Website Payment Gateways: Choosing the Right Website Payment Solution
For an online business, making it easy for customers to pay is an important part of the buying journey. A complicated or unreliable checkout can lead to abandoned purchases, while a smooth payment experience can help build customer confidence.
With so many website payment gateways available, how do you choose the right one for your business?
The best website payment solution should be secure, reliable, easy to integrate and provide the payment options your customers expect.
What Is a Website Payment Gateway?
A payment gateway is the technology that allows businesses to accept payments through their websites. It securely transfers payment information between the customer, the business and the relevant financial institutions to authorise a transaction.
For the customer, the process should be quick and straightforward. For the business, the payment gateway needs to provide security, reliability and the tools needed to manage online transactions.
What Should You Look for in Website Payment Gateways?
When comparing website payment gateways, there are several important factors to consider.
Security
Security should always be a priority when accepting payments online. Look for a payment solution that uses appropriate security measures such as encryption, tokenisation, fraud protection and PCI DSS compliance.
A secure payment process not only helps protect sensitive information but can also give customers greater confidence when purchasing from your website.
Easy Integration
Your payment gateway needs to work with your existing website and e-commerce platform.
Many website payment solutions can integrate with popular platforms such as WooCommerce, WordPress and Magento. Most work via an API integration, although there are different ways you can integrate a payment gateway with your website, which can affect the checkout process.
For example:
1. Hosted payment pages – This is where the payment page opens in a separate window or sometimes appears as a frame within the page. The payment page is hosted by the gateway, helping businesses avoid having to deal directly with sensitive card data.
2. Hosted fields direct integration – This is where the payment page stays on the website, but the business still doesn’t have to deal directly with sensitive card data because the card number fields are hosted by the payment gateway.
Before choosing a provider, check that the solution is compatible with your website and won’t create unnecessary complications during setup.
Payment Options
Customers don’t all want to pay in the same way. Depending on your audience, you may need to accept debit and credit cards, digital wallets and other payment methods.
Offering a choice can make checkout more convenient and help prevent customers from abandoning their purchase because their preferred payment method isn’t available.
Google Pay and Apple Pay are now available with most gateways and can make the customer checkout experience much easier, so they are always recommended features to consider.
Reliability
Payment problems can quickly result in lost sales. If a customer reaches checkout but cannot complete their payment because of an error or service interruption, they may simply leave your website.
When comparing website payment gateways, consider reliability, customer support and how quickly technical issues can be resolved.
Costs
Payment processing fees can vary between providers. Depending on the solution, you may encounter transaction fees, monthly charges, setup costs, refund fees or additional charges for certain payment methods.
Rather than choosing a gateway based solely on its headline transaction rate, consider the overall cost and whether the solution provides the features your business actually needs.
For example, Stripe doesn’t charge a monthly fee, but its standard UK card processing rate is 1.5% + 20p for standard UK cards. This can become relatively expensive for businesses processing a high volume of transactions each month. Better deals may be available, particularly if you don’t need all of the additional features offered by some providers and your transaction volumes are high.
How Your Payment Solution Affects Customers
Your checkout is one of the final stages of the customer journey, so it needs to be as straightforward as possible.
A good website payment solution should work well across desktop and mobile devices, provide clear payment instructions and make it easy for customers to complete their purchase.
A simple checkout combined with familiar payment options can help reduce unnecessary friction and create a better overall customer experience.
Choosing the Right Website Payment Solution
There isn’t one payment gateway that will suit every business. The right option will depend on your website platform, transaction volumes, customers, payment methods and budget.
Before making a decision, consider:
- Does it integrate with your website?
- Is it secure and reliable?
- Does it support the payment methods your customers use?
- Are the fees clear and competitive?
- Is customer and technical support available when you need it?
- Can the solution grow with your business?
- What other integrations do you need, such as accountancy software?
Looking at the complete solution rather than just the transaction fee can help you make a more informed decision.
Website Payment Solutions From Breathe Payments
At Breathe Payments, we understand that choosing and managing online payments can be complicated.
We provide website payment solutions for businesses looking to accept secure online payments, with integrations available for platforms including WordPress and WooCommerce.
Whether you’re setting up a new online store or reviewing your existing payment setup, we can help you explore your options and find a solution that fits the way your business operates.
The right website payment solution should make things easier — for both your customers and your business.
Looking at your online payment options? Talk to Breathe Payments to find out how we can help.