Are you eager to grow your business, attract a wider customer base, and boost your cash flow?
In this digital era, accepting online payments is crucial to achieving these goals.
Don’t worry even if you’re not a tech whiz, we’ve got you covered with a simple guide on how to get started.
In this article, we’ll walk you through setting up online payments, from choosing the right payment gateway and processor to creating a merchant account.
Let’s begin by exploring the payment methods you can offer to your customers.
Join us as we unlock the world of seamless online transactions.
- Decide Which Payment Methods to Accept
- Choose an Online Payment Processor
- Pick an Appropriate Payment Gateway
- Determine Which Pricing Model Is Best
- Open a Merchant Account For Your Business
- Set Up Payment Methods on Your Website
- Customize Your Online Checkout Process
- Configure Automatic Email Confirmations
- Perform Test Orders Before Going Live
- Conclusion
Decide Which Payment Methods to Accept
Did you know that offering multiple payment options can significantly impact the success of your online business?
According to a report by Cybersecurity, more than 60% of consumers value having a variety of digital payment choices and are more likely to shop from such businesses.
Moreover, the Ponemon Institute’s report from 2022 shows that nearly half of the customers abandon their purchase if their preferred payment option isn’t available.
That’s a scary thought, right?
Illustration: Regpack / Data: Ponemon Institute
To stay ahead of the game and keep your customers loyal, offering diverse payment methods is essential when accepting online payments.
Give them what they want, or risk losing them to your competitors.
So, where should you start?
Begin by accepting the most common payment options.
Credit and Debit Cards
With the convenient and widespread usage of credit and debit cards, such as Visa, Mastercard, Maestro, and Discover, customers can securely enter their card details during checkout, allowing fast and seamless transactions.
This payment method is widely used by e-commerce stores, retail businesses, travel agencies, and various service providers.
ACH Payments
Automated Clearing House (ACH) payments enable direct bank transfers, providing customers with a hassle-free way to pay from their checking or savings accounts.
This method is often used by businesses that offer subscription-based services, such as software companies, streaming platforms, and membership organizations because it is suitable for taking recurring payments.
Digital Wallets
With the rising popularity of digital wallets, it’s essential to offer options like Apple Pay, Google Pay, or PayPal.
These wallets store customers’ payment information, enabling quick and secure transactions across various online platforms.
Online marketplaces, mobile app developers, and e-commerce platforms frequently embrace this payment method.
Source: Comalytics
However, before finalizing your decision on which payment methods you will accept, do your due diligence and research any associated fees to stay informed and avoid surprises.
Once you’ve nailed down your payment options, it’s time to take the next step and select a reliable online payment processor.
Choose an Online Payment Processor
An online payment processor is an essential component of accepting payments online.
It acts as the intermediary between your business and the customers, handling the transaction processing on your behalf.
When customers make a purchase, the payment processor securely processes their card details through the payment gateway, verifies the information, and checks if there are sufficient funds.
Source: Rapyd
After the transaction is approved, the payment processor communicates with the credit card network to retrieve the funds and transfer them to your designated account, deducting the payment processing fees.
For example, some well-known payment processors are PayPal, Stripe, and Square.
When choosing a payment processor, it’s crucial to assess if it aligns with your business needs and consider factors such as pricing, transaction fees, and available features.
For businesses with high transaction volumes, it is a good idea to seek out providers that make it possible to negotiate lower per-transaction rates.
Additionally, when you are picking the processor for your business, you should prioritize data security and ensure the payment processor provides robust customer support.
All in all, selecting a suitable payment processor will allow you to streamline online transactions, enhance customer trust, and increase your cash flow.
Pick an Appropriate Payment Gateway
A quality payment gateway is essential for smooth online transactions. Simply put, it is a user-friendly interface where customers enter their payment details.
You can think of it as your company’s digital receptionist, guiding customers through a secure and hassle-free payment experience.
Similar to how a receptionist verifies visitor information, the payment gateway verifies and encrypts your customers’ payment data, safeguarding it from potential threats.
The gateway then forwards this data to the payment processor for further processing, as we explained earlier.
Source: CorvusPay
While some payment processors include a built-in gateway, you may need to select one separately if your chosen processor doesn’t provide it.
When choosing the one for you, you should consider which of the two types suits your business more: third-party gateways or integrated gateways.
Third-party gateways redirect customers to an external site to enter their payment details, which for many people raises concerns about safety and leads to cart abandonment.
This could be a severe setback to your business because studies show that 54% of consumers would not complete their purchase if they didn’t trust that the payment would go through securely.
Illustration: Regpack / Data: mollie
On the other hand, when gateways are seamlessly integrated into your website or mobile app, that provides a smoother and more trustworthy payment experience.
So, when picking the payment gateway for your business, consider the two factors:
- Easy integration into your online platforms
- Security measures such as data encryption and fraud detection
Let your payment gateway be the reliable receptionist that leaves a lasting impression on your customers, enhancing their trust and loyalty to your business.
Determine Which Pricing Model Is Best
When venturing into accepting online payments, it’s crucial to calculate the prices and fees associated with payment processors, gateways, and credit card companies.
You can secure a better deal and efficiently manage costs by crunching the numbers in advance.
If you predict that your business will have a high frequency of online transactions, requesting a quote and opting for an interchange-plus model that provides potential discounts based on transaction volume can be beneficial.
This model entails paying the prevailing interchange rate from the card network, like Visa, along with an additional margin determined by the payment processor.
This fee usually comprises a percentage of the transaction amount and a fixed cent value.
Alternatively, a flat-rate model offers predictable pricing, charging a consistent amount for transactions of the same type.
To maximize savings, exploring subscription-based monthly plans might be worthwhile.
These plans encompass a monthly fee that covers most of your processing costs, potentially accompanied by a smaller markup.
However, it’s important to review the terms and conditions to factor in any extra fees for all these options.
Choose a pricing model that aligns with your business needs and allows you to optimize cost management effectively.
Open a Merchant Account For Your Business
Opening a merchant account is crucial to providing your customers with the convenience of credit and debit payments.
This account acts as a middleman, temporarily holding your funds before transferring them to your primary business account.
The process is typically automated and takes just a few business days.
Below, you can see how it works:
Source: Fit Small Business
When setting up a merchant account, you have two options: partnering with a payment processor or an acquiring bank.
Payment processors often offer merchant account services as part of their comprehensive payment solutions, and acquiring banks, on the other hand, specialize in facilitating card transactions for businesses.
To make the right choice, you should carefully evaluate transaction fees, security measures, integration options, customer support, and additional features that align with your business needs.
Take this task seriously because finding a reputable and reliable provider is vital to ensuring smooth and secure payment processing for your customers.
Source: Regpack
There are some payment service providers on the market—including our own solution, Regpack—that offer comprehensive payment solutions, including merchant account services.
These providers can guide you through the setup process, help you choose the suitable payment processor or acquiring bank, and streamline the integration of online payment functionality into your business operations.
To sum up, conduct thorough research, compare your options, and then select a merchant account setup that best suits your business requirements.
Set Up Payment Methods on Your Website
After following all the previous steps, now is the time to make your chosen payment methods part of your website.
Why is this step so important?
Because this will not only simplify the payment process for your customers as much as possible, but also address one of their top concerns and reasons why they don’t proceed with payments—payment security.
As we mentioned in one of the previous sections, making payments directly on your website instills trust and security in your business because customers are not redirected to unknown or ill-looking external sites.
You will achieve this most easily by integrating an online payment software solution like Regpack.
With Regpack, you can seamlessly accept credit and debit cards and ACH payments directly on your website by creating customized and user-friendly payment forms.
Source: Regpack
This software operates 24/7, ensuring convenience for your customers.
Whether your customers use desktops, laptops, or mobile devices, Regpack provides a smooth payment experience across all platforms.
It is also PCI-2 compliant, meeting the highest security standards to protect sensitive payment information.
You can check out more of Regpack’s features here.
To summarize, incorporating this user-friendly and secure payment solution into your website will enhance customer confidence in your business and offer you and them a seamless payment process.
Customize Your Online Checkout Process
To further encourage your customers to make online payments, it’s important to customize your online checkout process.
This customization enhances your professionalism, trustworthiness, and a sense of security for your customers.
So when selecting a payment service provider, prioritize those that allow you to personalize your checkout page with your brand identity elements: name, logo, color palette, typography, graphics, and images.
Take inspiration from D. Franklin, a Spanish shoe and accessories store, which customized its checkout process by incorporating its logo, colors, and typography.
Source: D. Franklin
This attention to detail reassures customers that their payment data is secure.
You can find more examples to inspire your customization efforts here.
By following these examples and customizing your online payment checkout page, you will create a seamless and visually cohesive experience that matches the rest of your webpage and instills confidence in your customers.
Configure Automatic Email Confirmations
The first thing customers expect after making any kind of online payment is a confirmation that they will get what they purchased.
After all, we all want reassurance when it comes to our finances, and that’s all right. That’s also where email notifications become crucial for your business.
However, individually sending personalized confirmation emails to every customer would be time-consuming, resource-intensive, and, to be fair, unrealistic.
Fortunately, automation is the solution.
By setting up triggers in a robust online payment software, you can automatically send confirmation emails to customers once they successfully make a payment.
The gif below shows the simple process of how that is done in Regpack:
Source: Regpack
This is made possible through conditional logic, a crucial feature of such software.
Once you’ve specified the recipients and the sender, you can choose the condition that triggers the sending of the email.
For example, if you want to send a confirmation email after receiving a payment from your customer, you can simply select this condition.
And every time a customer meets the condition, an email will be sent without any manual effort.
It’s as easy as that. With automated email notifications, you’ll have happy customers and more time to focus on other aspects of your business efficiently.
Perform Test Orders Before Going Live
You’re almost ready to embark on the exciting journey of accepting online payments.
But before you dive in, there’s one last crucial step you don’t want to miss—putting your payment system to the ultimate test!
To ensure that everything works well, you should conduct comprehensive test orders from start to finish.
One of the ways to do so is, for instance, to create fake orders or ask your colleagues to make test purchases.
Make sure to try all your payment methods on different devices, including desktops, tablets, and mobile phones.
Why go through all this trouble?
Well, imagine the disappointment of potential buyers encountering payment hiccups when they’re just about to seal the deal.
You want to avoid such issues at all costs, and you can by performing test orders before going live.
Ultimately, by conducting rigorous testing, you’ll have peace of mind knowing that your online payment system is fully functional and user-friendly.
And with that, you’re ready to confidently accept online payments for your services.
Conclusion
In conclusion, embracing online payments may present some challenges, but the benefits far outweigh them.
By diligently following the step-by-step process described in this article, you’ll be well-equipped to seamlessly accept online payments.
Seek out a reliable payment service provider that offers comprehensive solutions, and you’ll be on your way to unlocking the convenience and growth potential of online transactions.
Best of luck on your journey!