Stripe vs. the Traditional Gateway
It’s 2017. You need a non-traditional, next generation, payment gateway. You need Stripe. Stripe has a lot to offer online merchants that traditional merchant accounts and gateways cannot, and their capabilities continue to outpace the traditional model.
Here’s why:
- It’s fast. It’s reliable.
- Simple, transparent pricing.
- Fast, predictable transfers.
- Less hassle.
- Your money, quickly and securely.
- Apple Pay and more.
It’s fast. It’s reliable.
When you’re about to charge a credit card is exactly the time when you need it to work, and work every time. Stripe’s infrastructure is the best in the world. It’s fast. Trending at 99.99+% uptime and powering 100,000+ businesses including some of the world’s biggest apps like Lyft, Facebook, Warby Parker, Target and now reportedly the #1 retailer in the world: Amazon too.
With traditional merchant accounts: stodgy old tech, intermittent slowness and downtime is commonplace.
Simple, transparent pricing
Always know what you’ll pay. 2.9% + 30 cents per successful card charge. No monthly fees, no hidden fees. Pay for only what you use. They charge a fixed fee and a percentage of the transaction each time you accept a credit or debit card payment. The price is the same for all cards. You don’t pay anything for failed charges.
With traditional merchant accounts: impossible to predict the per transaction fees, there are high monthly fees, monthly minimums and always tons of hidden fees. Just ask anyone — seriously.
Fast, predictable transfers
As a retailer, we know you want money in your bank account fast. Cashflow is everything. Transfers arrive in your bank account on a 2-day rolling basis.
With traditional merchant accounts: the average is 5 days, often longer. .
Less hassle
Stripe’s approval process is simple. You’re approved unless you are selling high risk products. There’s no need to worry about them not approving you due to your credit score. No need to send in your business or personal financials. Just start selling. Now.
With traditional merchant accounts: Application process takes lots of paperwork, and a week or more of back and forth.
Your money, quickly and securely
Stripe has an adaptive, machine-learning system that evaluates each payment’s risk level in real-time. It uses hundreds of signals about each payment and taps into data across our network of 100,000+ businesses to predict whether a payment is likely to be fraudulent. When a business using Stripe sees a card for the first time, there’s an 80% chance that they’ve seen the card elsewhere on the Stripe network in the past.
With traditional merchant accounts: There’s a ton of human involvement, meaning your money will be held back until they review it and let time pass, leaving your money in their bank for too long.
Apple Pay and more
Accept the latest payment methods like Apple Pay and Android Pay. And Stripe is also great for developers. Their excellent documentation and suite of tools make Stripe easy to leverage beyond out of the box capabilities.
Traditional merchant accounts are usually the last to adopt new technologies, and that will hurt your conversion.
That said, Stripe isn’t for everyone. Specifically:
- If you sell high risk products (e-cigs, tactical gear, pharmaceuticals, hair weaves)
- If you’re outside the US. Stripe is actively expanding its global reach, but is offered in 25 countries.
- If you sell a lot internationally, as there’s an additional 1% fee for those transactions.
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Start a trial , start a live chat , or call us to learn more. Real Founders. Real Success.
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About the Author
Jeremy Benoit leads product and engineering teams at Volusion focused on merchant success. Payments, checkout, and fulfillment ops. Driving growth for online sellers.
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