Six Features That Are Essential For Ecommerce Payment Processing

It’s a shame that the subject of online shopping cart payment processing isn’t more riveting to talk about. (Of course, Pierre and I believe that it is extremely intriguing; otherwise, we wouldn’t have been working in the billing and payments industry for a combined total of more than 20 years!)(ecommerce payment solution)

But, in all honesty, that is a terrible shame. Our thoughts are with the business owners who have launched an online venture and encountered the many challenges that are inherent in the process of collecting payments online. It’s a frustrating and confusing experience overall, and we wouldn’t wish this challenging trip on anybody else.

If you are new to conducting business online, you might consider a payment gateway to be one more thing that you need access to before you can launch your website. However, this is not the case. It’s tempting to sign up with and remain with a single payment gateway because it’s relatively fast and straightforward to sign up with and link it into your website. However, it’s important to consider all of your options before making this decision.

However, as you will learn (hopefully from reading this article and not from personal experience), it is essential to give serious consideration to all areas of the payment processing for online business. If you don’t take precautions, you run the risk of unpleasant shocks in the future, which could result in decreased revenue and dissatisfied clients.

The payment gateway is only one component of the complete payment solution, which we will refer to as a payment platform. We will explain why this is the case.

A payment platform can provide a great deal more flexibility not only for your company but also for the clients who are paying you. It is the digital counterpart of an orchestral conductor, whose job it is to oversee and ensure that the various components of the payment process are carried out appropriately.

What to Look for Before Beginning the Payment Processing for Online Commerce(ecommerce payment solution)

We’ll go over the elements that, based on our years of experience working in the subscription billing and payments sector, we believe are the most important to enable ecommerce payment processing in the following order:

• Deal with financial transactions in real time.
• Provide support for a diverse range of payment processes and techniques.
• Handle automatically any problems with the payment processor.
• Send payment transactions through the gateway that will save you the most money.
• Integrate with different providers of third-party software
• Integrate with the internal applications that you already have.

1. Handle Financial Transactions in a Timely Manner(ecommerce payment solution)

When the details of the final transaction aren’t immediately known, brick-and-mortar businesses, including gas stations and motels, typically prefer to handle payments in batches rather than individually. On the other hand, if you run an e-commerce business, it is not in your best interest to use a system that processes payments in batches. Why squander your money on something that isn’t essential? It is essential for overall cash management, as well as for budgeting and financial planning, that you have rapid access to your funds.

2. Encourage a Plethora of Different Methods of Payment(ecommerce payment solution)

The variety of payment methods that you offer is an additional factor that you, as an online retailer, need to take into mind. You are need to be registered with a payment gateway in order to accept payments made by credit card, which is the default payment method used by many customers when they shop online (like Authorize.net).

Nevertheless, non-bank payment solutions such as PayPal, Venmo, and Apple Pay are becoming increasingly popular among customers. Other payment methods that are popular among customers include electronic checks, wire transfers, and even cryptocurrencies. The proportion of clients who are likely to make use of these different payment methods shifts depending on the kind of product you sell as well as the nation in which the customer resides (certain payment methods are more popular in some regions of the world than others).

Your consumers will truly like the fact that you offer a payment platform that is adaptable and extensible, since this will allow them to choose from a wide range of payment methods.

3. Handle Automatically Any Problems With the Payment Gateway

Even if advances in technology have been made, there may still be occasions when there are problems with operating systems and software. What would happen to your e-commerce firm if you only used one payment gateway? If your consumers tried to make a purchase but the gateway was down, they would not be able to.

We’ll provide a response to that question: the customers leave, and it’s quite unlikely that they’ll come back.

This highlights how important it is to have at least two payment gateways at your disposal. A flexible payments platform will be able to redirect transactions to the “backup” payment gateway in the event that your primary payment gateway experiences technical difficulties or becomes unresponsive.

4. Direct all payment transactions through the gateway that offers the best price.

You could come to realise, as your e-commerce company expands over time, that the expenses associated with the payment gateway can quickly pile up. For instance, as your company extends to other countries, the fees associated with international payment processing would also increase.

The routing of payment transactions to particular payment gateways on the basis of specified criteria is one way to cut costs and save money. Continuing with the previous illustration, when the payment platform recognises that a payment transaction is coming from outside of the country, it will replace your conventional payment gateway with a more cost-effective international payment gateway.

Switching from one payment gateway to another if the daily number of transactions reaches a limit is another example that demonstrates the significance of this functionality (whereafter using that payment gateway would result in higher transaction costs).

5. Integrate with Independent Software Providers and Distributors

Although payment gateways handle a lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to the payments for your online store, they are not able to do everything. Because of this, it is essential that the payments platform you use is compatible with a variety of third-party software vendors.

The management of the taxes that you receive from the buyers who use your e-commerce platform to make purchases is an excellent illustration of this principle in action. Your payment gateway is not going to be responsible for maintaining compliance with the various tax regulations that apply in the United States and other countries on your behalf. In point of fact, the taxation of inter-state and international e-commerce transactions is so convoluted that it is beyond the capabilities of your subscription billing software.

However, the government is still interested in receiving tax revenue, and as a result, you are required to make use of tax software that automatically calculates and applies the appropriate tax rate to each purchase, as well as maintains a record of this information. In this regard, the payment processing platform you use for your online store needs to have the capacity to integrate with tax software provided by a third party.

One example of this is tax preparation software such as Avalara Tax. It’s also possible that the nature of your company requires you to keep a close look out for fraudulent transactions and that this is something you need to do. Payment gateways have the ability to identify some fraudulent transactions; but, the results you get from employing third-party software suppliers who specialise in fraud detection will be significantly better (like Accertify or Feedzai).

Utilizing a payment platform that is compatible with various programmes provided by third parties is a shrewd move that can help your company remain robust and successful.

6. Integrate Your Solution with the Preexisting Applications Found Within Your Organization

Because your e-commerce payment processing platform does not connect with your internal systems, it is necessary to manually update transaction data. This procedure is laborious and prone to input errors. Try to find a system that can be easily integrated with the ones you already have (accounting, inventory, CRM, order management, etc.). Your staff will spend less time handling the data and will instead be able to concentrate on the clients and the growth of the firm.

In addition, the technological limitations of the payment gateway shouldn’t stop you from expanding your e-commerce firm as it develops; you shouldn’t let that stop you. Let’s say you want to move to a larger and more capable CRM solution, or you want to optimise your order management and inventory processes. The last thing you want to hear is that your payment gateway is incompatible with the more recent and advanced solutions.

Keep all of your options open.

It’s possible that you’ve already picked up on it, but the main idea behind this post is that you should always leave your options open. If you want to gain and keep a competitive advantage, the payment processing software you use for your online store should be as adaptable and expandable as is humanly possible. This will allow you to ride out challenging times and capitalise on emerging technology.

Source: ecommerce payment solution , ecommerce payment gateway