
Refund – the outcome of a canceled order, for which a merchant must use refund payment processing to return the money.
Void – Similar to refund, but only possible if funds have not yet been captured.
Integration of a Payment Gateway
In general, there are four methods for integrating a payment gateway. They are all distinguished by two major characteristics:
- Whether you must comply with any financial regulations (PCI DSS), and the level of user experience in the checkout and payment procedure.
- So, let's look at your options and see which integration methods are best for you.
What exactly is PCI DSS compliance, and when do you require it?
If you only need a payment gateway solution and do not intend to store or process credit card data, you can skip this section because your gateway or Payment Gateway Provider will handle the entire processing and regulatory burden.
However, if you're dealing with sensitive financial data, you'll need to follow some industry regulations. Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) compliance is required for card payment processing. The four largest card associations, Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover, developed this security standard in 2004.
Selecting a Payment Gateway Provider
You can now select a payment solution for your company that takes into account all factors, including your company's specifics and customers. Here are some things to think about before choosing a provider.
Examine the pricing
Payment processing is complicated because it involves multiple financial institutions or organizations. A payment gateway, like any other service, charges a fee for using third-party tools to process and authorize transactions. Each party involved in payment verification/authorization or processing charges a fee. Transactions are commonly billed based on the amount, location (within a specific country or internationally), and type of product (physical or digital).
Each payment solution provider has its own set of terms and fees. Typically, you will encounter the following fee types:
There is a setup fee for the gateway, a monthly gateway fee, a merchant account setup fee, and a fee for each transaction processed.
Read all of the pricing documentation to avoid any hidden fees or extra costs.
Examine the Transaction Limits for a Specific Provider
While fees and installation charges are unavoidable, one factor may determine whether you can work with a particular provider. Transaction limits are set by gateway providers as a minimum and maximum amount. Both values are important to merchants and their businesses because they want to use a single gateway for all available products.
Examine your options for Merchant Accounts
A merchant account is a contract between a merchant and an acquiring bank that allows the merchant to allow the bank to process their transactions. Furthermore, a merchant agrees to abide by the credit card companies' operational regulations for credit card processing.
A merchant account can be obtained from banks or payment gateway providers that provide merchant accounts as part of their service. Payment processors are included. If you already have a merchant account, think about what that provider has to offer. Otherwise, it's best to go with a provider who offers a merchant account right away.
Check with the Provider to See if your Product type is Permitted
In General, Providers Consider Two Types of Products: Digital And Physical.
Some payment solution providers provide services for both physical and digital products. However, it is not uncommon for only one type of product to be available for use with a specific system. So, before subscribing to a provider, make sure it allows your product type.
These are some of the factors that you should consider while choosing a Payment Gateway Provider.
Instantcharge allows customers to use their existing merchant account with its payment gateway. The company does, however, provide an all-in-one package that includes both a merchant account and a payment gateway. Both options provide recurring payments, invoicing, fraud prevention filters, customer information management, mobile payments, and an optional card reader to users.