9 Things to Consider before Choosing a Payment Gateway

eCommerce sales in the United States have significantly increased over the past decade. In 2012, only 5% of retail sales happened online.

Today the share of eCommerce stands at 16.1%, according to Statista.

This is a golden time for eCommerce business owners, who can make millions by selling products online. But first, they must offer a seamless shopping experience, ensuring customers immediately find what they’re looking for and can securely make payments.

A payment gateway can make payment processing hassle-free and ensure customers don’t abandon the shopping cart.

For any eCommerce website, payment gateways are the future but only if you make the right choice. A lousy payment gateway can jeopardize the customer experience, increasing shopping cart abandonment rates and reducing sales.

How do you select an ideal payment gateway for your eCommerce website? For starters, you can consider 9 simple yet critical things mentioned below. Let’s begin:

9 Points to Keep in Mind While Choosing a Payment Gateway

1. Security

71.3% of shoppers abandon shopping carts even before a purchase happens. 17% of these shoppers leave shopping carts because of credit card theft and other online payment security concerns.

Hence, it is essential to ensure that your payment gateway is secure.

Before choosing a payment gateway, ensure it complies with PCI-DSS (Payment Card Industry-Data Security) standards. These standards ensure that the payment gateway uses multi-layer defence against cyberattacks, data protection architecture, and encrypted data transmission to ensure safe transactions.

A payment gateway provider should also offer tools like 3D security, a fraud monitoring system, Address Verification System (AVS), and IP geolocation. A payment gateway must offer all these things to be worth the investment.

2. Easy Integration

Customers want payment processing to be as simple as possible. Any interruption rubs them off incorrectly and makes them abandon your eCommerce website. Hence, you must choose a payment gateway that easily integrates with your website and allows quick payment processing.

Ideally, a client should land on the payment gateway provider’s website, make the payment, and return to the website once the transaction is complete. It is the right fit if your payment gateway allows such easy integration.

3. Support for Multiple Cards and Currencies

One of the biggest online payment challenges is that customers don’t find enough payment options. Especially if you have an eCommerce website that sells products on a global level, most people abandon the shopping cart just because they couldn’t find the payment option they preferred.

Here are a couple of things that you must ensure while choosing a payment gateway:

→ a. The payment gateway should accept all credit card payments, such as MasterCard, American Express, and VISA. It should even support a Debit card or Diners Club card, as you never know which customers may prefer it.
→ b. The payment gateway should also support mobile wallets. As of 2022, 753.4 million customers prefer them for payments.
→ c. Your payment gateway should support multiple currency processing or a seamless currency exchange if necessary.

4. Fee and Service Agreement Requirements

The proverb “A stitch in time saves nine” fits perfectly when choosing a payment gateway. You may easily get swayed by a payment gateway’s exciting discounts and affordable prices and forget the intricacies of fee and service agreements. Later, you pay the price as you realize that either the payment gateway doesn’t coincide with your eCommerce business model or you have to pay hefty hidden fees.

That’s why it’s essential to compare a payment gateway’s fee structure or service agreements with your eCommerce business model before finalizing it. Read all terms and conditions carefully, and see if any hidden charges are involved. Everything should be laid before you, so there are no troubles later.

5. Active Customer Support

Payment gateways are the backbone of an eCommerce business. They process millions of dollars each day through them. Even a few minutes of the outage will cost your eCommerce website a fortune. You would never want that. Hence, choosing a payment gateway that offers 24×7 customer support is essential.

Choose a payment gateway that allows you to reach out anytime through any contact method. It would cost you a few bucks, but it’s still better than losing your hard-earned reputation and precious customers.

Active customer support from the payment gateway provider also helps you during the setup phase. You can reach out to them anytime for guidance.

6. Hosted vs Non-hosted Payment Gateways

Two types of payment gateways exist:

→ Hosted payment gateways: Hosted payment processing solutions direct customers to the payment processor’s website, where they can submit details. After entering the payment details, they’re redirected to the website to finish the payment. An example is PayPal.

→ Non-hosted payment gateways: These payment gateways handle payments via an API (Application programming interface) or HTTPS inquiries in Non-hosted payment gateways. Customers can directly submit their card details on the eCommerce website instead of redirecting to an external website.

Each of these payment gateways has pros and cons. Hosted payment gateways are simple and secure, and you don’t have to worry about storing sensitive information on your website. However, sellers can only manage part of the user experience as the gateway is external.

On the other hand, non-hosted API gateways offer complete control, and you can easily integrate them on any device. However, you must comply with PCI DSS standards and SSL certificates to ensure payment security, which can be hectic.

Carefully weigh the pros and cons of both types of payment gateways before making a choice. It would help you make the right decision.

7. Processing Speed

26% of shoppers abandon shopping carts because the checkout process is too long and complicated. You would want to make sure to take advantage of a sale because you made the customer wait for a few seconds. That, too, at a time, he was about to make the payment. That’s why keeping the payment processing speed in mind while choosing a payment gateway is essential.

Different payment gateways offer different speeds. Choose the one that processes payments in a few seconds. It is also suitable for you as sometimes payments take two to three days to process into your bank account. It creates trouble when you need money urgently but can’t access it as it’s still under processing.

8. Recurring Billing

Recurring billing is essential if you offer subscription-based services on your eCommerce website. It sets up an automatic billing cycle for customers, automatically charging customers each month. As a result, you don’t have to worry about unsuccessful credit card payments. Hence, you must choose a payment gateway that offers recurring billing options.

However, to offer your clients an uninterrupted experience, you must integrate the payment gateway with your invoicing software and other tools. It would ensure an uninterrupted experience and save your clients time and effort.

9. Reporting Features

No payment gateway guarantees complete 100% efficiency. Despite all the promises and the best effort, there will be times when your payments might fail or get stuck, and a reporting feature will help you a lot in such a case.

Reporting feature also helps you review any chargebacks, fees incurred, or commissions (if you’re a reseller). Hence, it would be best if you are looking for a payment gateway that offers you the reporting feature.

Different payment processing solutions offer additional features, and you must review them carefully before picking a payment gateway for your website.

Here are a few more BONUS Tips you can follow while Choosing the Payment Gateway:

• Choose a payment gateway that can quickly scale as your business grows.
• The payment gateway should offer a mass payment option to pay multiple vendors simultaneously.
• Choose a payment gateway that provides features like electronic invoicing, text/email reminders for customers, and intelligent chargeback management.
• Look for pricing but also maintain functionality and security. You wouldn’t want to offer a poor user experience to save a few bucks.
• The payment gateway should offer regular updates and comply with all the latest payment industry trends.
• Before integrating a payment gateway, thoroughly research for business models, it supports. Some payment gateways only support high-risk industries like dating, gambling, gaming, and forex trading. It’s only possible to integrate them if you belong to these sectors.

Wrapping it up!

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to choosing an eCommerce payment gateway. Each of them has pros and cons. The key to choosing the right payment gateway is understanding how it can fulfill your business needs.

Hopefully, the points we mentioned above gave you enough idea of what to look for in a payment gateway. The next step is to compare different payment gateways and pick the one that best suits your business interests. Best of luck!