Whether it for a small or a big business, cosmetics or pharmaceutical company, having a secure payment gateway is a must. However, there are so many financial choices to choices from, and those choices can be really intimidating at times. As an e-commerce company, there are so many things you have to work on, setting up logistics, keeping your customers happy, and giving them a payment gateway security to ensure that they don’t feel scared of making an online payment. If you are wondering what a reasonable payment gateway should have, then you have come to the right place.

We will explain the features that a good payment gateway should have. But, before jumping into the features, let us tell you why payment gateways are so important for online merchants.

A payment gateway merchant service is provided to you by a third party who authorises every credit or debit card transactions. Particularly, when a customer uses his credit card to make a payment, you as a merchant needs to capture his credit card information and that is done by sending it to the payment gateway. It will then be forwarded to the acquiring bank and then will the issuing bank.

The importance of payment gateway is to allow the transaction to happen smoothly and also to detect any kinds of fraud.

Always take your time in analysing the payment gateway you are choosing for your account. Here are some of the features that you should look into:

What type of payment gateway do you need? Modern or classic?

There are two types of payment gateway that you can opt for. One is classic, where you will have to apply for a merchant account directly, while the latter, the modern payment gateway doesn’t ask you to apply for a merchant account and allows you to use their payment gateway services directly. Modern payment gateway are a lot easier to work on, but will charge you a bit more than the classic payment gateway. To give you an example, modern payment gateway is PayPal and Authorize.net is a classic payment gateway example.

Is the payment gateway encrypted?

After you choose your type of payment gateway, the next important thing to look for is, whether or not the payment gateway is encrypted! The thing is, the third party payment gateway that you will choose for your merchant account will be handling every detail about your customer. Even one breach can become a disaster for your company. Plus, the more secure the payment gateway is, the lesser the risks and you will lower the processing cost too.

Is the payment gateway compatible with your account?

There are some payment gateway which are not difficult to integrate, while with some it will become difficult to incorporate essential services like invoicing software or other financial data management software. The more technologically advanced the payment gateway is, the better it is for you. This way most of the work will be already taken care of.

How is the speed of your payment gateway?

Being a merchant and particularly an online merchant, your end goal is to provide a rich customer experience. Just like you want your site to be optimised, you should also take a look at the speed of your payment gateway. You as well as the customer would want the transaction to happen as quickly as it can. In fact, you would the payment gateway to allow the transaction to occur in just a second. The longer the waiting period, the harder it is going to be for both you and the payment maker. Along with it, also pay attention to how faster your payment gateway provider can secure the payment for you.

Ask your payment gateway service provider if they provide reporting features

Well, reporting features are subjective. It totally depends on the kind of business you are running. But, transaction reports can help you keep an eye on everything is coming into your account. Particularly for reviewing and chargebacks. In case you do receive chargebacks, then it would be better to have a report which will help you identify the losses that your business have incurred. Different payment gateway provides reporting in a different way, so we will suggest you take a look at each and every one before saying yes to one.

Does your payment gateway provide fraud detection service?

As much as digitalisation has been a boon for us, cybercrime has eventually increased too. Some payment gateway service providers specialised fraud detection service. If you are a high-risk merchant account, then having a fraud detection payment gateway will be beneficial for you. It will let you identify any suspicious activity before the matter escalates. So, think about this feature as well.

Some payment gateways provide invoicing capabilities too

To make the payment gateway process as easy as possible, it would be better to ask if the payment gateway service provider gives you an option of built-in invoicing feature too. This way, you will be able to streamline the payment process efficiently. There will be no room for error, and you will lessen your manual labour work too.

How is the user experience?

Since you are opting for a payment gateway service, you would want the process to be as smooth as possible even for you. You will log into your payment gateway account occasionally to check for the number of chargebacks and also to review the number of transactions happening daily. Hence, while browsing through the payment gateway account, you would want it to give you the best user experience. Now, different people will have different requirement, so our suggestion would be to try out as many payment gateway as possible before committing to one.

What is the cost?

Lastly, after evaluating every feature, you also need to assess the cost of the payment gateway service. Remember, some service provider will give you an array of features, but will charge your premium too. However, some will offer zero setup costs; however, these service provider might end up having a higher rate of chargebacks. Likewise, different features will cost you differently. The choice will be entirely yours.

Readers may note that no payment gateway is perfect for everyone. You will have to do necessary research about every payment gateway service that you are choosing for yourself. Think about the features you would like to have and also plan for the budget accordingly.