Best Online Payment System for Your eCommerce Startup
Online payment systems (Payment gateway) are the eCommerce services that process payment information for websites. If you can’t take online payments, then the main goal of your business making money is impossible. So in this article, you will know about online payment methods and the best options available.
What Is an E-Payment System and Its Types?
An electronic payment system is a special software that works as an intermediary the payer and the recipient of funds. In most cases, online payment systems work as non-interested parties, that is, they are only responsible for the money transfer, but not for the honesty of the relationship between the seller and buyer.
Using online payments, none of the parties need physical mediums like cash or checks. All the necessary documents and reports are formed automatically and online to be printed by any of the parties anytime.
Here are the main types of electronic payments.
- Automated clearing house (ACH)
- Wire transfers.
- Item processing (IP)
- Remote deposit capture (RDC)
- FedLine Access Solutions.
- Automated Teller Machines.
- Card Services (ATM, credit, debit, prepaid)
- Mobile payments.
What Are the Benefits of Using E-Payment Systems
- Electronic commerce was invented to make shopping more comfortable and convenient. E-commerce payment system contributes to this goal even more.
- Cash flows are difficult to track. This is the opinion of governments, financial institutions, business owners and a lot of ordinary people too. However, it is always easy to find put how do you spend a certain sum just be checking your financial or accounting app.
- Electronic payments are almost instant, as well as traditional money hand-to-hand transfers. However, there is a strong reason not to do it now.
- While other businesses suffered from a pandemic or even were completely banned, financial technology felt better than ever. Yes, precisely because it has become the safest way to use money without physical health risks. According to the recent research by BIS, “Research in microbiology examines whether pathogenic agents, including viruses, bacteria, fungi, and parasites can survive on banknotes and coins. Some viruses, including human flu, can persist for hours or days on banknotes, The Covid-19 virus can also survive on surfaces.” However, electronic payments protect you, your staff, and your customers from infection risks.
What Is the Role of an Online Payment System in E-Commerce?
Online payment is the main way to pay for the goods purchased from branded websites. What is more, there is almost no sense in the concept of e-commerce itself is there is no possibility to pay for the goods online since electronic commerce involves 100% electronic interaction between a company and a customer.
Yes, there is still cash on delivery option, which by the way, may have some benefits, but most online transactions are launched and completed online with the help of an electronic payment system in e-commerce.
What Are the Payment Options You May Choose for Your Ecommerce Store?
Here are the payment options that may potentially suit your eCommerce project. Leading e-commerce brands are using all of them at once, and it greatly contributes to the development of good relations and trust.
However, not all the alternatives may be needed for your startup since each e-commerce idea is specific. Find out what do your potential customers expect before utilizing any of them.
- Credit/debit cards: In practice, this approach realized as a system that allows entering a user’s card data, receiving a confirmation code from a banking app, and completing a deal on the website.
- Bank Transfers: This approach is used in B2B e-commerce since corporate clients often prefer to make bank transfers and be sure in clarity of reports.
- EWallets: E-wallets are also convenient options that allow users to pay without revealing their banking details.
- Mobile payments: Mobile payments are on the rise in popularity. ApplePay and GooglePay are the most used systems.
- PayPal & Other gateways: PayPal is the most popular payment system worldwide, however, there are others, less popular but no less useful solutions your customers may also prefer.
- Cryptocurrencies: Since a lot of countries are making efforts to legalize cryptos, they are one more way to pay for the goods or services purchased online.
- Cash on Delivery: Cash on delivery is still required by some customers, especially if there is no trust between a newly created company, or the company addressed for the first time, and the client.
What to Look for While Choosing the E-Payment System?
As you can see, the e-payment market has a lot of offers for your e-commerce store. Here are the main factors you should take into account making the final choice.
- Preferences of your customers. There are a lot of alternatives to choose from, however, your best electronic payment system is the one that suits your customer most. If you know that your customers are corporate clients, it is better to give them the opportunity to make bank transfers. If they are young shoppers, they most probably prefer e-wallets, PayPal, and mobile payments.
- This is one of the most important factors since the security of the payment on your websites is one of the things that contribute to your reputation. that is why it is better to choose such a payment system that has strong protection, support service as well as embedded e-commerce fraud detection features.
- UX impact. The best electronic payment system is one more way to provide users with a great experience when completing a transaction with you. That is why the payment system should be fast-processing, reliable, and convenient.
- Performance metrics. Find out whether it would be profitable for you to use this or that system from the point of view of commissions, fees, and reporting.
Surely, it should be more than one option for payments for an e-commerce website. That is why you should compare and analyze the most popular alternatives and integrate with the most reliable and demanded by your users’ ones.
What Is the Best Online Payment System?
Here is the infographic that shows the most popular online payment systems in the USA. but since the greatest number of online shoppers is USA based, it may seem that these are the most popular systems in the world too. However, keep in mind one important note. If you are going to create a multilingual e-commerce store and reach the target audience from different countries, some e-payment systems may not be supported there or may be poorly known among customers from a specific country.
How Do I Add a Payment System to My Website?
There are several ways to add a payment system to your website.
- If you are just going to create an eCommerce store and want to do it with the help of WordPress, you may choose the themes with payment system integration in advance.
- If you have a ready-made website designed by you, you may contact the support service of the payment gateway provider, and set up the system following their instructions.
- If your e-commerce project was created by a development company, ask them to make some changes and add more payment systems to your platform.
Conclusion
As you can see, the meaning of e-commerce as such is lost if there is no possibility to pay for the goods or services online. That is why payment system integration is an important stage of eCommerce store development. The choice of the most suitable solutions should be based on the careful market and your target audience analysis.