There is an abundance of eCommerce platforms these days. Before starting an online store, a brand has to consider many factors. Payment processing is one of the vital factors of them.
Online stores that are newbies in the industry often find it challenging to tackle payment gateway-related issues. It is an important job of an eCommerce website development company to get the website equipped with the best payment gateways.
This article will discuss the critical points of payment processing in an eCommerce website. For instance, what merchant accounts and payment gateway are?
What factors a merchant should consider before choosing a payment gateway? and the popular eCommerce payment gateways.
Let’s dive in!
Merchant Accounts and Payment Gateways
If an eCommerce website is accepting online payments, then they have to have these two, i.e., merchant account and payment gateways. These two work together. But first, let’s understand what these two elements are?
Merchant Accounts
It is the account that collects the online payment when the customer completes a transaction. Also, the money is temporarily held in this account until it is deposited into a businesses’ bank account.
Payment Gateways
It enables the eCommerce website to process debit cards, debit cards, cryptocurrency, or any other alternative form of payment. If the transaction is successful and approved, the money for the transaction is deposited into the business’s merchant account.
Obtaining a merchant account is not a piece of cake. There are many merchant accounts to choose from, and they can vary to get approved. Sometimes it takes more than 3-4 weeks. A vendor has to consider the following factors before approving or not approving a merchant account application:
- Business owner’s personal credit history — to check their credibility
- The history of business — bankruptcies and other legal issues
- Type of business — to determine the level of risk they are dealing in.
- Previously acquired merchant accounts
- Life of business — How long has the owner been in that business
Most brands tend to get their merchant account from the bank where they have their personal account(s) opened. It facilitates primarily in the case of newbies.
The vendor will not reject your application just because the brand has a higher risk rate. However, vendors might charge a higher processing fee to mitigate their risk. Later, the fee may be renegotiated when the eCommerce website or business is well-established.
Factors to Consider while Choosing a Payment Gateway
Choosing the right payment gateway is very crucial for the success of any online store. Below are the most important factors to consider before selecting the proper gateway for an eCommerce website.
1. Is it Hosted or Not?
A hosted gateway temporarily redirects the customer to the gateway’s website to complete the transaction. For instance, PayPal takes the customer from the eCommerce website to their website to complete the transaction.
While a non-hosted or in-site gateway is in-built into the website. Thus, the customer does not have to leave the website during the shopping process.
We would recommend our readers to go for an on-site solution to the gateway. It keeps the shopping experience streamlined.
2. Modern or Classic?
The critical difference that differentiates the modern payment gateway from the classic is that it does not ask for merchant accounts. Also, it is pretty much easier to set up. But one major setback of the modern payment gateway is its high transaction fee.
New eCommerce store owners should not opt for modern payment gateways. Furthermore, an eCommerce website.business with a high volume of transactions should not go for the modern gateway, as it will add a massive cost with each new transaction on the website.
3. Security
Security is the most vital factor in the whole process of shopping on an eCommerce website. It is essential from customers’ perspective because it creates a sense of confidence in customers’ minds to share their sensitive information like credit card details. For merchants, it is essential because a confident customer brings many more customers to the platform.
How do the businesses determine which gateway is secure and stable when everyone claims to be the best in the market. Make sure to check the following two points before choosing a secure solution:
- The payment gateway should be Level 1 PCI DSS compliant.
- Also, ask the provider whether they have CVV2 verification and encryption standards.
Top 3 eCommerce Payment Gateways
When a brand has gone through the essential points that need to be considered before choosing a payment gateway. Now is time to select a solution among the best ones that are discussed below:
1. PayPal
PayPal is one of the most used payments gateway solutions that small or big brands use globally. The PayPal Payments Pro comes with is that it provides a merchant account. Also, it does not require a setup fee.
It accepts all major debit and credit cards. It also allows for recurring payment and on-site checkout.
2. Stripe
Stripe is another popular gateway solution because of its unique on-site checkout option without any monthly fee charged like other famous gateways like PayPal and Authorize.net.
It also accepts all major debit and credit cards. It also provides a merchant account to newcomers. One thing that differentiates Strip is its difficulty in setup if you have no prior experience in coding.
3. BlueSnap
BlueSnap is a platform that supports payment in 180 countries, 100 local currencies, and 29 languages. Like PayPal and Stripe, it also provides customers with a merchant account. It supports invoice payments, phone and email orders, subscription billing, and multi-vendor business models; also, it supports traditional online checkout.
It allows you to have a non-hosted checkout solution as well, as you can choose hosted checkout by temporarily shifting to their website. Talking about security, BlueSnap offers a world-class fraud prevention technology.
Ending Notes
eCommerce website development is one of the most in-demand skills these days. Millions of entrepreneurs are trying to open an online store of their own. This highlights the immense importance of payment gateway solutions due to online payment.
It is vital for an entrepreneur to choose the best eCommerce website developer to take care of everything about the website, including selecting the correct payment solutions according to your needs and nature of business.