Checklist to keep in mind before choosing the right payment gateway

The E-commerce industry is rapidly flourishing all over the globe. With the remarkable growth of E-commerce, the payment ecosystem has evolved throughout time, enabling clients to access more effective and convenient payment solutions. Various businesses are moving their operations online to keep up with the current trends. If you are thinking of beginning an e-commerce business, you will need a payment gateway to accept consumer payments online.

Choosing the right payment gateway for business is a critical decision as your clients entrust you with their financial data. You must ensure that their confidential information is kept secure. You also need to make absolutely sure that the payment procedure runs smoothly and without any glitches. Because too many unsuccessful transactions, a poor user interface, and insufficient encryption, among other factors, may not only result in a dissatisfied consumer but may also lose you the customer.

However, choosing the correct payment gateway for your business might be a little challenging, which is why here are some considerations to make when selecting a payment gateway service.

We’ve created a checklist to help you to understand what to look for when selecting a payment gateway. Let’s first define the payment gateway before moving on to the checklist.

What is a Payment Gateway?

A payment gateway acts as a middleman between a merchant and a customer. It provides payment options and enables customers to conduct transactions. Payment gateway is a third-party service that allows customers to pay and merchants to accept payments in a safe and secure manner. It is the same as swiping a credit card at a physical store. The distinction is that you are using a website to make a digital payment.

Checklist to Keep in Mind When Selecting a Payment Gateway

1. SSL Certificate

SSL(Secure Socket Layer) Certificates are a type of online encryption. It is a method of encrypting data between the server and the browser, ensuring that no one else can access the data while it is being transmitted. A payment gateway’s SSL Certificates assure your consumers that their information is safe with you. Hence, it is one of the most crucial procedures while choosing a payment gateway service for your business.

2. Pricing

Pricing is one of the most significant factors to consider when choosing a payment gateway. The majority of payment gateways offer a bundled fee that includes both the gateway and the merchant account service. Companies commonly advertise a transaction fee of 2.9 percent + 30 cents. This approach appears to be quite simple and practical. Nevertheless, not all gateways require you to register with their merchant to use their service. Look for a service that is system agnostic and can build its gateway to work with any processor. Compare a variety of payment processors to determine which one provides the most value for your money.

Payment gateways no longer charge installation or maintenance fees. However, keep an eye out for any additional fees, such as:

Registration Fees
The cost of implementing a payment gateway
Monthly subscription fee
Annual maintenance fee
All Transaction fees
Charge for refunds or charge-backs
Hidden charges

3. Onboard Time

A few payment gateways require a lengthy onboarding process that can take up to a month to complete. Businesses may be required to submit a lengthy set of business proofs/physical documents at times. Such a delay may have an impact on your sales volume. Hence, Choose an electronic payment system that provides quick onboarding services, such as approving a merchant account in less than a week. Furthermore, the document submission and verification procedure should be done online, which may ultimately save you time and allow you to focus on key company tasks.

4. Security and PCI Compliance

Online payment fraud such as phishing, identity theft, data security breaches, and hacking is becoming more prevalent day-to-day. As a result, it’s critical to ensure that the payment gateway you are using delivers top-notch security. You must conduct investigations for the security measures that companies use to prevent fraud. When seeking security measures, the PCI DSS Certificate should be on your top list. All of India’s leading payment gateways are PCI-DSS certified.

To protect the security of all financial transactions, PCI-DSS invests in fraud detection and screening technologies. When choosing the payment gateway, examine the digital money transfer solution’s Payment Card Industry (PCI) certifications and the security procedures in place to protect payment data, such as tokenization of stored data.

5. Cross-border Payments

Based on your customers’ geography or if they do business in multiple countries, users may want their payment gateway to support cross-border payments. In addition to adopting regional payment card regulations and foreign transaction fees, the payment interface must also adapt to the language and currency of the customers.

In addition, if you have an international business or want to expand it, consider that facilitates international money transfers. Choose a payment gateway that enables your target customers to pay in their native currency while receiving payment in your native currency. This way, you can even deal with the foreign currency exchange process.

Moreover, choose the payment gateway that supports maximum payment sources such as net banking, UPI, and digital wallets.

6. Multiple Device Support

Customers nowadays shop online using a variety of gadgets. People can use their laptops, phones, or tablets to view your website and make transactions. A flexible digital money transfer solution should be able to offer the same ease and access via every device for customer engagement. Therefore, when choosing a payment gateway service, be sure that they support all main operating systems.

7. Ease of Integration

The payment gateway you select should support your website or app platform. Choose a payment gateway that won’t wreak havoc on your website’s UX, slowing down the payment procedure.

Ease of integration’ simply means –

Is it possible for you to incorporate it on your own?
Do you require a professional developer to do that for you?
Documentation for the payment gateway easily accessible on the internet?
Is there any plugin support?
Is payment gateway compatible with mobile SDKs?
Do they offer any kind of technical support?

If the payment gateways provider covers all of these aspects, you will be able to decide which one to go with.

8. Round the Clock Customer Support

Before selecting a gateway, make certain that it has a strong support network in place. Complete after-sales service is crucial as you never know when a terminal will stop operating. Ensure that the mobile financial solution firm you select offers honest customer service and connects you with a financial counselor on whom you can rely when the worst occurs. For instance, If you may be at an off-site location where you are unable to conduct any transactions, you can reach out to customer support at any time.

To resolve your difficulties, you choose should provide a single point of contact. Their response time should be shorter. Email and chat should be available 24*7.

In a Nutshell

To operate a successful business, you should always choose the best payment gateway service. Experience, technology, ethical principles, alignment, security, and innovation are all important elements in determining the ideal payment gateway.