Key Factors to Consider While Choosing an Ecommerce Payment Gateway

 

As a business owner, if you are looking for ways to establish, manage, and monitor your business on a digital platform, then definitely you would need to choose a payment method for the store. As the customers are being exposed to newer, seamless, effortless, and efficient modes of payment in the digital world, it is becoming important for businesses to run parallel to the ever-changing technology. Having an easy, secure, and flawless mode of payment will allow your consumers to experience a fast service from your end. With the advancement in technology and the availability of countless financial services, choosing the best eCommerce payment gateway can be a daunting task.

Here are some of the factors to consider while choosing a digital payment gateway that will ensure profitability, and long-term success.

1. Check for data security 
   Ever tried putting yourself in the buyers’ shoes? What’s the first thing that comes to your mind while you think of online shopping and payment? Obviously, data security! To keep your customers’ data safe and secure, you should choose an online payment service provider, which is compliant with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). The payment gateway should also offer unbeatable security features along with anti-fraud protection to users’ data and information.
2. Look for processing speed
   For an ecommerce owner, it becomes very important to sustain your consumer base and what’s a better way than offering a super-fast transaction speed along with data security? Apart from selling products and services on an online platform, the processing speed of transactions also matters a lot. In order to offer an end-to-end solution, you should consider a payment gateway that offers a super-fast money transfer from your customers’ bank account to your bank account.
3. Countries and multi-currency support
   If you have a product line with global demand, then you should look for a payment gateway with multi-currency options. This will help you in establishing a trust factor amongst international shoppers. If you offer payment in native currencies, then it will be easier for you to receive and make cross-border payments as well.
4. Read terms of services & fee agreements
   Since the digital world is exposed to a number of potential clauses and conditions, hence it becomes very important to read the various terms and conditions offered by the payment gateway providers. The pricing agreements, procedure, and service costs are basically influenced by the types of business transaction, frequency of transaction, your sales and revenues, etc. Before signing any contract or agreement, you should gather all the information about the price, fees, and hidden costs (if any).
5. Other considerations
   Merchant dashboard access, fund management, fraud-screening tools, easy integration process, and smooth checkout are some of the other factors, you should consider while looking for a payment gateway for your ecommerce business.

Ecommerce websites are connected through various social media platforms as well. Hence, as an online business owner, your prime focus should be towards the customers’ data security and satisfaction. If you follow the mentioned tips and do your homework right, choosing a suitable and profitable eCommerce payment gateway will be a cakewalk for you.

Find Out How Payment Gateways Can Make Work From Home Easy

In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, more and more professionals are choosing to work from home, be it for local or international clients. This has not only ushered in more flexibility and productivity, but it is also an effective way of following social distancing rules. However, when it comes to the payments and fees for the work done, freelancers and consultants often worry if they will receive the same on time or without hassles. Hence, there is a need to make domestic and international payments easy, safe and efficient. Reputed payment gateways can help in this regard as they ensure quick deposition of funds in the employee’s or freelancer’s account, without making the transaction susceptible to frauds.

Now, clients will always look for the best and secure mode of payment that is available to them, without incurring high fees for international money transfers to overseas employees or freelancers. While online payment gateways are perfect for sending and receiving international payments, there are a few other ways in which this can be done.

International bank accounts

The setup may sound complicated as it will require some level of documentation. However, having one or even multiple bank accounts for freelancers getting regular international payments is better as it is easy to hold on to the money without converting. This is especially useful when the conversion rates are high, since there is no requirement for immediate conversion then, which can take place at a time when the currency exchange is most favorable. With a bank account, it is possible to cut down on the several fees that each payment incurs.

Wire transfers

This is one of the most common ways by which money is transferred internationally, although it is expensive to do so. Freelancers, who are not as active and get paid a few times a year, opt for such transfers usually. Although there is a deduction involved for the fees and the exchange rates, which may or may not be favorable for them, it is a reliable method for getting paid. These types of transfer are done by using account details, where the client will incur high fees for the transfer. This is the reason why wire transfers are not always the ideal solution for both parties.

So, what is the solution?

The goal is to find a middle path, where the client pays a minimum amount for each payment disbursement and the freelancer faces a minimal deduction for fees besides the currency exchange rates, which cannot be avoided. While the main currency for payment and a popular choice for most is the USD, the currency is discussed at the start of every project and is considered to be the preferred mode of payment for those assignments or projects. Hence, online payment gateways are widely used as they support multiple currencies, no matter where the employee or freelancer is located.

However, it is prudent to not opt for the cheapest gateway. This is because there may be hidden charges or the system may be slow and inefficient. Some companies also hold the money for up to a week sometimes before one can access their funds after payment. All in all, fast, efficient, reliable and easy to set up systems that do not charge very high fees are essential for making regular international payments in various currencies easy.

So, before choosing a payment gateway, carefully consider its features, compare multiple gateways and their fees, assess your needs, and then arrive at a decision.

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An Affordable Online Payment Gateway for the Food Industry

The recent trend of going cashless for most transactions has been picking up since before, and a recent survey has shown that more than 70% of customers prefer to pay by card for their restaurant bill payment. More than 80% of the full-service restaurants are paid by debit, credit or prepaid cards.

This shows how the seamless transition from cash to cashless transactions has been moving forward through the last two decades. Businesses dealing with food and restaurants are looking for affordable online payment gateway for seamless transaction with ease and security.

Benefits of going completely cashless for this industry

Although business owners are going cashless, not everyone is completely happy with the decision. Card transactions come with benefits like, simplified accounting processes, reducing risk of pilfering and thefts, increasing profits as people who pay by card generally spend more, easy calculations of tips and many payment terminals at such establishments calculate and give a percentage-based gratuity amount for the customers.

The costly affair for entrepreneurs

Credits card processing is a costly affair for business owners. To understand this one has to understand that payment processors assume the risk of every debit and credit card transaction at the restaurant. What this means is that, in case of any type of fraud, or if the restaurant goes bankrupt, the financial fallout will be borne by the payment processor.

Fee structures and breakups

The fee structure whole not complicated can be extensive, even with an affordable payment gateway. The basic costs and surcharges are mentioned below for a clearer understanding.

Flat fees

These are the typical fees that are fixed and are used to cover the basic cost of each transaction by the payment processing companies. They are:

•    Annual fee
•    Monthly fee
•    Online reporting fee
•    Terminal fee
•    Payment gateway fee
•    Network access fee
•    Statement fee
•    Batch fee

Situational fees

These types of fees are relevant when considering a specific event or an occasion’ the various components of this type of fees are as follows:

•    Cancellation fee
•    Chargeback fee (non-negotiable)
•    International fee (non-negotiable)
•    Liquidated damages fee
•    Monthly minimum fee
•    NSF fee (non-negotiable)
•    Set-up fee

These types of fees are not levied for day to day activities, but in case of a cancellation, or international payments, etc.

Processing fees

These types of charges are generally paid by the payment processing units; the payment processor that is used will levy these charges onto the business owners. Therefore, to get the complete picture, as an entrepreneur in the food industry, you will need to pay a combination of flat fees, situation fees, and processing fees. This is quite expensive for the businesses, as they are paying a high price for every credit card payment.

Entrepreneurs should be mindful of the charges and clarify at the time of setting up. An affordable online payment gateway will work alongside the merchants to get the best deal while also covering all the ancillary costs that are incurred by the processing unit. Technology, while simplifying lives, has also come with a huge price tag for businesses worldwide.

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All You Need to Know About Secure Payment Processor

As there is an increase in the number of people using the online ecommerce portals for their everyday needs, there is also an increase in the ways cyber criminals are devising strategies to encrypt accounts of online users for fraudulent purposes. If you are online business owner and have an ecommerce website, it is imperative that you have systems and protocols in place to ensure the online safety of your consumers. The first step to do this is to engage the services of a secure payment processor so that your consumers don’t have to worry about their data or their money when dealing in financial transactions with your ecommerce website.

How do merchants provide secure online payments?

As an online merchant and the owner of an ecommerce website, it is your responsibility to ensure the online safety of your customers. Your customers’ personal and confidential data can be misused at various points and hence, it is important that you scrutinize all vulnerable points of payment processing to guard the interests of your customers. The first thing that you can do to ensure this is to deal with a secure payment processor. The next thing is to ensure that your website is secure. A good way to make sure of this is to use SSL protocol to encrypt information on your site. With SSL certificates, your website is recognized as a protected and safe site to deal with.

PCI compliance is the next essential thing to ensure sensitive data during payments and other transactions is protected. Tokenization is another important aspect to ensure payment security through payment gateways. Tokenization allows for customer authentication during payment process with impacting the security of the transaction. There is also the address verification service that requires customers to provide their billing address associated with the credit or debit card they are using for added security.

How can merchants prevent fraud?

When creating your online ecommerce website for retail business, it is important to conduct a risk analysis to identify all possible vulnerabilities. Compliance with all payment, security and risk standards of the countries you operate in is a non-negotiable step to make sure that your business is secure and safe. One of the biggest concerns in today’s online business world is that of payment fraud. It is quite strife and hence, online merchants need to make a concerted effort to prevent it.

While it may be impossible to completely prevent fraud, there are warning signs that online businesses should watch out for. Monitoring your orders before shipping them with specific attention to international shipping orders is one of the most important things to keep in mind as this is one of the most common aspects that can involve fraudulent transactions. As identifying fraudulent transactions needs comprehensive knowledge, using anti-fraud applications and right fraud protection service from professional providers is recommended.

Apart from the above aspects, monitoring the payments from customers to predict any possibility of risk is also recommended. With a secure payment processor, most security related aspects are covered but it always helps to be extra cautious.

Things to Keep in Mind While Selecting the Best Global Payment Processing Services

If you are dealing with eCommerce businesses, then having the ability to sell products to shoppers across the globe is always an added advantage. According to PWC’s Total Retail 2016 report, you can have up to 65 per cent customers from all corners of the world if your products match their expectations. The reports also suggest that the figure is steadily rising, so investing in a global payment processing platform is the need of the time. Before going into the details of the working of these processors, let us understand in layman’s language how they can help you in bringing traction to business.

What is Global Payment Processing?

Global payment processing helps you to accept payments and undertake financial transactions from international clients. Through this platform, consumers can have the option of making payments for their purchases in their local currency. In this way, your business can expect a higher turnover rate, as customers feel more comfortable in making payments at their national currency. It also boosts their confidence while purchasing the products since they can compare the price of the commodity with other similar products available on competitive platforms.

How Does Global Payment Processing Function?

As already pointed out, global payment processing helps in international financial transactions. When a foreign customer visits your site and decides to purchase a product, at first, he submits the order. The payment gateway, at this juncture, captures the customer’s transaction request along with his credit card details and redirects it to the payment processor. The processor then checks security features and validity of the card and send it to cardholder’s bank for approval. The bank again runs fraud checks against the transaction, and if it finds it legitimate, approves the deal. After this, the payment is made, and the processor notifies the processes to the customer via the payment gateway.

Things to Consider before Selecting the Best Global Payment Processing Platform

Here are some of the points worth considering before selecting the best global payment processor.

Services Offered by Processors

The first thing to consider before employing a global payment processor is going through in detail the services offered by them. Some of the essential features include multiple currency payment schemes, notifying customers and trader in the event of any fraudulent activity, and check the validity of cards.

Countries Included in the Service

It is a fact that the UAE is an economically strong country, and consumers from various countries browse through the online stores that are based in the UAE. To convert these visitors to probable customers, you need to have a capable PayTabs payment gateway and global processor supporting financial transaction of foreigners from multiple countries. Before finalising the processor, run a check whether countries, where you are expecting maximum clients, are included in their list.

Technical Integration

The technical integration should be simple, and customers and traders need not have to use programming skills for using the service. The seamless payment process and easy checkout offers an excellent experience to clients and improves turnover.

These were, in brief, some of the features you should keep in mind before employing a global payment processing service. Many online traders have experienced exponential growth in sales after resorting to these processors. There are many service providers available in the UAE, go through their portfolios in detail and select the best platform.

Essential Characteristics of the best Payment Gateway UAE

Payment gateways are the future of transactions in the world. They make a transaction easy and safe for both customers and merchants. Payment gateways have taken over the world in just a few years, and the UAE is no different. To find the best payment gateway UAE has to offer, you first need to know the characteristics that are essential for the best payments gateway. This will help you choose wisely.

Here are few of those essential characteristics:

Smooth Interface
When people procure any app or its services, they expect the app to work smoothly. A great payment gateway needs to run smoothly for a variety of clients with a variety of business requirements. It also needs to be accessible by a variety of people with different technological backgrounds. Before making a decision on using the services of a payment gateway, you need to figure out the unique requirements of your business and then try and see which one suits you best.

Secure
Hackers and cyber attacks are a real problem that has been increasingly targeting the online payment gateway sector. Online payment gateways have become popular and therefore sensitive. All online payment gateways have a huge cache of your banking, client banking and personal information. Make sure that the payment gateway you choose has an updated anti-virus program and also ensure that you continually keep it updated. It needs to have a high level of encryption according to current standards. Only then will your transactions truly be safe and secure.

Speed
In the online world, speed is of utmost importance. If a payment gateway is not fast enough, potential customers might simply abandon the cart and you will lose out on revenues. Since most payment gateway users generally have international invoices as well, fast as well as smooth and seamless transactions are mandatory. You need to look for an online payment gateway that possesses an effective processor for speed.

Compatibility
The best payment gateway UAE has to offer should be able to easily and seamlessly integrate with other systems for optimal benefits to the user. You can then integrate it with your website and other statistical and banking apps for prime usage.

Payment gateways used to be the future 10-15 years ago. Right now, we’re living in that future! There are countless payment gateway options that cater to various kinds of businesses today, and hence making a choice might seem daunting. However, the above mentioned characteristics should be able to guide you to make the best and most relevant choice possible.

The best payment gateway UAE companies want are user-friendly, safe from online attacks, fast on all levels, easy to integrate, and compatible with other programs and online systems. So, compare their features, benefits and costs before you zero in on one. The payment gateway provider should also have an expert customer support team that can resolve all your issues as and when they arise.

Ecommerce Payment Gateway in Dubai for Real-Time Payments

Dubai is witnessing a boom in ecommerce, a trend that is prevalent across the globe. Online retail is flourishing as mobile internet technology has improved tremendously. It allows people to shop or find products and services on the go. The demand for ecommerce stores has created the need for a dedicated ecommerce payment gateway (link). Dubai, like the rest of the world is realising it.

Most online retailers are looking for real-time payment gateways that allow them to receive payments from their customers at the drop of a hat. The good news is that real-time payment gateways are available, but online stores have to make sure that they choose the right one.

Real-time Payment Systems

Real-time payment systems have been around for some time. They allow merchants, consumers and financial institutions to transfer money, settle bills and pay consumers and others without a hitch. However, the concept of paying now used to be restricted to cash payments, with money exchanging hands in real-time before a buyer could get access to the product or service they needed. Internet has revolutionised the pay now concept and is bringing about a change in traditional payment methods. This change is being driven by consumers, who want to get the items they shop for, quickly.

Cash is Passé

Money was invented in the 7th century BC and has been used ever since as a way to pay in real-time for purchases. Even after credit cards and cheques became the norm, cash payments have not ceased. However, cash brings its own challenges, like storage and transportation. And, in case of online retailers, who offer the convenience of cash on delivery, these transactions can result in increased overheads and also affect their cash flow.

With growing use of smart devices and thriving online retail, it has become necessary for consumers and online retailers to adopt real-time payments. This is where you need a reliable and efficient ecommerce payment gateway. Dubai has many online retailers who are warming up to the idea.

Paving the Way for Seamless Real-Time Transactions

Ecommerce payment gateways have disrupted online retail. Previously, due to the cost of integrating these gateways, just the big retailers could afford them. Now, small and medium retailers can also use an ecommerce payment gateway. Dubai is seeing such a trend increasingly, and hence online businesses are growing rapidly. Such a gateway allows small and medium online retailers in Dubai to widen their customer base as they can accept payments through debit and credit cards and online banking. The best part is that the gateway allows purchases to take place in real-time so the retailers get the money immediately in their bank accounts.

These payment gateways have contributed to the boom that the online retail industry in Dubai and the rest of the world is witnessing. If you are contemplating taking your retail store online, you should look for the best ecommerce payment gateway. Dubai is a happening place for online stores and brands, and with the right gateway, you can accept payments not just in Dirhams, but also in other currencies. This way, you will be able to cater to the needs of the expatriate community that lives in the UAE and also spread the reach of your business to other GCC countries.

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