The e-commerce market is on an all-time rise nowadays, as most of the consumers are preferring online shopping. Users are not afraid of any high-value transactions on eCommerce websites. Be it electronics, apparels, footwear or books, everything is available online as everybody is willing to make purchases from the comfort of their home. Continuous increases in growth are the proof and this year’s shoppers are going to spend more than $1.6 trillion through eCommerce websites.An eCommerce business or website can be successful considering numerous factor and one of the important reasons that contribute to such website’s success is the payment gateway. There are numerous payment gateways available and you can also create your own.
What is a Payment Gateway?
An online tool that verifies the entered information and processes payment from websites/mobile apps to bank/payment processors is called payment gateway. To make sure that the entered details are safe, it encrypts all the data like the card number, expiration date, and CVV code. You can learn more about this by visiting cardknox.
How to choose the right payment gateway?
You, as an e-Retailer have two choices in terms of payment gateways
a. Integrated payment gateways connect directly to the eCommerce website through the provided API. A user makes the payment on your website without visiting any third party link. Since users are entering their financial credentials on your website, it is your responsibility to keep the data protected. You will need a professional developer to take care of integration as this is a huge task to maintain.Apart from that, you will need a merchant account to receive and refund payments. Some integrated gateways are:
| Gateway | Setup fee | Monthly/Per transaction fee |
| Authorise.net | $49.00 | $25 per month |
| MangoPay | Nil | 1.8% + €0.18 per transaction. |
| Stripe | Nil | 2.9% + $0.30 / transaction |
Hosted payment gateways take the user to the payment processor’s platform to complete the payment and then redirect back to the website. In this process, you are not required to be the safeguard of the user’s financial data. If you think that leaving the website will not result into low conversion rate, you can opt for the hosted gateways. Some of the renown hosted gateways:
| Gateway | Setup fee | Per transaction fee |
| PayPal | Nil | 2.4% to 3.4% + $0.30 per transaction |
| SagePay | Starts from £20.90 | No per transaction fee |
| Amazon Payments | Nil | 2.9% + $0.30 |
| Stripe | Nil | 2.9% + $0.30 (1% on internatioal cards) |
As you can see that gateway differs in terms of the transaction, set up and per transaction fees. Look for a gateway that has a reasonable fee structure. For example, at present, sites like https://tbffinance.com/ provide a reasonable fee structure.
Platform Compatibility
Another thing to check is the payment gateway’s compatibility with the eCommerce platform. Before selecting the payment gateway, make sure that it has the extensions or plugin required to work effortlessly with the shopping cart. Otherwise, you will waste extra times to find extensions to integrate the gateway website.
Security
The payment gateway provider should be Level 1 compliant with PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) and should provide inbuilt security features. They must have strong encryption on all the payment pages, proper authentication process and API has to be secure to post data from or to the website.
Support
Once you decide what will be the payment gateway for the eCommerce website, always check about the support that you will be receiving during the contract. Identify the support type – phone/e-mail/chat, any cost involved in the same and the response time to reach the support person if you face any trouble.
Ask for a demo as well, to check how the gateway appear on the website. How many clicks or pages it takes to confirm the payment that also without compromising with the consumer’s information.
