As the owner of an online store, you are a modern entrepreneur operating in the modern business context. This means you are taking advantage of a digital space where barriers of information, distance, language and time no longer exist.
And your customers understand well and expect to interact with you within this modern digital space too.
Buying and selling goods or services online involve money, and managing cash flow & inventory. Online stores have to provide a safe and convenient way for customers to browse through products, choose, buy and pay for them online.
Some eCommerce platforms like Shopmatic integrate all these features so it becomes easy for you to operate a complete online store professionally. Some other platforms offer these features as add-ons or provide you a basic service that you can build on through external Apps and some tech knowledge.
Either way, it is important for you to understand the value of POS (Point of Sale) system for your online store, so you know what you offer your customer.
What Are Online Payment Gateways?
Simply put, these are online services that process payment information for websites. They enable you to accept payment on your website in various ways including cash, credit or debit cards, digital wallets, and bank transfers.
An online payment gateway is like a security guard or middleman who safely authorizes payments made by your customers, and protects their information, making the process more reliable.
A great example of this is PayPal, which is well known around the world. Enabling PayPal makes your website capable of accepting payment through any credit card; opening up a worldwide potential target market for you.
What Do Payment Gateways Provide?
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A fast and easy checkout process:
On average, 70% of people who take the time to browse and select products on websites, abandon them at the checkout. This abandoned cart phenomenon has been studied extensively and anywhere from 8-19% of those who abandon carts are found to do so because they’re not satisfied with the current online payment methods the website offers – difficulty in paying at checkout or finding the checkout system incomplete in some way.
An online payment gateway makes the checkout process simple and intuitive for your customers so you capture sales rather than lose them. -
Encryption that keeps your customer’s information secure:
The safety features in a payment gateway protect your customers against theft or hacks.
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Customers don’t always trust a website with their card information:
Having a well known certified gateway like PayPal that accepts payments on behalf of the website usually builds more trust and allows them to buy more freely.
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A wider payment method coverage:
Which means you don’t have to lose any sales. Especially now that digital wallets and a wide variety of credit cards are being favoured by buyers all over the world. Some have accounts on Citrus or PayPal as well. Accepting different payment methods is the best way to receive money directly.
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A seamless experience for your customers on mobile and desktop:
Paypal for instance is easy to operate on mobile as well as desktop. When customers become used to this kind of seamless experience, they will quickly get frustrated and abandon a website that doesn’t offer the same quality.
Consider The Fee
If you choose eCommerce platforms like Shopmatic, you will get preferential rates on payment gateways that have been pre-negotiated.
This is a huge benefit for any business and you should look carefully into the fee structure to understand if you will pay a flat fee, monthly fee and what you will need to pay when you start to use the gateway.
If you choose only manual payment methods like cash, checks, or wire transfers, it might seem straightforward and simple, but when you use this method, you cannot receive money upfront; only after you have arranged the delivery or in-store pick-up. Moreover, the customer might change their mind after placing the order too!
So choose an eCommerce platform that allows you to easily accept payments in a modern online business context. That decision will go a long way in shaping your entrepreneurial success and future proof your business.
“We don’t expect our merchants to have any technical know-how for creating webstores. We have actually designed our product to ensure that every aspect of this spells “ease” for the customer. We help you enable payments with the click of a button, with our domestic and international partners like PayPal and CitrusPay. We also help you enable shipping for domestic and international selling”. Anurag Avula, CEO of Shopmatic
Read more here –
How would you like your customer to pay?
