First things first, we want to congratulate you for taking your business online. Welcome to the world where you can reach millions of potential customers faster, sell 24*7, manage your business from anywhere in the world, deliver goods faster and much more. Accepting payments online is a critical aspect for online businesses and choosing the right payment partner is not easy given the plethora of options available in the online world.

To start off with, you need to understand how payment gateway works – Simply put, it is the entity that allows you to accept payments from you customers in a secure manner. When a customer clicks ‘Pay’, a payment gateway is the entity that handles all the ensuing steps and:

  • Communicates with the customer’s bank, card schemes & other entities involved
  • Sends verification message to the customer
  • Most importantly, gets money settled into your bank account paid!

This blog explains how online payments work. Now that you know How payment gateways work, the next important question is Which payment one fits the best for your business? Here are six important points to help you narrow down your options:

Technology and Type of Integration

API is at the heart of robust and reliable payment system. Easy to integrate API makes your developers super happy. The kind of integration required varies with every business. Is your business app only? Are you looking for website integration? Don’t want the hassles of PCI DSS and other compliance? While you may be using only one solution right now say mobile checkout right now, choose the one which can support your future integration needs too. Evaluate the benefits of hosted vs. embedded integration, SDK integration and more. This is most essential for giving the best payment experience to your customers.

Flexibility

Enquire about the technical documentation and the on-boarding process. You wouldn’t want to take days and weeks to complete the integration process resulting in increased time and money efforts. The best payment gateways will offer clean and easy set of APIs. This will help you in quick go live by allowing you to integrate with just a few lines of code. Another important point to consider is how quickly you change your existing integration with your business requirements.

Reach

Where are your customers located? Will you be selling globally in the future? While you may get multiple options for local payment gateways but international payment processors are far and few. Features like multi-currency support, international card support, settlement currency and other features for international payments can hike up your costs.

Security and Safety

Online frauds and phishing attacks are grave threats for online business. Make sure your provider covers security requirements on its side like PCI compliance, tokenization, 3D secure, Verified by visa, fraud protection tools, etc. A secure online payment gateway considers your customer’s safety as important as yours and ensures that maximum protection is provided for your customers while they are paying you online.

Pricing

A payment gateway with robust technology and strong product stack will help your business in the long term. Lower fees are attractive but check what is their success rates. Payment gateway that seemed to be costlier could end up on the cheaper side with higher conversions bringing in higher profits. Make sure that you don’t choose a free one over better technology and product stack.

Does the Ideal Payment Gateway Exist?

There may not be a payment gateway which fits into requirements of every online business. However, choose the one which is in sync with your business model, location, product and future plans. The best getaway is a combination of many factors: technology, user experience, innovation, security. Consider all these aspects so that your payment gateway does not hang up on you or your customers.

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