How to choose the right payment gateway for your business?

The payment gateway would work as a heart in your business. Like the blood flows from all the veins in the body, similarly, the money would flow from anywhere globally, pumped with the help of the payment gateway. It is very vital for any business to have proper reachability. Payment Gateway can help to achieve that in a significant manner. The inflow of the payments would actively increase with the payment gateway providing efficient services to receive online payments with various payment methods.

So, obviously, it will make a lot of difference in any business revenue and affect in a positive manner. There will not be any geographical bounds and the expansion would be immense with it. Further, due to more availability of payment options, people would not drop off from paying and also with the help of the more reliable payment gateway they can, without any fear or doubt, make the online payment.

Thus, it is important to choose an ideal payment gateway that would bring a significant change in your business. Following points can help you with that:

1. Checkout & Transparency

• The prominent aspect of selecting a payment gateway is how its payment checkout is. It needs to have a simple flow of payment with the hassle-free process which makes only the filling of the required details necessary. The complex structure will make the customer drop-off during the checkout.
• Also, the payment gateway needs to be transparent in working which includes providing timely notifications to both the customers and the merchant. The customers should know about the order and payment status and the merchant should also know about the same along with the Transaction Discount Rate and other fees charged. This will help to build trust too.

2. Security Compliances

• The payment gateway needs to be following the security compliances. One of them is being compulsorily a PCI DSS compliant.
• The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) is a set of security standards designed to ensure that all companies that accept, process, store or transmit credit card information maintain a secure environment.
• It protects the cardholder data from any kind of sensitive information data leaking and online payment frauds.
• A cardholder data consists of the full PAN plus any of the following: cardholder name, expiration date, security-related information (including but not limited to card validation codes/values, full track data (from the magnetic stripe or equivalent on a chip), PINs, and PIN blocks) used to authenticate cardholders and/or authorize payment card transactions.
• Being PCI DSS compliant makes the reputation of the payment gateway stronger and reliable which in turn increases the trust of the customers.

3. Numerous Payment Options

• A payment gateway with the maximum number of online payment options should be considered. One of the purposes of getting a payment gateway is that your customers can use the payment option that they like. And that would not be the reason for them to drop off and return back without paying.
• More payment options also help build their trust because it would show that the payment gateway has got tie-ups and integration with various payment processors and the service providers, proving its legitimacy and authenticity.
• Further, if there is any downtime period in any of the payment options then the customer can switch to the alternate option instead of returning back without making the payment.

4. Customer’s Trust and Confidence

• Payment Gateway is a medium between you and your customers and is involved in the fund transfer process. With the increasing online frauds. The sellers and the buyers both are under the risk of getting cheated on by each other. This is one of the reasons for people being afraid to deal over-the-internet, especially when they are unable to see or know who is on the other side.
• In such cases, the payment gateway can be in the suspect zone or it can be a saviour. Depends on what PG you have chosen.
• When the business website is new it is essential that the customers can put their confidence in you, because when they would like to opt for online payment they make the payment first and get their product or service later. An ideal payment gateway can lead your customers to make the payment with confidence, after all, it is the face of your website. Here it would act as a saviour and not a suspect.
• For the developed business websites, the same applies. As well as, it requires a PG that is able to manage their high volume transactions and let their payment flow be driven without any disturbance.

5. Fees and Charges

• Typically, there are different types of fees charged by a payment gateway, for instance, setup fees to get the payment gateway merchant account onboard, periodic maintenance fees, integration fees to integrate the PG with the website or application, many hidden charges or extra fees with no specific reason, etc.
• All of the above are optional i.e. all of the PGs may or may not charge, but there is a Merchant Discount Rate that is charged by all the payment gateways. It is a per-transaction fee that is mostly percentage-based.
• Now there are payment gateways that provide free setup, maintenance and integration, with no hidden charge. Just a flat fee per transaction and applicable GST on that.
• Basically, there are a lot of payment gateway options that could be cost-effective and at the same time providing effective services.

6. Onboarding Process and Settlement

• The onboarding process needs to be balanced, which means, it needs to be quick as well as precautionary. Quick refers to the speedy activation of the registered merchant account and precautionary includes taking proper care to whom the payment gateway services are rendered. The power to receive online payments cannot be given to anyone and everyone without proper verification that puts the security of the customers at stake.
• The maximum settlement period allowed by the Reserve Bank of India is Transaction date plus 3 Working Days (T + 3). Depending upon the merchant account the payment gateway even gives the immediate settlement.

7. Resolution & Support

• Timely resolution to the queries and concerns and kind client support system is a must. The payment gateway deals with your money and they have to be present in the times of need and issues faced by you.

8. Dispute Centre

• Both the seller and buyer protection is vital for any payment gateway. So they should have a system in which the buyers should be able to reach out to someone when the seller is not responsive, did not provide the product or services for which he paid for, provided damaged product, etc.
• In such a system the buyer should be able to file a complaint about the same in the available Dispute Centre. The payment gateway would act as a mediator giving the unbiased resolution on the basis of the evidence demanded and provided.

9. Smart Merchant Dashboard

• This would enable the merchants to track their business transactions and plan further business activities accordingly.
• The smart analytics and graphical representation of the transactions periodically, the payment options used, the mode of payment used like a computer or the mobile phone, all these would help a lot in the transaction management.
• Apart from that, other important information and related functions like settlement details, refund management, customer data, downloadable reports, etc need to be available.

10. Integration and Documentation

• When you require a payment gateway to collect payment through your website, you require to check if the payment gateway supports the platform or the programming language to make the integration possible. The major ones are: PHP, Magento, Android, iOS, WordPress, Ruby, Python, .Net, Node JS, Java, etc
• Another thing is, there are various payment gateways that have the ready Plugins and SDKs, making the whole integration process in the blink of an eye and smooth as butter.
• It is also important that the Documentation Guide is given on the Website itself for the reference and the user-friendly access. All basic knowledge must be provided there to minimise the dependence for the developers and even the merchants.
• Various PGs provide free integration services too.

11. No Website

• You are able to receive the payments even if you do not have a website with the help of payment links.
• It is a copy and paste thing, that could be generated and managed from the merchant dashboard itself.
• Thus, you may provide your customers various online payment options with one checkout without a website.

These are some of the points which would help to choose an ideal payment gateway for your business. After all, the partnership with only the right PG will help you with the progress of your business. The one simple reason for the same is it has the direct responsibility to deal with the finances of your business.