A 10-Step Checklist to Choose an Online Payment Gateway Provider
Submitted by Andy_B on Monday, 22 November 2021 Page Views: 356
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An online payment gateway service provider provides an electronic mechanism to process transactions. This is done with the help of terminal, which are used by merchants to receive customers' financial information. Every day new providers are coming up in the market with advanced features like Hospitality EPOS System at competitive prices. One might get confused while choosing the right one for their business, which is why here are some things to keep in mind while choosing a payment gateway provider.
In this blog post, I will give you a 10-step checklist that'll help you choose online payment solutions and make your payment page safe and secure.
1) SSL Certificates
An SSL Certificate is an encryption technique utilized on the web. It's a way to encrypt information between server and browser that ensures that all data passed between them can't be accessed by anyone else in transit. This is one of the most important steps while deciding the payment gateway provider for your online store. The SSL Certificates offered by a payment gateway are an assurance for your customers that their data is safe with you.An SSL Certificate can be issued as per the following types:
· Domain Validation (DV) – The company issues a code to verify that you own the website and they send it to you via email.
· Organization Validation (OV) – The SSL Certificates offered by a payment gateway provider is a must as it provides your customers with the assurance that their data is safe.
· Extended Validation (EV) – This type of SSL Certificate offers an instant green address bar that makes the website appear as secure as possible as compared to other certificates.
2) PCI Compliance
This is another very important factor that you should consider before choosing a payment gateway provider. The providers which have been approved by the PCI Security Council are known as Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) compliant companies. Now, this may sound a bit weird to you but it's a standard used for evaluating and approving the payment providers.PCI DSS ensures that the data is encrypted so no one can access it which includes your customers' names, expiration dates, security codes etc. The PCI standards cover a wide range of requirements to be followed by all payment gateways.
3) Fraud Protection
As an online business merchant, you must be aware of a concept called "fraud." The payment gateway providers help you in detecting and preventing fraudulent transactions, thereby reducing the amount of loss that you incur due to fraud. They analyze your customers' behaviour to prevent fraudulent transactions from taking place which means they will be working diligently behind the scenes for your safety.
4) Cost-effective Pricing Plans
Nowadays you will find a number of payment gateway providers that offer highly cost-effective pricing plans. You can consider taking assistance from your friends and business associates who have dealt with a payment gateway themselves, this is the best way to know about reliable and trustworthy companies which are offering competitive pricing options.5) Customer Support
Always go for a payment gateway provider which has a good customer support team. It should have a number of ways to connect with them such as live chat, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses. This way, your customers will be able to approach the billing department if they encounter any errors or issues while making their payments.6) Ease of Use
Your customers should be able to make their payments without having an issue. So, it's very important that you choose a payment gateway provider that has the simplest user interface possible. The checkout process should not take more than 3-4 steps before your customers are redirected to the thank you page.7) Supported Platforms
Make sure that your customers are capable of making their payments with relative ease on any device that they use to connect to your website. So, it's important that you check the payment gateway provider is offering support for all major operating systems while selecting one.8) Payment Gateway Integration
This factor plays an integral role in deciding whether or not customers can make their payments through your website or not. You must always choose a payment gateway provider that provides a platform-specific SDK (software development kit) to set up the integration process. This will make it easier for you to integrate their services with your billing system without having any technical knowledge about this process.9) Transactions per Second (TPS)
As an online business merchant, you should always check what amount of transactions the payment gateway provider is capable of handling in one second. This figure decides how many customers will be able to make their payments without having any type of downtime.10) Transaction Fee
Another important factor to consider while choosing a payment gateway is the transaction fee. Never select a payment gateway that charges high transaction fees. Look for affordable and reasonable rates instead.This will help you avoid unexpected expenses in the future and also give your customers the option to pay the lowest possible amounts for transactions through your web store.
Conclusion
As an online business merchant, you should always go with the best payment gateway provider. This way, your customers will have a hassle-free experience while making their payments which means they are more likely to come back in the future.So, now that you are aware of what factors to consider when looking for a payment gateway product, you can move on to the next step! You should always go for a platform that offers full PCI compliance such as Volt. This way, it will be able to protect your customers' information with relative ease while ensuring the safety of their sensitive financial data as well.
