More than a quarter of online customers abandon their shopping carts when the payment process is too long or cumbersome.
Unless you want your customers to be part of that statistic, it’s critical that you choose the right payment gateway.
Your job is to make payments as easy as possible for your customers. Embracing the right payment gateway is a key part of the digital transformation that will enhance your customers’ experience—and lead to a better ROI.
What to think about when you’re deciding on a payment gateway
To choose the best payment gateway for your business, you’ll need to consider things like price, security, features, and ease of use. Here are a few of the questions you should be asking yourself:
Is it integrated or hosted?
A hosted gateway takes your customer to a third-party site to complete their transaction and process the payment. The customer clicks on a link and is brought to your hosted payment gateway where they enter their payment information, and then they’re brought back to complete the purchase.
With an integrated gateway, on the other hand, your customer never leaves your site—payment details are entered and processed right there. This is easier and more efficient for the customer, but it puts more responsibility on you to keep things secure.
What are the fees?
Payment gateways can charge by the transaction, by the month, or a combination of both. Sometimes there’s an initial setup fee. Make sure you’re aware of all the associated costs, including fees for accepting international payments.
Does it accept the usual payment methods?
Almost every payment gateway accepts the major players, such as Visa, Mastercard, and Amex. Not every payment gateway accepts Diners Club, JCB, or international cards. Make sure the one you choose supports the most common payment types.
How secure is it?
Consumers are very conscious of security, and who can blame them? Hacker attacks happen every 39 seconds. Since payment gateways deal in sensitive financial details, make sure you get a payment gateway that is PCI DSS compliant.
Can it handle international currency?
Customers are usually more comfortable paying in their own currency. If you currently (or intend to) do business internationally, make sure the payment gateway can handle all the currencies you deal with.
Does it offer a merchant account?
A merchant account offers an extra level of safety and security to online transactions. It enables you to receive funds from online transactions in multiple ways. Some payment gateways offer bundled accounts, meaning you can get a merchant account attached to the payment gateway. If you already have a merchant account, make sure the payment gateway is compatible with it.
Can you set up recurring payments?
This can save you a lot of time and aggravation if you sell subscriptions or services that renew every month. Some payment gateways allow you to set up future payments as well.
What if I choose the wrong payment gateway?
You may be tempted to just pick any payment gateway to get it over with. However, there are consequences to making the wrong choice. Here are a few:
- The gateway doesn’t accept the types of payments your customers use.
- International customers won’t have a payment option.
- Customers’ payment information could remain on your site and be hacked.
- The payment gateway is unable to take mobile payments.
- Customers abandon their carts in frustration.
- You lose sales.
How four companies turned it around
Still wondering what difference your choice of payment gateway can make? Check out how a few companies made things faster, easier, and more efficient by rethinking their payment gateways.
Xero
Xero is an accounting software firm. Businesses on Xero used to spend hours tracking down and following up on payments after the invoice was sent. Xero changed their payment gateway to Stripe, and a “pay” button was added to invoices. This allowed businesses to collect payments much faster—up to fifteen days faster, to be exact.
Snapfish
Snapfish is a photo printing and sharing website. They wanted to expand internationally, but they needed a payment gateway that could make it easier to build an international network. Their payment gateway wasn’t set up for that, so they switched to Braintree because it had established relationships in 40 countries. Snapfish was able to expand into those regions and be able to take payments right away. They are now available in ten countries and ready to add more.
AllSaints
AllSaints is a luxury fashion brand. AllSaints previous payment gateway required customers to enter their names, addresses, credit card information, etc. Concerned that the long process was causing customers to rethink their purchases and abandon their carts, AllSaints opted for Amazon Pay. Now, customers can just click and pay right away. Amazon Pay has benefitted AllSaints immensely: First off, it’s reduced the time it takes AllSaints customers to check out by 70 seconds. On top of that, in the two weeks after launch, 24% of their customers chose to pay with Amazon Pay, and the order value shot up by 15%.
Freedom Pizza
Dubai’s most innovative food tech platform, Freedom Pizza needed a seamless process that made payments easy. They also needed a payment gateway that was available in the United Arab Emirates and supported payments through mobile apps. Freedom Pizza integrated Checkout.com because of it’s availability in the Middle East and North Africa.
Because of the superior customer experience that came from that, Freedom Pizza was chosen for Apple Pay integration when it was rolled out in the Middle East; our team at VeryCreatives worked directly with Apple to make it happen. Freedom Pizza achieved an online ordering rate of over 50% in less than two years and continues to grow exponentially.
Let us help optimize your digital transformation
Choosing the right payment gateway is one part of your digital transformation. VeryCreatives is here to help you with every part-from auditing your current processes to implementing new digital solutions. Get in touch with us and book a free 30-minute consultation today.
