9 Advantages of Payment Gateways for eCommerce
Regardless of the business or industry, every organisation today needs a gateway payment online to boost business growth and drive performance. Over 25% of customers have claimed they will abandon their purchase and opt for a competitor site if they don’t see their preferred mode of payment when they reach the checkout page. From this, businesses should understand that having a wide range of payment options for customers can make or break their sales. The best way to ensure this is by integrating a payment gateway with your business website.
In the past few years, especially since the pandemic, online payment gateways have seen a surge in popularity and adoption. The changing technologies and increasing innovations have made online payment processing more palatable and easier to adopt. This is also aided by a diverse set of features, functionalities and benefits that they provide to customers and businesses regardless of their industry. They also help businesses grow and scale with time.
Benefits of an Online Payment Gateway for Businesses:
1. Faster and more secure transactions:
The primary advantage of online payment gateways is that they provide a high level of security and increased efficiency when it comes to processing customer transactions. A leading mobile payments gateway can complete transactions more than 50x faster than traditional methods would allow. As a result, customers get a more seamless shopping experience and are assured of payment security. Having a fast payment gateway also ensures the cash flow to the business remains regulated and hassle-free. The entire online transaction takes no more than a few seconds, which means both the customer and the merchant have a lesser wait time.
2. Minimum cost of setting up:
Many businesses and individuals avoid setting up a payment gateway as they feel it can incur significant costs and should be done only by large businesses. However, the cost of setting one up is much lower than most businesses expect. Additionally, compared to the transaction fees and chargeback rates that businesses incur without a payment gateway, the setup fee for a gateway payment online system is marginal. Whether a business is small or large, a payment gateway incurs minimum charges while setting up and minimises additional costs as a result of payment-related issues.
3. Saves time:
The most tangible benefit of a payment gateway is faster transactions that result in time savings. Every transaction takes a mere few seconds. Compared to the amount of time it would take to physically take out cash, count it, get the change and leave the store, this is a significant improvement. Customers and clients are free to make payments from any part of the world with no restrictions (except legal regulations), allowing businesses to go beyond borders with their audience and market share.
4. Enhanced customer experience:
One key area of improvement that all businesses are trying to improve is shopping cart abandonment. The largest contributing factor to this has been the unavailability of sufficient online payment options for the customer. Customers claim that when they reach the payment page and don’t find their favourite or most preferred method of payment, they are likely to abandon the website and explore their competitors. In other words, websites with a strong variety of payment methods find greater preference among customers.
5. Global payments accepted:
As mentioned before, a payment gateway enables businesses to reach a global audience. Anyone with an active internet connection has the option of shopping from any business website, purchasing services and making online payments. Using a payment gateway that integrates with your website and accepts different currencies is an efficient way of building an international customer base.
6. Minimised decline in transactions:
Transactions declining continuously is a major inconvenience for businesses. It incurs extra costs and causes inconvenience. However, this challenge is minimised with a payment gateway. Generally, the payment processor checks the customer’s fund availability as soon as the customer enters their financial information. Based on their balance, the request is approved or declined immediately. This eliminates the need to chase consumers to re-initiate transactions.
7. Enhanced cash flow:
All credible payment gateways send money from the holding account to the vendor’s account in under 72 hours. As a result, businesses don’t need to wait too long to get their funds and access them. A smooth cash flow process is possible through a payment gateway.
8. Payment automation:
Manually completing, recording and invoicing individual transactions can be taxing. Using a payment gateway reduces human contact and eliminates the need for excessive human intervention. This minimises errors caused by human oversight and also saves time and money.
9. Fraud detection tools:
Through fraud detection systems protecting sensitive data shared by a customer and handling chargeback fees due to failed transactions is a leading challenge for digital businesses today. Having a PCI-DSS-compliant payment gateway can help prevent leaks and increase data security.
Using an end-to-end payment gateway for your e-commerce platform can help your business grow and increase customer loyalty and profitability.
