If you’re an online retailer or running an eCommerce business, you may already have access to a global payments merchant portal but, as you may have already discovered, it might not provide the functionality you need.

A merchant portal is an online platform that gives merchants access to critical data relating to online transactions and sales. Depending on the features integrated into your global payments merchant portal, you may also be able to modify payment settings or adjust merchant services.

As a global payments merchant portal is usually made available via your merchant services provider, it’s imperative to choose the best provider if you want to gain access to the best portal. In this article, we examine how a merchant service provider can enhance your online operations and why a user-friendly merchant portal is essential for a successful online business.

What Is a Merchant Services Provider?

If you sell goods or services online, you’re known as a ‘merchant’ and a ‘merchant services provider’ is simply a company or financial institution that provides related services. This can include payment processing and/or payment gateways and merchant portals, for example.

Although the rise of the internet has made it easy for virtually anyone to launch an eCommerce business, the complexity of the online payments process means many merchants are paying over the odds for a limited service and reduced functionality.

By working with a trusted merchant services provider, however, you can gain access to the cost-efficient and secure services you need, including a user-friendly global payments merchant portal.

What Merchant Services Do You Need?

To understand what type of merchant services you need, it’s important to understand how the online payment process works.

Firstly, the customer inputs their payment details into your online checkout and your payment gateway encrypts the data and sends it to the card issuer to confirm the information is legitimate and that the customer has sufficient funds in their account. The payment gateway receives confirmation from the card issuer and then approves or denies the transaction.

Then, your payment processer sends the transaction request to the customer’s card issuer and secures a secondary confirmation from the customer’s bank. Once this has happened, the issuer sends a credit to your bank and the funds are added to your merchant account before being forwarded to your bank account.

While this may seem like a complicated process, it can be split into two distinct segments:

  1. Payment gateway
  2. Payment processor

The payment gateway is responsible for authorising the transaction, while the payment processor handles the actual transfer of funds.

As you can imagine, choosing the right payment gateway and/or payment processor is vital for ensuring reliable and speedy transactions. Furthermore, both payment gateways, card issuers and payment processers add fees to each stage of the online payment process, so you can reduce your expenditure as a merchant by selecting a payment gateway and payment processor that offers a cost-effective yet high-quality and regulatory compliant service.

Payment Gateway vs Payment Processor

Although there are distinct differences between a payment gateway and a payment processor, the same merchant services provider can be used to access a payment gateway and payment processing. By choosing the same provider, you can streamline the online payments process and secure a single point of access for any technical, operational or commercial queries you may have.

In addition to this, you may be able to negotiate a favourable fee tariff if you choose the same merchant services provider to deliver both your payment gateway and payment processing.

Remember – the merchant services provider you choose will also provide you with access to a global payments merchant portal where you can view, analyse and export transaction data. If you’re unsure what service provider is right for you, ask for a tour of their merchant portal so you can see exactly what access you’ll get and how user-friendly the tools and platform are.

Accepting Global Payments

When your website or eCommerce store is able to accept global payments, there are no limits to how quickly your business can grow or how successful you can be, but you’ll need to ensure you’ve got the right infrastructure as the foundation of your enterprise.

At PayAlly, we understand that every business has unique needs, which is why we take a tailormade approach when delivering merchant services, including:

Payment Gateway Integrations

A payment gateway is integrated into your online store or website via software, so it’s essential that your preferred gateway is compatible with your site. Our integration options include Android SDK, Apple SDK, C#, Java, PHP and node, so you can be confident that our payment gateways can be easily integrated into virtually any site.

Web Shop Plugins

If your online store is already up and running, our market-leading plugins make it easy to utilise our merchant services. With plugins to accommodate the most popular online stores, including Woocommerce, OpenCart, Magento and PrestaShop, we make it easy to elevate your web shop to the next level.

Global Payments

When you’re accepting payments from all over the world, it’s important to give customers the option of using the most popular payment methods, which is why we facilitate a wide variety of payment options, including VISA, Mastercard, Apple Pay and Google Pay.

Customisation

As well as customising your payment page to match your brand, PayAlly empowers online businesses to customise the functionality of their payment process too. From subscriptions and recurring payments to payment links and fully hosted checkouts, our technical team are on hand to help you find the best payment processes for your business and your target audiences.

Access Leading Merchant Services from PayAlly

If you’re running an existing online business or you’re planning to launch an eCommerce enterprise in the near future, we’re on hand to provide all the assistance you need. With a wide range of leading merchant services embedded into our financial services infrastructure, we make it easy to access to bespoke support you need to grow your business.

To find out more, talk to our expert team on +44 (0)20 7489 6480 or +44 330 777 2244 or email us at info@payally.co.uk.