Online sales in the United States are approaching one trillion dollars annually. Is your business doing everything it can to maximize its place in this growing market? An informed selection of a payment gateway is an important factor in a buyer’s experience within your digital storefront.
What is a Payment Gateway?
A payment gateway is a service that processes credit card payments for ecommerce websites, as well as traditional brick-and-mortar stores.
For online stores, the chosen payment gateway processes payments for purchases made on the business’s website. It is the interface between the business and the credit card making the payment to validate payment information, and approve transactions. The payment gateway encrypts credit card and other payment data to keep transactions secure.
How to Choose the Right Payment Gateway for Your Business
When businesses set up their online stores, some of them simply connect to the same payment gateway vendor that they have been using in their physical locations or find at the top of a Google search. Others shop for the best payment gateway to best serve the integration and security of their site. If that describes your business, what considerations should you be making? We would like to share some insights.
What are gateway transaction fees?
Payment gateway transaction fees typically have two components, a per-item cost per authorization attempt and a monthly customer service fee. The per-item fees can range anywhere from $0.06-0.15 per authorization and the monthly costs can range from $10-25 per month. Identifying the lowest fees can have a big impact on a business’s bottom line. There are also various ways costs are bundled with transaction limits to seem like a flat cost.
Some payment gateway pricing includes extra fees for certain types of transactions, subscription fees, international card fees, set-up fees, or tokenization costs. A true payment gateway price comparison for your business will factor in all of these considerations alongside your expected sales and payment mix.
What payment methods does the payment gateway support?
Would your business benefit from accepting cryptocurrency? What about common global currencies? How many different credit and debit card brands would you like your shoppers to be able to use as payment? Are e-checks an essential payment option for your customers? What about gift cards? If you are a subscription-based business, dependable recurring billing capabilities will be important to you. Payment gateways vary in regard to the specific types of payments they accept. Determining what types of payments are necessary will help determine the best gateway for your site.
Is there a payment gateway that best aligns with your tech stack?
Some web platforms integrate more seamlessly with certain payment gateways. Most online merchants whose platform of choice is WordPress, for example, utilize WooCommerce for their online store. WooCommerce allows for open-source when it comes to the card processors running the transactions on your cards. That allows you to bid on multiple vendors to get the best pricing on your online transactions. Your business may have accounting software that a particular payment gateway integrates with seamlessly.
What reporting options are available?
The more detailed and effective the data analysis is from your payment gateway the more informed business operations can be with reports and forecasting. Sophisticated data and reporting can also provide valuable insights into your customers to influence product suggestions and additional purchases.
Conclusion
Selecting the right payment gateway is a critical step in today’s business success. There are a significant number of variables that impact the right choice for your business. Because this is something you will not have to do often, you may want to lean on the experience of Americaneagle.com. We have partnered in this decision with thousands of ecommerce clients. Please contact us today if you would like to discuss payment gateway considerations.
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