Online payments are widespread, not just for paying personal bills but for your business vendors, customers, and employees as well. Projections show that online shopping will continue to increase, as consumers prefer to shop from their computers, phones, or Alexa-type devices.
Debit and credit cards still reign supreme as the payment option of online shoppers. However, other types of payments are stepping onto the stage, such as mobile payments and echecks. Online payments aren’t only for pure ecommerce sites. Brick-and-mortar merchants can also use online payments if they want to increase online store traffic in addition to their physical location.
After all, if you’re a business owner and you’re not offering online payments, you’re limiting your business’ potential for growth. With the onset of online banking several years ago, digital payments are on the rise. This is not surprising. Consumers want convenience. Businesses don’t want to wait for a check to be mailed. Moving to online payments creates happier consumers, expands your consumer base, and raises your profit margins.
Let’s learn more about how to accept payments online.
Accepting payments online.
Although online payments occur in an instant, the technology behind processing this payment method is intricate. To offer truly seamless electronic payments, businesses need a payment gateway.
A payment gateway helps businesses authorize their customer’s electronic payments. When a customer makes a payment, the gateway transfers the payment information to your merchant account and communicates back to the consumer that the payment was accepted or denied. A secure gateway is required by law for privacy and security compliance.
When using a payment gateway, your merchant account acts as a mini-bank. Once the customer pays (and the information is transferred through the payment gateway) the merchant account receives the payment. When the payment is received, the merchant account then moves this payment to your bank account. This transfer could occur over the course of a couple of days, depending on your credit card processing company.
The advantages of accepting ecommerce payments.
Offering online payments provides many benefits to small businesses. They can broaden their customer base by providing an ecommerce platform that accepts electronic payments. Additionally, online payments provide ease for customers when they’re checking out on your online store. By choosing to pay with a credit card, debit card, or with a smartphone, businesses can offer both convenience and security to consumers who prefer to shop on their computers or phones.
Further, if checkout and payment is simple and secure, you’ll have fewer abandoned cart issues online. Sixty percent of all cart abandonments are caused by extra fees, such as shipping and taxes. Twenty-eight percent of American consumers don’t complete the online checkout process because it’s too complicated. Then there’s the fact that 35 percent of online transactions are lost if the payment platform requires the consumer to create an account. The more comfortable your check out process is, the more sales you’ll see.
The disadvantages of accepting payments online.
Online payments have few problems when compared to traditional payment methods. First, fees can be a downside. Depending on your payment processor, costs could contribute to some overall frustration. Do you price your products or services to absorb the higher processing fees that come with card-not-present transactions? Do you lose online customers if you itemize your fees on the checkout screen? Do the fees seem to be out of control? A little here, a little more there? Understanding how fees are generated during your online payment processing is a factor you want to examine when either implementing or upgrading your electronic payment service for the first time.
Additionally, many of us have had our debit cards or credit cards hacked. You get a call from the bank when someone tried to buy five large-screen televisions on your Visa or Mastercard. So, how safe is paying online? Although fraud is another disadvantage, it’s less frequent when compared to other payment methods.
Ecommerce loses less than one percent of sales due to fraud. However, you should make proactively battling fraud an ongoing concern. Businesses should protect themselves and their customers when offering online payments by abiding by privacy and security laws and implementing best practices. By providing a secure, private payment network, businesses will maintain professionalism while preserving their company’s integrity.
Identity theft is one form of fraud, where someone has stolen credit or debit card numbers to make unauthorized purchases. To combat online fraud, the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council (PCI SSC) created a set of rules that all businesses who accept online payments must adhere to. Within these rules and best practices, companies must maintain a secure system, implement review and control processes, test their networks, and maintain a policy on information security, among others.
Additionally, your payment software may require purchase limits, signaling potential issues with large-dollar transactions. When choosing an online provider, make sure that the payment information received is encrypted and complies with the rules established by the PCI SSC.
How to choose an online payment processor.
Small business owners should understand their options when it comes to offering online payments. You should review what the provider offers, along with any equipment costs, monthly fees, and transaction fees, to see if this vendor is the right fit for your business.
Additionally, you’ll want to confirm that your online payment processor integrates with your accounting software, such as Quickbooks. By having your online store’s payments automatically sync with your accounting software, you’ll be able to gather more data on how your store is performing as opposed to having to painstakingly and manually match up data from the two systems.
At North American Bancard, we offer low processing fees and don’t require long-term contracts. We help make it easy to provide your customers with the online frictionless transactions they’ve come to expect. Finally, we integrate our systems with accounting software (like QuickBooks) that allows you to save both time and money while gaining valuable insight into your business.
If you’re looking to accept online payments, only NAB offers the extensive customization, excellent security, and exceptional reliability to seamlessly accept payments in the world of ecommerce. We’ll help you tailor a payment processing plan to your specific business. To set up a consultation, contact us here or give us a call at 877.840.1952.
