In the era of digital shopping, the ability to accept digital payments are an absolute must. This is more than just accepting Visa and MasterCard electronically – it means offering new web-based payment methods like PayChex and PayPal. These newer forms of payment are modern business requirement for eCommerce websites and apps.

The most important part of any customer-business interaction is the Checkout stage. From traditional brick-and-mortar stores to the eCommerce enterprise, this is where people have to face how much they’ve spent. This make or break moment is even more pronounced in eCommerce, where shoppers can remove items from their cart without holding up other shoppers.

The aim of this post to today will be to cover a few key elements that should go into any payment gateway. Then we will wrap up with a brief look at the top 5 payment gateways, looking at the pros and cons of each.

User Experience is First

Don’t choose a payment gateway, choose a User Experience (UX). A payment gateway needs to make the payment experience better. It should not make the experience more difficult. It shouldn’t even really maintain the status quo. Let’s refer to the industry darling for an example: Amazon Express.

Amazon’s payment experience is so easy and seamless it’s almost too easy (hence the”accidently purchased this” feature!); it’s the UX example to which any eCommerce website should refer. The easier it is to buy something, the more money you will make; in fact a report from Analytics giant Bain and Company found that a 5% increase in customer retention resulting in a 95% increase in profits. Pretty good deal, right?

Security (duh)

All major payment gateways have security that is exceptionally robust. It’s kind of a requirement of the business! In other words, we won’t dive into this too much. If you go with pretty much any named brand you will be okay.

But if you’re thinking of an off brand gateway, the biggest red flag is if a gateway is putting the onus of security on you. Make sure that they are PCI compliant and that all payments go from the browser to the company’s own secure gateway – never over your own server! Really though, we recommend going with a verified payment gateway. This is one of the most important aspects of your business, if not the most important.

PayChex Bluepay

PayChex Bluepay is the underdog of the Payment Gateway world, but not due to quality issues. In fact, Paychex maintains an entirely inhouse sales team to help ensure high quality customer experiences. Despite this expensive approach, Paychex BluePay is still the one of the cheapest payment gateways out there. Bluepay also claims to have the highest data security in the industry, though this is hard to prove.

PayPal

If you have never heard of PayPal, you probably fell through a time portal in the 1980s and just found yourself here in 2017. First, welcome to the 21st century; remember that Trump guy who’s building all those hotels? Yea, he’s president now. Oh, and computers fit in your hand – sweet, right?

Kidding aside, PayPal’s reputation is well earned. ANd though they are a legacy tech company from the 90s, they’re still trying to grow with the times; a fact demonstrated by their recent acquisition of Braintree. Additionally, Paypal is supported on all web development platforms, making integration with existing platforms much more simple. While more expensive than Bluepay, it has 165 million users, making it pretty much a must for eCommerce sites.

Stripe

As an entrepreneur and not a developer, you may not have heard all that much about Stripe. Stripe focuses on attracting developers; something they do extremely well. They focus on creating new ways for companies to accept payment online whether through a mobile app or a subscription-based model.

Stripe is supported on most major eCommerce platforms, including Magento and Shopify. More importantly, Stripe is making a big push into the global market, an awesome opportunity for eCommerce businesses just getting started.

Amazon Payments

As referenced earlier, Amazon Payments is one of the best examples of how UX should be done in the industry. This API’s single greatest feature is it’s 1-click purchase option, which autopopulates a returning client’s information. As mentioned above, the easier it is to pay you, the more money your business will make.

Amazon Payments is supported by most major eCommerce platforms. While still more expensive than Bluepay, Payments has no setup fee and a smaller chargeback fee than other major competitors (such as Authorize.Net).

Square

This newer player in the Payment Gateway business was founded by industry legend and Twitter founder Jack Dorsey. Square is slightly different than the other names on the list because it focuses mainly on small mobile, businesses like Food Trucks. Square’s emphasis is not on eCommerce. But we wanted to cover it anyways because its an web-based payment method.

Square allows users to make quick digital payments at Brick-and-Mortar location – Starbucks being a prime example of this. The Credit Card needs to be present, but the Square POS system is able to capture Credit Card info by a tap. More recently they’ve launched a Peer-to-Peer payment service, called Square Cash.

Need a Payment Gateway for your own eCommerce website? Give us a call at 408.805.0495/408.621.8481 – or click to contact us – for more information on which option works best for you.