As a business owner, you want to ensure your clients have a seamless and easy online payments checkout experience while feeling secure knowing their personal information is protected. Additionally, you want to be sure that payments will be made to you promptly and effectively.
If this is your first time setting up an online store, it may seem overwhelming, but you shouldn’t freak out. For your website to securely accept payments, you don’t need technical experience.
6 Steps to Let Your Website Accept Online Payments
Here, we have listed 6 Steps for you to let your business accept money online.
1. Select Payment Options for Your Website Online
There are countless options for payment methods, and new ones are constantly emerging due to the growth of e-banks and fintech. Consumers today expect to be able to shop online using the payment method of their choice because they are accustomed to getting what they want.
Selecting the payment options you’ll accept on your website is the first step toward implementing payment processing. Although you have complete control over this, accepting various payment methods is usually a good idea. Doing this will increase your consumer base and enhance their purchasing process.
People are much more likely to finish the transaction using their preferred payment method. You should use the most popular payment methods to get the highest conversion rates:
- Debit and Credit Cards
Many online buyers prefer to use debit or credit cards like Discover, American Express, Mastercard, Visa, or Mastercard to make payments. You should accept all of the major cards. Because everyone has a different procedure and set of fees, you should know exactly how much every transaction will cost.
If you cooperate with a payment service provider, accepting credit card payments can be simple. You won’t have to manage the entire payment process to set up a merchant account.
- Electronic wallets
Millions of people worldwide use well-known payment methods like PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Samsung Pay, which are all growing in popularity.
Customers can quickly make payments using this easy method on any internet-connected device without entering any financial or personal information. Your website needs to accept digital wallets in the current e-commerce market.
Depending on your business and target market, you might also want to think about the following additional payment methods:
- ACH Payments
Some clients might not feel comfortable using a credit or debit card online, or they might not even have one. ACH (Automated Clearing House) payments are useful in this situation. Consumers in the US do not need to use a credit card or wire transfer to send money to you directly from their bank account via the ACH network.
Additionally, money can be transferred via the ACH network using eChecks, essentially computerized copies of paper checks.
- Direct Debit
Using this payment option, a customer permits a company to take out a specific amount of money each month (or at a different time) from their account. If your business provides membership or subscription services, this might be a good option, but if you only sell the product, you can take this off your list.
2. Fees Calculation
Comprehending payment method fees before beginning a business is crucial because they are a necessary part of operating a business. To ensure you know the exact amount you will be charged each time you receive a payment, read the terms and conditions provided by your payment service provider.
In addition to the fees levied by credit card companies and payment gateways, certain payment service providers impose extra charges. You should pick a provider that is fully open and honest about the fees it charges to prevent unpleasant surprises down the road.
You can monitor the frequency of use of each payment method over time. This will assist you in projecting your annual or monthly costs for every method. If a particular payment mode is expensive, you can remove it from your website.
3. Configure Your Website to Accept Payments
The next step is connecting your website to every payment method you’ve chosen to accept.
You can accomplish this the hard way by manually creating a business account with each company and integrating it into your website. This can be an option if you have the necessary technical know-how to handle any glitches or problems that may arise. However, let’s be honest: it’s a pain. Additionally, getting approved for all the different methods can take some time.
There’s a much simpler solution these days. Working with a full-service payment infrastructure already integrated with all the main payment methods is a popular option for e-commerce businesses.
4. Customizing the Process of Checkout
Make sure the payment processor you select enables you to personalize your checkout page. Nothing will turn away a customer more quickly than a checkout page that doesn’t blend in with the rest of your website and looks suspicious. A page featuring your branding, logo, and color palette will reassure visitors and persuade them to finish their purchases.
5. Include Confirmations via Email
When customers pay for something online, they anticipate receiving an email with all the information related to their transaction. Personalized email distribution by hand can easily become tiresome and time-consuming, particularly as your company expands. You should automate the procedure to ensure that you never have to think about it.
6. Get Feedback
In the e-commerce industry, first impressions count. Make sure everything on your website is functioning properly by testing it before making any changes or going live.
In an effort to foresee every possible way that users might interact with your website, create some fictitious orders and test each and every payment option. Testing your website across a variety of desktop and mobile platforms is a smart idea. Get some friends or coworkers to give it a try as well; they might have insightful comments.
What Is the Process of Processing Online Payments?
Giving your customers the best possible experience will be easier if you know exactly how online payments operate. Let’s examine a few of the fundamental components that operate in the background to make it possible to process payments.
Payment Gateways
On your website, a payment gateway is a software program. The credit card information that your customer enters is encrypted before being sent to a payment processor.
Processor of Payments
After obtaining the credit card data from the payment gateway, a payment processor forwards it to the credit card network. After verifying that the customer has enough money to complete the purchase and looking for signs of fraud, the processor then forwards the approval or denial back to you, the merchant.
The processor contacts the credit card network to retrieve the funds and deposit them into your account if the transaction is authorized.
Merchant Account
A merchant account is a business bank account that enables an organization to accept payments from debit and credit cards, among other sources.
This account used to be the only way you could make online payments. But you can use a third-party payment service provider to get around this requirement.
Conclusion
Businesses should research various payment providers that provide online payment options with great reviews and feedback for reliability. Although it might seem complicated, accepting payments online doesn’t have to be. You can simplify your payment process and provide customers with a flawless experience by working with the right payment service provider.
