7 factors to consider

Choosing the right payment solution for your business is a vital part of the digital transformation. Let's start by pointing out the three parties that are involved in each payment process: the merchant, the customer and the technologies connecting them.

The payment gateway is one of those technologies. It is a service that authorizes and processes payments in physical and online stores. A payment gateway serves as a portal to facilitate the transaction flow between customers and merchants. Thus, the payment solution you choose must meet the needs of both your customers and your company.

The moment of payment is a crucial step in your customers' buyer’s journey. Once he reaches this step, it means he was satisfied with your products or services and is ready to pay for them. You would not want to lose your client at this moment when he has already decided to buy your goods.

To choose the ideal solution for your business, it is necessary to consider the following seven factors:

The cost:

The payment provider's costs can be based on the type of transactions made (on e-commerce or at a physical store), on the volume of transactions or the payment method (Visa or PayPal, for example). Some payment providers charge an account opening fee, a monthly maintenance fee and a fee per transaction, while others charge only a fee per transaction.

When choosing your payment gateway, you want to study and evaluate the overall cost to your business and make sure there are no hidden fees.

Here are the two most popular types of pricing:

Flat rate pricing: It is simple and easy to understand. You pay a fixed percentage for the entire volume of transactions, regardless of the actual costs. All fees are included in this non-negotiable rate.

For example, if you are charged at a rate of 2.5% of the transaction’s amount + 0.20€ per transaction. For a 100€ transaction, the payment provider will charge you 2.7€ per transaction.

Interchange - fixed rate: In this case, your payment provider charges you a fixed fee in addition to the interchange. The payment solution providers charge about 0.10 - 1.00% plus a transaction fee, depending on the risk assessment of the merchant.

For example, if you are charged at a rate of 1% + 0.10€ plus a 1.5% interchange fee. For a 100€ transaction, the payment provider will charge you 2.6€ per transaction.

This fee structure is also known as cost-plus or wholesale pricing. Thus, it may be the best option to reduce your fees.

It is also important to look out for hidden fees by first understanding the typical fees a payment solution provider might be charging you. Hidden fees may include, for example, annual fees, fees for refund or cash-in/cash-out fees.

Covered regions and accepted payment methods:

Whether you have an international presence with physical stores or an e-commerce store with international customers, you need a payment solution providers with international coverage. The payment gateway you choose should provide an international solution, accept the regional payment methods in your target markets and most importantly support local currencies.

In e-commerce, according to a YouGov study, 50% of visitors will abandon their carts if they don’t find their preferred payment method. Thus, to improve your conversion rate, you need to accept the local payment methods for your target countries.

Omni-channel checkout methods:

Payment gateways also have an impact on your store’s efficiency. Make sure you know if your provider supports all integration methods that allow your customers to checkout in every channel (QR code - POS - API - Mobile App - Pay-by-Link, integration into your cash register software).

Easy integration:

This mainly concerns e-commerce stores. The integration of a payment method on your online store can be done either through an API integration or via a plugin on a CMS such as Woo Commerce.

Most payment solution providers offer detailed documentation on their API that allows you to integrate the desired payment methods on your e-commerce.

The key factor to consider, therefore, its simple integration. Besides, it is important to choose a solution that will not make your payment process time-consuming. According to Invespcro.com, more than 23% of customers abandon their carts due to a complex payment process.

Thus, you need to choose a payment provider that won't ruin your user experience efforts and will make it easy for your customers to make payments on your e-commerce store by choosing the payment method of their choice.

Security

There is no better way to make your customers open their wallets as a secure payment solution. Large groups have set the bar higher in terms of customer experience by optimizing their customer journey both at their physical stores and online, but also by making security their priority. As a result, the customer’s expectations have increased.

Even if you run a small business, your customers will always expect a very secure payment process and a high-quality experience. The fear of having their payment data stolen is a common cause among customers.

If you have an e-commerce store, you are directly or indirectly competing with giants like Amazon, Wish or ASOS, etc. In other words, your payment process must be as secure as that of the e-commerce giants.

Make sure your payment solution provider is certified to follow information security standards like PCI-DSS and offers 3D Secure, for example.

Customer support:

Many payment gateways limit their customer support to emails, help forms or even a FAQ page where customers are supposed to find all the answers to their questions. In this case, users must follow autonomously and manually all the steps to solve their technical problems.

If you decide to offer your customers a quality support service with human interaction or live assistance, your company should favor payment gateways that provide immediate support through a phone discussion or a live chat, at least during work hours so that they can assist you in solving your problems as quickly as possible.

Your store type:

Make sure that the payment methods you want to integrate are accepted by the payment gateway on your store type (physical store or e-commerce store). Some payment solution providers offer their services for both physical stores and e-commerce stores. However, it is not rare for a payment method to be available only for one of them.

You need to choose the payment solution that helps you accept the payment methods you want on every channel.

If you are looking for a way to improve your customers’ trust and increase your conversion rate, integrating our payment solution will build trust and confidence among your customers, optimize their buyer’s journey and protect you from fraud.

Silkpay provides omnichannel payment solutions so that its merchants can offer the best payment experience to their customers.

Some of the benefits of Silkpay's payment solution

Expert in omnichannel payment and QR code payment
Chinese payment specialist: Alipay, WeChat Pay and UnionPay
Accepts more than 30+ popular payment methods worldwide
Silkpay efficiently manages international payments by accepting local currencies
Easy-to-integrate solution
Competitive pricing, check them out here
Support by phone, live chat and email
Our merchants are protected against fraud
A dedicated backoffice where you can view and manage all your transactions