How to choose a payment gateway for e-commerce?

Choosing the best payment gateway for e-commerce is a tricky proposition for many online businesses. What is the best payment gateway for your personal business? No one can say which is better: Square or paypal, Authorize.net or 2checkout There is no multilateral payment gateway comparison.

1. Determine the payment method you need.

Before comparing payment gateways, it is necessary to list all the payment methods you want to use on your website. A payment method is how a customer pays for a product or service.

2. Choose the best payment method.

Platform owners must create a business account in order to work with payment processors. This is a special business bank account that allows the owner to accept payments online. However, most modern gateways do not require a business account because a business account.

Classic Gateway

Classic Gateway only works after the business owner has established a merchant account and linked it to a best payment gateway for ecommerce account. Not all banks can set up merchant accounts. Be prepared to deal with other complications if you need to find a bank and prepare the necessary documents.

Gateways for businesses to create business accounts usually have lower fees and better data security. So if these benefits outweigh the advantages of other gateways, use these gateways.

Braintree and Authorize.net are classic gateways. However, they also offer the opportunity to create merchants instantly through partners.

One-stop payment system.

Most modern payment gateways do not require a business account. This simplifies the process of integrating payment gateways into your website. Businesses can seamlessly create accounts provided by the gateway. This allows businesses to avoid additional hassles with banks. paypal, Stripe and Dwolla represent such gateways. The integration process is much faster, but the cost is higher than the classic alternative. Note: In many cases, some business owners already have a business account. It's easier to use a classic gateway. What's more, not all integration gateways work with existing business accounts. Stripe, for example, only supports its own business accounts.

3. List the necessary payment methods.

The payment options supported by the gateway also vary. Payment option refers to a mechanism or payment plan.

The most popular e-commerce payment methods are:

Escrow is a legal arrangement in which a sum of money is temporarily deposited into a third-party (platform) account to protect the buyer and seller until certain conditions are met (such as the buyer confirming the purchase or service).

At the same time, a single payment is divided into two or more, namely the cost of purchasing the product and the cost of the platform or other costs of the goods or services.

Instalment payments are an option to pay for goods or services in installments over time. This is great for medium and large purchases.

Credit is an option when customers can buy now and pay later. In this case, the platform transfers all funds to the seller and then collects the money from the customer.

You can have earnings sent to your debit or credit card immediately, instead of waiting two or more business days.

Recurring charges are recurring online payments that are automatically charged to a customer's account over a predetermined period to pay for services or goods such as software, subscription-based services, donations, etc.

Bulk payments are an option for customers to pay multiple sellers at once. In addition to convenience, customers will also save on a flat rate per transaction.

4. Consider payment gateway checkout.

The checkout process can be completed in two ways.

Managed Checkout

You may notice that sometimes when you click the pay button, the site redirects you to another site where you must enter your payment details. This is how managed gateways work.

Since all sensitive data entry takes place on their pages, website owners shift responsibility for data security to payment gateways. Payment gateways are responsible for pCI compliance, data storage and protection.

Best of all, hosting integration is easier and faster, allowing you to start collecting payments almost immediately.

The only downside to this method is that it can affect conversion rates for customers who are suspicious of redirects and don't want to enter data on unknown pages.

Integrated Checkout

Integrated payment settlement means customers never follow third-party providers and enter all financial data on the same website. The data is encrypted and sent to the processor via the API. In this way, the website owner is responsible for complying with local laws and international safety regulations. Any breach of security can jeopardize your site's reputation, not to mention the threat of fines and legal action.

Integration is more difficult and time-consuming and requires programming knowledge. On the other hand, customers stay on your website without redirects - a big plus for conversion rates and overall user experience.

5. Ensure customer data security.

When processing online payments, special care should be taken to protect data. When choosing a payment gateway, there are several factors to keep in mind.

pCI DSS Compliance

Any website that accepts online payments must be secured in accordance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (pCI DSS).

pCI DSS is a data security standard for major credit card payments. Effective since 2006. Five payment systems (Visa, Mastercard, American express, JCB, Discover) increased the level of protection that year, requiring merchants to meet minimum security requirements when storing, processing and transmitting cardholder data.

3D Safety

3D Secure (3 Domain Security) is an extra security protocol designed to protect against fraudulent extra security protocols. 3DS technology verifies each transaction and redirects customers to the 3DS page if suspicious conditions are detected. In the event of a fraud warning, the bank will send the cardholder additional identification via a password or pin code.

Machine learning security.

Artificial intelligence and machine learning have been used to detect fraud for many years. By learning fraud schemes, the system can anticipate and prevent possible security breaches in advance. If you care about data security, pay attention to payment gateway providers for machine learning, in addition to standard security based on rules.