What is a payment gateway?
A payment gateway is an online technology that ensures secure authorization and processing of transactions, enabling customers to make purchases on websites or mobile apps. It employs encryption to safeguard sensitive financial data, like credit card details, guaranteeing safe and seamless transactions among customers, merchants, and banks.
Who are payment gateway providers?
Payment gateway providers are specialized companies that offer payment processing services to businesses and online merchants. They act as intermediaries, securely transmitting sensitive payment data between customers, merchants, and financial institutions. These providers employ advanced security measures to ensure smooth and secure online transactions for both parties involved.
How does a payment gateway work for eCommerce websites?
- Secure Transaction Processing: The payment gateway securely processes online transactions, safeguarding sensitive data.
- Allows Multiple Payment Methods: A payment gateway helps an eCommerce website to accept multiple payment methods and allows its customers to use their own preferred options like credit card, debit card, & more.
- Real-time Authorization: The payment gateway helps get instant authorization, thereby reducing the risk of payment fraud.
- Efficient Payment Routing: It efficiently routes payments to the appropriate financial institutions and merchants’ accounts.
- PCI DSS Compliance: The payment gateway ensures compliance with Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) requirements for enhanced data protection.
- Seamless Integration: It seamlessly integrates with the eCommerce website’s checkout process, providing a smooth user experience.
- Mobile Responsiveness: The payment gateway offers mobile-friendly interfaces, catering to customers using smartphones and tablets.
- Fraud Detection and Prevention: It employs advanced fraud detection tools to identify and prevent fraudulent transactions.
- Automated Recurring Billing: The payment gateway supports recurring billing for subscription-based eCommerce models.
- Detailed Reporting: It provides comprehensive transaction reports, helping merchants track and manage payment activities efficiently.
When you may need a payment gateway provider?
If you are building an eCommerce website, you definitely need to signup with a payment gateway in order to integrate it with your WooCommerce store and start accepting payments online.
But most of the times, business owners are really confused while choosing a payment gateway for their websites. Some of the questions that pop-up in their minds are:
- Which payment gateway is reliable & accepted easily.
- What all payment methods do these payment gateways accept.
- How much they charge?
So, if you too are in the midst of creating an e-commerce website, this blog post can help you to choose an appropriate payment gateway for your WordPress website.
In this blog post, I have shared 4 best payment gateways that you or your web developer can integrate with your WooCommerce store.
#1 PayPal
Who doesn’t know PayPal.
PayPal is the most reputable and trustworthy payment gateway. It is highly admired & used among e-business professionals and e-commerce business owners.
Here are but some of the advantages of using PayPal:
- Your customers don’t need a PayPal account to pay through PayPal.
- PayPal accepts all the major payment methods like debit cards, credit cards and PayPal balance.
- Available in more than 150 countries, so it’s accepted worldwide.
- Since all the payment processing are done on PayPal’s platform, you don’t need any payment security on your website.
- Signup is free. No monthly fee. You get charged per transaction only.
- Integration with the website is as easy as few clicks. You can set it up in just a few clicks, without hiring any website developer.
#2 Authorize.Net
Authorize.net is also one of the powerful and well-known payment gateways available today.
The only downside of Authorize.net is that they charge setup fee and monthly charges too.
Here are some advantages of using Authorize.net:
- It supports recurring billing and mobile payment too.
- It supports on-form payments too, in case you don’t need full-fledge e-commerce store.
- Easier for you to make minor customizations, without hiring a web developer.
- They have pre-configured “Buy” buttons.
- Authorize.net is PCI compliant and therefore you can easily obtain the SSL certificate.
#3 Stripe
Over the last few years, Stripe has become the favourite of many website developers and e-commerce webmasters too.
Here are but some of the reasons why Stripe is loved by many webmasters:
- There is no monthly fees or setup fees.
- It offers great API, if your WordPress developer needs it.
- It allows you to take recurring payments from your customers and you don’t require PCI Compliance for that too.
- Relatively low transaction rate: 2.9% plus 30 cents flat rate for transactions.
#4 2Checkout
2Checkout also comes with several API options.
It also accepts online payments all over the world.
2CheckOut can help you expand your business by offering several features such as global reach, fraud protection and easy integration.
Here are some reasons to choose 2Checkout for your WooCommerce website:
- 2Checkout allows your users to pay using their credit cards, debit cards or PayPal account too.
- It supports mobile payments too.
- 2Checkout comes with API support.
- No monthly fee or setup fee.
- If you want to charge your customers on a recurring basis, you can choose 2Checkout.
How can a web developer help you with payment gateway integration?
- Researching payment gateways: Your web developer can help you research and select suitable payment gateways based on the website’s requirements.
- Setting up Merchant Accounts: Your developer can assist in setting up merchant accounts with the chosen payment gateway provider.
- API Integration: The web developer integrates the payment gateway’s API into the eCommerce website’s checkout process.
- Customizing Payment Pages: They customize the payment pages to match the website’s design and branding.
- Security Implementation: The developer ensures proper encryption and security protocols for safe payment processing.
- Error Handling: They implement error handling mechanisms to address payment issues and enhance user experience.
- Testing Transactions: The web developer conducts thorough testing of payment transactions to verify functionality and reliability.
- Responsive Design: They ensure the payment gateway is mobile-friendly and works seamlessly on different devices.
- PCI DSS Compliance: The developer ensures compliance with PCI Data Security Standard to protect customer data.
- Monitoring and Support: They provide ongoing monitoring and support to address any payment gateway-related issues promptly.