Are You Using The Right Payment Gateway For Your Ecommerce Business

In the recent times, Ecommerce has become the fastest growing market segments. The competition is all time high and a wrong choice can be catastrophic for your Ecommerce business.

The success of your online endeavour depends mainly on how well your products are being sold to your customers. Most of the entrepreneurs will review their product or service quality from time to time, but what about the types of payment options available to your clients?

If you are running an Ecommerce business, you should know how to choose the right payment gateway so that it will fulfil all the needs of you and your target audience.  Implementing the right payment gateway can ensure long-term success of your Ecommerce business.  Here are some of the options when it comes to Ecommerce payment gateways. Choose the one that is the best fit for your business.

Traditional Payment Gateways

Traditional model is the most commonly used option by merchants. In this model, the payment gateway partners with a merchant acquirer like an Independent Sales Organization (ISO). The gateway just provides the software for conducting transactions and does not interact much with the clients. Most of the interaction is done by the ISO but if anything goes wrong and if the clients wants to make some changes, then ISO has control over the platform that is being used.

White Label Payment Gateways

This is a technology solution that serves payment providers and enables them to use third party technologies. They even support payment acceptance for their customers. White label payment gateways allow merchants to set up multiple IDs and separate accounts for specific locations for their business without increasing the number of parent accounts and login profiles. In this, ISO has more control over the quality of service that is being offered to the clients.

Payment Facilitators

Payment facilitators use a multi-tiered system and merchants that sign up under them are given sub-merchant accounts with a separate account and merchant ID. The best part about payment facilitators is that their cost structure is of flat rate and highly transparent.

In order to get your Ecommerce business up and running, Ecommerce payment gateway is one thing that you cannot do without. There are many payment gateway providers in the market. Even though each of the payment systems may seem equal but the quality and features of its each of them vary. Choose a gateway that guarantees you seamless and easy transaction and secures sensitive data of your customers. Make sure you find out all the options as a wrong choice call be fatal for your business.

How The Choice Of A Payment Gateway Service May Decide Your Success in Ecommerce

As a business owner and particularly an e-commerce vendor, you must know how money gets transferred from your customer to you. Payment processing involves two phases and these phases include the authorization phase in which the sale is approved and the settlement phase where in the money gets transferred to your account.




How A Transaction Takes Place

Let's go through the entire procedure of how a transaction takes place:

1. A shopper visits your site and purchases an item on it using a plastic card.
2. The information is transferred through the payment gateway, where it is encrypted and transferred again to the payment processor maintaining extreme privacy.
3. Your payment processor sends this information to the issuing bank along with an instruction to release the payment in order to complete the transaction.
4. The issuing bank can either approve or reject the request.
5. In case it's approved, your payment processor confirms the transaction and instructs your merchant bank to transfer the money to your account.

This sounds like too much work -- a flow diagram of too many activities, but in fact the entire procedure takes not more than one or two seconds.

The settlement part is the last and final part of the entire payment transfer process and you get paid at this stage.

The issuing bank will release the money, which gets transferred to your merchant bank first and in turn credits this money into your account.

What is Important?

Now you have the funds available in your account. Your merchant bank reserves the right to keep a part of the money transferred, which you cannot use. This is done to safeguard the interest of the customers in case they are not satisfied with the product and decide to return it.

Choose The Right Payment Gateway

In that case, the entire money has to be returned to the customer by your E-Commerce company. The entire settlement process might take a few days. This way, your selection of a payment gateway service is extremely important because it decides how a transaction is conducted on your website. It also affects the entire sales procedure, wherein you offer additional transparency and a better experience to your customer.

It also involves the role of technology in the entire process. If technology used is not able to support these operations in a timely manner, it would reflect badly on the entire customer experience. Your brand loyalty may go down and your revenues might get hit in a big way. No wonder, most of the business coaches and consultants say that customer experience is a crucial part of the success of your eCommerce venture.

Your failure to provide good customer experience may ultimately backfire on you and sabotage all your efforts to increase your revenues and grow your brand.

Finding The Right E-commerce Payment Gateway For You

As an e-commerce merchant, it is important to choose the right e-commerce payment gateway to ensure the success of your e-commerce website. Customer satisfaction should be the top most priority of a business owner.

If you do not secure the payment options, then there are high chances of losing customer’s trust. So, to ensure that your customers are happy, it is important to invest in the right e-commerce payment gateway. A right payment gateway is the one which can benefit both the buyer as well as the seller.

Secure: A payment gateway should meet all the compliance requirements and secure and protect customer’s sensitive data so that the merchant and the customer is safe from any fraudulent activities.

Quick :  Buyers prefer ecommerce websites where they can make the purchase with a credit card. A payment gateway ensures that the online transactions are fast and easy and make the payment process hassle-free for the customer.

Convenient : Customers who have an option of paying through credit card are more convenient as they can transact and shop at any point of time without visiting any physical store. 

Some of the factors worth considering while choosing an ecommerce payment gateway are:

1. Multi-currency support : It is recommended to check if the gateway provider supports multi-currency payments in case you want to reach out to shoppers globally. 

2. Sign-up process : Avoid PayTabs payment gateways which require the users to go through a sign-up process and fill up unnecessary fields and also it is advisable to go with a service provider with zero sign-up fees. Have a close look at the terms and conditions of the payment gateway provider. 

3. Payment Methods : Check out if they offer multiple payment methods such as credit cards, debit cards etc.

4. Fees Structure : Before signing up the contract, understand the fees structure as well as check if there are any hidden fees. Choose a cost efficient payment gateway provider that will help guard your profit margin and provide a good shopping experience for your customers. Pay close attention to the transaction fees of the payment gateway service provider and ensure that it is within your budget.

5. Customer Support : Ensure that the service provider offers 24/7 customer support to meet the requirements of the consumers both via telephone as well as email.

A right payment gateway provides a secure link between the ecommerce website and the bank. For an ecommerce business owner, these are some of the important factors to choose the right payment gateway for your ecommerce website. Go for a payment gateway that can handle all your customers’ transactions in a secure way and help achieve the trust of your buyers. 

Understanding Payment Gateway Services

If you are planning to run an online ecommerce business and intend to accept payments from your customers from across the world, its important that you understand the importance of payment gateway services and how it works to enable businesses receive money. Payment gateways basically help provide payment processing facilities, as a result of which your customer can use a debit card or credit card or an e-wallet to make payments for their purchase on your website.

Let’s Understand How Payment Gateway Services Works

Payment gateway services work by performing a variety of tasks (and checks) to ensure the transactions are carried out fast and securely. Here is an overview of how it happens.

1. Customer places an order online.
2. The customer’s web browser then encrypts the information before sending it to the merchant webserver via (usually) Secure Socket layer (SSL) encryption.
3. The merchant forwards the information to their registered Payment gateway via another SSL encrypted connection. The payment gateway forwards the transaction to the payment processor. The Payment Processor further transmits the information to the customer’s card issuing authority.
4. The card issuing authority transmits its response (approved, denied, etc) to the payment processor in code, which transmits that information to the payment gateway which relays the information to the original website, the merchant and the customer.
5. The merchant submits all approved responses to their chosen bank in batches (constituting many approvals) for account settlement. The bank deposits the approved amount to the merchant’s given bank account.

Advantages

1. Saves Time: You do not need to worry about installing expensive softwares, hardwares, servers and security protocols. All you need is a payment gateway, which does all the work for you since it removes the need to integrate a full payment platform. 

2. Helps in Bookkeeping: Before payment gateways, keeping track of all transactions was a complicated situation, with many transitions getting lost in the process. Now, every transaction is stored and can be referenced by the client at a click of a button.

3. User Friendly: Payment gateways are designed keeping user-friendliness as a top priority. The best payment gateway service providers make the software extremely simple so that small businesses have no difficult adapting to it.  

4. Affordable Fees: Due to the nature of payment gateways (which handle thousands, if not millions of transactions), they charge a very low fee for conducting the transactions (Usually just 1% of transaction amount). This is considerably lower than suing other channels of secure payment.

5. Convenient: Almost all online transactions use payment gateways along with almost all online merchants. This means it can be used anywhere.

Things To Consider While Choosing A Payment Gateway

1. Check whether your payment gateway accepts international payments and multi-currency payments. 

2. Find out whether the payment gateway is Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) complaint. It should also offer built-in security capabilities. 

3. It’s also good to ensure that your provider has the necessary technology to fight fraud and offer screening tools. 

4. Understand whether your business requires a hosted or a non-hosted payment gateway. And then check whether your provider offers the type of service you want. 

Choosing the right payment gateway is critical for your business. As an online ecommerce entrepreneur, it always makes sense to understand the full scope of the service before you launch your business.

Top Advantages of Choosing a Local Payment Service Provider

Any merchant running an e-commerce website would undoubtedly need a Payment Service Provider (PSP) of some sort or the other. Payment service providers form an integral part of a business as they offer a wide range of solutions to improve the company growth. They help merchants to accept credit card or other forms of payments along with other services like risk management, transaction reconciliation and fraud protection.

With an overwhelming number of payment service providers in the market, choosing a one that meets your business needs can be difficult. As an online seller, it is worthwhile to choose a service provider who is local so that he understands you, your target audience and most importantly the local market. Here are the top advantages of using a local payment service provider.

1. Local Currency- A local payment service provider will have connections with all the leading local banks and this will enable you to accept local currencies on your website. Having a merchant account with a local acquiring bank can be arranged by a local PSP and this will enable you to accept payments from customers in local currencies.  Thus, this will not only make the customers happy but will also save you from paying conversion fees. Like for instance, a local PSP can help you to avoid converting your customer’s payments from EUR to KES. Through a local PSP, you can gain higher profits, as it will exempt you from having to deal with fluctuating exchange rates.

2. Local Currency- A local payment service provider will have connections with all the leading local banks and this will enable you to accept local currencies on your website. Having a merchant account with a local acquiring bank can be arranged by a local PSP and this will enable you to accept payments from customers in local currencies.  Thus, this will not only make the customers happy but will also save you from paying conversion fees. Like for instance, a local PSP can help you to avoid converting your customer’s payments from EUR to KES. Through a local PSP, you can gain higher profits, as it will exempt you from having to deal with fluctuating exchange rates.

3.  Local Customers- A local PSP can be beneficial for your local customers too. Through a local PSP, customers will be able to carry out their transactions in the local language. This will not only improve customer experience but will also ensure a smooth and fast payment process. Transactions in the local language will speed up the time of transaction which in turn will keep the customers happy and boost up company sales.

4. Local Payment Methods- A local PSP will not only have the complete information about the most preferred payment methods by the customers but will also have all these preferred methods already integrated into their payment platform. Accepting multiple payment methods will not only help increase the customer satisfaction but will also improve the customer retention rates. Hence, it is worth investing in local payment methods.

5. Local Fraud Risks- A local PSP will provide risk management services and protect your business from fraud. PSP will not only keep customer information secure but will be aware of the all the common local fraud risks and schemes. They will have the expertise to accurately identify any fraudulent transactions, which an International PSP may not be able to identify as they are not equipped and familiar with local types of fraud.

A Local PSP can use the knowledge and expertise to keep the business secure, at the same time keep the customers happy and satisfied, all at a lower cost than using an international PSP.

Forced Signups vs. Allowing Customers to Purchase in Guest Mode

When we talk about user experience, it goes beyond the commonly understood norms of having good experience on a website. User experience is all about how the visitors feel on your website till the completion of their tasks. So, it matters how smooth navigation is and how quickly you can find information about the products you're going to buy without being redirected or clicking deeper links. 

What is User Experience

User experience is not just about smooth navigation. It's the overall experience that we offer to a visitor or customer. So from searching, filtering and selecting the right product to checkout -- everything should be smooth and quick. User interface should be intuitive.

Don’t Create Barriers in The Way of Conversion 

While doing this you need to keep all of the customer types in mind. There are a few customers, who do not want to sign up for your website while purchasing a product. If you have a policy of creating barriers such as mandatory signup or sign in, you may lose a great chunk of sales. According to surveys, there are a lot of customers who do not want to sign in or sign up for a website before they buy a product online. 

Allow Your Customers to Buy in Guest Mode

People resist signing up for various reasons. They may not want to be bothered about their email inbox getting spammed or mobile messages flooding in. Many a times, customers do not wish to signup because they may not intend to buy from you in future. They would also want to test the quality and service you offer while buying in guest mode.

The only way to persuade such customers to signup is offering them good experience. We understand that you need to harvest important data about your customers, but that shouldn't be done at the cost of annoyance of your customer. If they want to buy something anonymously, let them do it. Harvesting email addresses and other credentials is important but not always necessary. 

You must arrange for guest checkout as an option. Allowing your customers to buy in guest mode is always a good idea. It speaks well about your user experience and people love to buy from such sites. It doesn't mean that harvesting data is a bad idea; it only means that user experience should not be compromised at the cost of any such step. User experience should be on top and at the core of everything from searching the products to navigation to check out. 

Final Words

Forced signups sometimes hinder conversions. The same is true for a payment gateway integrated with your website. There shouldn't be any transaction failure from payment gateway. A transaction failure is always extremely annoying and not good for user experience. Choose an online payment gateway India that has a very low transaction failure rate. It should be supported by good technology. 

Why A Payment Gateway Is Crucial To Your Success In The Crowded Ecommerce Marketplace?

Digital has changed the way things happen in this world. Look around you - everything is digital now. Digital is no more linked with scientific fiction stories or sci-fi thriller movies like Tom Cruise's Minority Reports. Digital has actually become a part of our lives and is visible everywhere. 

The Digital Age

Needless to say that in next few decades, even your dresses and shoes would be attached with digital devices and you would be able to track the entire information about your house just by tapping the sensors attached to your shoe laces. You would be able to check what is there in the refrigerator, what needs to be thrown out and what can be consumed right away from its shelves. 

With shopping and business going global, digital payment has become an inevitable part of our daily life. You cannot even think of ancient methods working these days. ECommerce stores and online businesses can’t function if physical invoices, bills, and paper documents are exchanged between a buyer and a seller to complete a transaction, forget about making cash payments.

It is not just difficult, it's nearly impossible. It will not be able to support the way E-Commerce is conducted today with volumes of transactions taking place and trade happening across international borders.  Similarly, payment hassles will hinder any purchase attempts made by buyers online.

A Global Shift From Manual to Digital

With rapid globalization, increasing population and increasing complexity of life, technology has become the only life saver. In order to conduct commerce, money should be transferred from one hand to another without any friction. You cannot accept payments, if you are not ready to adopt the technology that facilitates you to accept payments across the world. Processing hundreds of transactions instantly every day is manually not possible. 

Gain The Trust of Your Customer

A payment gateway is an innovative technology that helps you overcome this problem. A secure payment processor enables you to accept payment quickly and easily, while keeping the financial information of your customers entirely safe. It is extremely important to gain the trust of your customers otherwise they will never share their financial information on your website.

Premium Services are Always Charged 

A payment gateway is an indispensable tool that helps you make money online. Just like every useful service, this is also a paid service. Choose a professional gateway service so you do not face problems that might impact your productivity.  So, even if you are being charged you must be sure that every penny you are paying adds value to your business and is helps you to increase your online profits. 

Customer service is a game changer.  Make sure your secure payment processor offer robust support, so in the event of any hiccup or problem it should be resolved as soon as possible without interrupting purchase transactions taking place on your website. Payment gateways can be the game changer as far as the success of your web-store is concerned.