How to Take Payments from Your Online Shop

Nearly 25% of retail sales are expected to take place online by 2026, which highlights a lucrative opportunity for today’s businesses. If you’re not already accepting online payments, then you’re missing out on the chance to engage more than 8 billion potential customers worldwide.

While there is plenty to consider when launching an online shop, how you’ll take payments is one of the most important factors. As well as safeguarding your revenue stream, the online checkout process can have a significant impact on your commercial performance.

A lengthy or complex online checkout can lead to basket abandonment, for example, while any doubts regarding security can cause your customers to switch to a competitor. From a company’s perspective, choosing the right payment solution is critical too. After all, you’ll want to ensure maximum functionality and minimal expenditure to optimise your financial performance.

In this article, we’ll take a closer look at how to take payments from your online shop and explain what factors to consider when you’re implementing online payment solutions.

How Can You Accept Online Payments?

If you’re wondering how to take payments from your online shop, there are two broad options to consider, as well as Direct Debits for recurring payments:

1. Payment Gateway

Incorporating a payment gateway into your operations enables you to accept credit and debit card payments via your website, in addition to other forms of payment, such as Apply Pay and Google Pay.

By connecting your site and your merchant account to a payment processing network, a payment gateway transmits the customer’s relevant financial information and their payment request before returning an ‘approved’ or ‘denied’ message to confirm whether the payment has been accepted.

2. Payment Facilitator

A payment facilitator is an external third party that allows you to use their infrastructure to accept payments, such as Stripe or PayPal. Unlike a payment gateway, a payment facilitator won’t process payments individually. Instead, they are held in batches and processed in bulk, which can mean there are extended wait times for payments to be completed.

3. Recurring Payments

If you offer a subscription service, then accepting recurring payments via Direct Debit could be advantageous. Here, the customer signs a Direct Debit mandate that authorises your company to take funds from their account at specified intervals.

Which Payment Solution Is Best for Your Business?

When you’re deciding how to take payments from your online shop, it’s important to consider all of the relevant factors, such as:

Customer Perception

Potential customers can be dissuaded from submitting their payment details if they’re not confident in the security of your website, particularly when it comes to the payment page. While established payment facilitators are highly regarded in their own right, customers may wonder why you don’t have a bespoke online checkout, and this could harm your brand’s reputation.

Conversely, a customised payment gateway reinforces your brand’s authority and gives customers confidence that their data will be processed safely and securely.

Fees and Costs

Whichever payment solutions you choose, you can expect to pay fees of some kind. However, you don’t need to pay over the odds to access the payment functionality and services you need. The batch payment processing associated with payment facilitators often makes these types of services relatively low cost, but your revenue could be harmed by the negative impact on the customer’s perception.

In contrast, you’ll typically pay processing fees when using a payment gateway and these can vary depending on the provider you choose. At PayAlly, we’re committed to providing bespoke payment gateway solutions that match your company’s objectives and deliver cost-effective functionality.

Hosted vs Integrated Payment Gateways

If you’ve decided that a payment gateway is the right choice for your business, you’ll then need to consider whether to opt for a hosted or an integrated gateway. A hosted gateway is managed by a third-party on their own servers, while an integrated payment gateway is incorporated into your site and run on your servers.

As integrated payment gateways are more customisable, many businesses prefer to retain control over the functionality and appearance of their online checkout by incorporating an integrated payment gateway into their site.

Accepted Payment Methods

Not all payment facilitators or payment gateways accept the same payment methods, which could mean you miss out on sales if you choose the wrong one. To maximise revenue and streamline the customer journey, you’ll want to accept a range of payment methods, so make sure your preferred online payment solutions can meet these needs.

Security

Whatever payment gateway you choose, security must be a top priority. As well as causing financial harm to your business, data loss can have a devastating impact on your company’s reputation, so take the time to research which security protocols should be implemented. With 3DS2 and tokenisation, PayAlly uses advanced security measures to ensure the integrity of our payment gateway solutions.

Customer Support

Unexpected downtime can have a catastrophic impact on your revenue stream, particularly if customers don’t return once your online checkout is fully functional once again. Due to this, it’s important to ensure that your online payment solutions provide you with access to the customer support you need.

At PayAlly, every one of our clients is assigned a dedicated Relationship Manager, so you can access help and support at any time. Whether you’re exploring new solutions for how to take online payments from your online shop, or you have questions about the functionality of your payment gateway, we’ll be on hand to provide the assistance and expertise you need.

Multicurrency Payments

Online shops give you access to a global target audience and accepting multicurrency payments makes it easy to serve a worldwide customer base. Our multicurrency accounts and bespoke payment gateway services can be used to facilitate payments in a wide range of currencies, which gives you a springboard to global commercial success.

Learn More About Our Tailored Payment Gateways Now

To find out more about our customised payment gateway options, talk to our experienced team now.