Effective Ways of Streamlining Your Business’s Payment Processing Solutions
If you own a business, then streamlining your website’s payment processing is very important. If your customers can’t pay in a fast and efficient manner, they will likely take their business elsewhere. There are many payment processing solutions available online, but unfortunately, not all are worth your time.
Before you implement any payment processing methods on your website, you need to conduct extensive research, read reviews, and plan out how you will apply them.
This article will explain several ways that you can streamline your business’s payment methods, as well as tell you what the most efficient payment processing solutions are:
What Is A Payment Processing Solution?
A payment processing solution is a system that manages your business’s purchases for you. It essentially functions as a middleman between you and the customer, facilitating payment for the goods and services that you offer. There are many different payment processors available online, some better than others. It’s crucial that you select the right payment processor to facilitate transactions, for you and your customers. An efficient payment processor improves your customers’ experience and allows you to get paid directly to your bank account, even from international clients.
Finding a Payment Processor
When you are setting up your website’s payment gateway, you need to find a professional, qualified, and easy to work with a payment processing agency. There are many online. Some, like mypaymentsavvy.com, can design custom payment processing gateways for your website. This gives you greater control over your payment gateway and its accompanying features. You can go now to their website to read what else they have to say and learn more about customized payment solutions. When considering a payment processing agency, make sure that you read reviews, testimonials, and conduct research into them.
High-Risk Merchant Accounts
If you have a business that’s considered high risk to banks, you may struggle to find a payment processing service that will work with you. Fortunately, there are some that will. Companies that are considered high risk include [but are not limited to]:
- Pornographic and adult services.
- Age-restricted items [Cannabis, alcohol, and cigarettes].
- Bail bonds.
- Deliveries, collections, and removals.
If your business is in an industry that’s considered high risk, then you will need to give serious consideration to the payment processor that you work with. Some charge high-risk businesses higher fees, because nobody else will deal with them.
Free Credit Card Processing
You will also want to find a payment gateway that offers free credit card processing. If you end up doing business with a gateway service that charges your customers, and you, for each purchase, you will lose a lot of money and irritate your customers. When a person makes a purchase from you, they are not expecting to receive additional charges for using their credit cards. This can be, to customers, incredibly annoying. For this reason, you need to find a service that doesn’t charge your customers for using their cards, and instead, processes card payments for free.
Merchant Credit Services Collection Agency
Some payment processors also offer credit collection services. If you are a business that offers your customers credit, then this is very important. Unfortunately, many customers do not honor their agreements with the businesses that they work with. This results in unpaid debts, which accrue interest and leave business owners out of pocket. A credit services collection agency will buy your debt from you and collect it themselves, adding their own interest to it. These services allow you to reclaim lost money and ensure that you are never out of pocket.
Effective Payment Gateways
When you find a payment processing service, they will provide you with a payment gateway. Your payment gateway is how you are paid – it is the payment processing solution. These gateways are hosted by payment processing agencies. There are three main types of payment gateway:
Redirects
Redirects are a very common type of payment processing solution, especially for smaller businesses. Redirects to PayPal are particularly common. When a person is ready to pay, the payment gateway service will redirect them from the merchant’s website to the processor’s payment handling page, where they complete their transaction. This process is called a ‘redirect’ because of the redirection to the processor’s payment page. For small businesses, this is a very simple way of facilitating customer payment. Instead of having to invest in a major payment gateway, small businesses can use redirect gateways. This is convenient and provides their customers with peace of mind. By using redirect gateways, customers are offered buyer protection on their goods, which they may not be, were they to do use an on-site payment gateway.
In addition, redirect gateways make merchant’s lives much easier. They are not required to manage or handle any aspect of their payment gateway, and instead, it is handled entirely off-site. With that said, it can be very annoying for customers when you add extra steps to the payment process.
On-site Checkout, Off-site Payment
On-site checkout and off-site payment is the most practical payment gateway for mid-to-large businesses. The front-end checkout occurs on the merchant’s website, while the payment processing takes place on the processor’s back end. If you are going to use a payment gateway that handles payments off-site, then you need to make sure that they are secure, reliable, and handle your customer’s credit card information safely.
In addition, you need to make sure that your website has an SSL certificate so that your connection between your website and the processor is encrypted and secure. This method of payment processing is incredibly simple and very efficient. With that said, you can’t control the customer’s entire experience, and if the processor is slow or delayed, it will reflect poorly upon you, which is why it’s important to find the perfect processor.
On-site Payments
On-site payments are a very effective, very efficient, and very practical payment processing solution. In fact, one could argue that it is the most practical solution available. The reason for this is quite simple: you are able to manage every single aspect of your customer’s payment process. You are able to avoid slow processors, delays, and inconveniences found on the payment gateway’s website.
With all of that said, with this method, you have much more responsibility. This means that you need to ensure that your website’s security is robust. If your customers experience any problems with security or the way that their data is handled, it will reflect poorly against your business, and you may be legally responsible. As long as you keep your website’s security in check, however, then on-site payments are the most effective and efficient payment processing solution. They are also much faster, which allows customers to streamline the payment processing process.
Streamlining Payments
Registrations
If you want to streamline the payment process, then you should avoid forcing customers to register on your website. Some people simply don’t want an account. Forcing them to make one can overcomplicate things, and actually deter them from returning to your website. Instead, allow customers to pay without registering, but take their contact information so that you can email them their receipt and tracking information. If you are going to force registration, then on the billing page give them the option to add a password, so that they don’t have to go through the whole registration process after already entering their information.
Navigation
Another way to improve your website’s payment processing is to make your website easier for customers to use. This is particularly important if you are using on-site payment gateways. Once your customers have completed their purchase, redirect them straight to a confirmation page, which they can print. As a side note, make sure you keep every page consistent. Keep your fonts, logos, and color schemes the same, even on your checkout, to build trust with your customer.
Clarity
Make sure that you make the payment process very clear. If you are going to redirect your customers to another website, then tell them this. Don’t suddenly redirect them without any notification. This can alarm customers, and make them less trusting of your website. A good way to make it clear how you expect them to pay is by offering them buttons to click. Each button should bear the logo of the company that will be processing their payment. This allows them to quickly leave, do their research, and return.
Email Receipts
After your customers have paid, send them an email receipt. An email receipt is a great way to instill confidence in your customers. They will feel more trusting and will be happy to have evidence of their payment. This is particularly important if you are using an on-site payment gateway, because when you use off-site gateways, customers generally have buyer protection. When they deal directly with your website, this isn’t the case. In addition, in your confirmation emails, you will be able to send your customers promotional offers and notify them of other similar products that they may be interested in.
Streamlining your business’s payment processing is extremely important if you want your business to succeed. An inefficient payment gateway will push customers away and make them feel like they can’t trust you. This can lead to bad reviews, and you developing a bad reputation among customers.
