How do you pick the best payment gateway for your ecommerce store?

A payment gateway is the only bridge between your consumer and your product. With a reliable, secure and advanced gateway, any payment online becomes a breeze. It helps in minimising business risks, ensures secure transactions, reduces instances of shopping cart abandonment and provides a better brand experience overall.

However, more than 50% of online shoppers abandon e-commerce portals without completing their transactions. Reports have shown that the payment page experience plays a significant role in influencing the shopping journeys of your customers. About 17% of all online customers today don’t trust online shopping sites with credit card details. 6% of customers abandon their carts because their choice of payment card wasn’t available. About 4% leave your site because of technical glitches.

When payment gateways play such a significant role in determining profitability and brand experience, it’s vital to choose the best gateway payment solutions for your business.

Types of Payment Gateways to Choose From:

Which type of gateway solution are you looking for your business? That’s the first answer you should have before looking at payment gateway solution providers. There are two types of payment gateways to choose from:

1. External or hosted payment gateways: These payment gateways are integrated with your primary e-commerce website. However, for every transaction, it redirects users to your payment gateway page to complete transactions. The primary benefit of this type of payment gateway is that the merchant doesn’t need to worry about transaction safety. The payment gateway provider takes full responsibility for transaction security and platform compliance. External gateways are also easy to set up and don’t need customisation.
2. Direct or integrated payment gateways: This type of payment gateway doesn’t require the customer to leave the host website. As the merchant, you are responsible for all the interactions that take place since they take place on your website. The greatest benefit of integrated payment gateways is that you can provide a much greater and more personalised user experience. You have the option of tailoring your checkout process so that it fits your business requirements and strategy. This ensures a seamless experience and is ideal for mobile transactions.

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6 Factors to Consider While Choosing Gateway Payment Solutions:

Since there’s a lot that depends on your payment gateway, it’s critical to make the right choice. However, with so many options available, it could be hard to choose. Keeping a few factors in mind while judging a provider could make this process easier for you.

1. Availability of services: You need to know where most of your customer base is located. Depending on this, you need to choose a payment gateway that is available in the country where you are doing business and where your customers are. Almost every gateway provider has a list you can check against. You can also email them to confirm.
2. Transaction fees: Every gateway provider levies charges on transactions based on several factors. This could be the payment method, type of card, number of transactions per month etc. Make sure you choose the right criteria, or else your transaction fees could exceed your monthly profit.
3. Recurring payment system: Several businesses today use a subscription-based model to sell products and services. This could be like OTT platform subscriptions, membership plans or rented furniture. If you are in the subscription business, you need a payment gateway that enables repeated payments. This means your customers won’t have to make manual payments every time a payment cycle ends. A few payment gateway providers also offer advanced features that let customers upgrade plans easily, pause payments or add new subscriptions. Before you finalise a provider, make sure they have all the services you will need.
4. Miscellaneous fees and charges: Another key factor that all merchants need to consider is the accumulation of non-transaction fees that gateways might charge. This could be fees for setting up your account, maintenance charges, deposit or withdrawal charges, fees for chargebacks and more. If you are just starting and sales are not that high, these fees could bring down profitability significantly.
5. Customer payment mode options: As a merchant online, you need to ensure completing a transaction is as easy as possible for your customers. For this, you need a payment gateway that accepts payments from the maximum possible card processors and issuers as well as all types of mobile wallets. Having limited options while wanting to make payments could drive your customers away.
6. Payment security: In online business platforms, fraud is a real concern. Several online shoppers are concerned that their data isn’t safe on e-commerce platforms. There are several regulations in place such as the PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) system that gateway providers must comply with. Make sure you choose a vendor that meets these standards.

With the growing level of competition in the e-commerce space, let gateway payment solutions be the differentiator. Partner with the right providers to improve customer experience and drive brand loyalty.