Been able to conduct business transactions online to more conveniently serve customers has become a massive driver of growth for companies. However, developing an in-house payment gateway is expensive, time consuming, and fraught with legislative curve balls to consider. With that in mind developers stepped up to the plate to create front-end payment gateways that effectively allowed small to medium enterprises the ability to process credit cards online while remaining in line with legal requirements and best practises.
Types of Payment Gateway
Before we look at what needs to be considered when choosing the right gateway for you and your business it is prudent to first look at the types of payment gateway available on the market. The first of which is the on-site gateway. Theseare favoured by large enterprises as the application and all the data is stored on the company’s own infrastructure. These method is a beneficial to businesses with incredibly high sales volumes as the entire shopping experience is controlled centrally and little tweaks can be readily made to improve the bottom line.
The next type is more suited to smaller businesses, that being the checkout onsite while payment is processed offsite. This method simplifies the payment process and allows for increased security as payments are processed on the gateways backend. This method offers less control when compared to an on-site gateway.
Lastly, a payment gateway can fall into the redirects category. Redirect payment gateways work by redirecting the customer to a site under the control of the gateway provider. PayPal would be an example of this method. The site that the customer is redirected to then handles the payment. This method features the least control over the process to the business but is the most convenient. It is important to remember that redirects will often mean your customer will have to complete another step to complete the process.
How to Choose the Right Payment Gateway
In choosing the right gateway several questions need to be answered. The rest of the article is dedicated to providing you these all important questions. The first being, what is your customer base already using? This requires a bit of market research into what they use but can be an important consideration when looking to provide the best online shopping experience possible.
Next, does the gateway integrate seamlessly with your existing tech stack? If adding a payment gateway means you need to invest in entirely new infrastructure it probably isn’t the right choice at the moment. Your chosen solution should be able to work with what you have currently with no difficulty onboarding the gateway. This can sometimes be a tricky question to answer directly at exactly.com we will look answer any queries you may have regarding this.
You then need to be sure the payment gateway provides high levels of encryption and security to your customers entering in credit card details and sensitive information. The higher the security standard, the more likely the payment gateway will adhere to important legal requirements. Lastly, can you afford the fees? Whether you are building a gateway from the ground up, which is a massive capital expenditure exercise, or deploying a third-parties gateway costs and fees need to be assessed.
Conclusion
Taking the time to choose the right payment gateway and comparing all the options can turn a necessary evil into an asset. This does require research but any important decision does, don’t jump at the first company with the flashiest marketing.
