More and more businesses go online every year. It is easy to order goods and services on the site by paying from a bank account. The task of a business is to take care of clients, that is, to make payment on the site convenient and safe and enhance the checkout experience. This article will talk about popular online payment services and what is the best way to accept payments online from your clients.
Popular methods of paying online
There may be several answers to the question “how to accept online payments,” among which you can choose the most convenient option for you and your clients.
Let’s consider some of them:
- Payment form on the site. After clicking on the “Pay” button, the client fills in the widget that appears in front of them and selects the method of transferring funds.
- Integration with payment services. The client can proceed to pay only after adding the product or service to the cart. After the order is placed in the shopping cart, the customer will see the “Pay” button. By clicking on it, the client considers the composition and amount of the purchase.
- Generation of payment links. The seller can generate a link to pay for the order and send it to the client in any convenient way.
It is important to agree on terms and distinguish between “payment methods” and “payment provider.” In the first case, we discuss specific methods that clients can choose (debit and credit cards, electronic money, etc.). The second is an “intermediary” between the client, business, and payment services and may include various payment methods.
Let’s talk about three popular systems:
- Internet acquiring;
- electronic wallets;
- payment aggregators.
Internet bank acquiring
Acquiring is a mechanism for accepting money for goods, works, or services from bank cards. This procedure is performed by the acquiring bank authorized by the seller. To receive payments, acquiring banks use payment terminals (MIDs) connected to their network and payment gateways in the case of receiving payments online.
Internet acquiring is understood as a kind of eCommerce, which includes banking services for accepting payment for goods from online stores and retail chains, which is carried out using various plastic or virtual cards. In recent years, this type of payment has become increasingly popular.
The money transfer between banks occurs through the payment system; there are many different ones: Mastercard, Maestro, Visa, American Express, Union Pay, JCB, and others. The terminal issues an electronic check with information about the payment to confirm the operation.
Arguments for and against Internet acquiring
Internet acquiring provides significant benefits for both consumers and organizations that sell goods. For an online store or trading network, the type of banking services in question allows to:
- significantly increase the number of potential clients;
- reduce costs;
- optimize and develop the system of supply and sale of goods;
- reduce the time for promoting goods to the market, etc.
The client is also provided with several benefits, namely:
- the high degree of anonymity of payments made;
- expanding the choice of goods and services offered by shops and retail chains;
- simplicity and speed of income, and reduction of time costs required for this.
The disadvantages of Internet acquiring services include:
- legal difficulties in legitimizing such payment transactions;
- the possibility of various fraudulent schemes, etc.
Electronic wallets
A legal entity or individual entrepreneur can create a corporate e-wallet with company details, which is linked to a current account. To do this, agree with a payment system that has the status of a credit institution, for example, PayPal.
Pros of e-wallets
- Available worldwide (unlike Internet banking, where payment from a card of another state will be subject to additional tax or will not be possible).
- Simple connection (functionality is available almost immediately after registration in the payment system and conclusion of the contract).
- Money between wallets is transferred instantly in most of the cases.
Cons of e-wallets
- You cannot accept payments from legal entities.
- There is no package solution for several payment systems.
- Difficulties with connecting online checkout.
Payment aggregators
A payment aggregator is an e-commerce system that combines all possible payment methods into one to facilitate online payments.
Accepting payments online for small business with the aggregator facilitates, speeds up, and automates every step of financial transactions. The default aggregator supports:
- electronic money;
- payment terminals and cash desks;
- mobile payments;
- payments through the bank;
- Internet acquiring;
- bank cards.
Advantages of payment aggregators
- The payment system aggregator combines all possible payment methods and eliminates the need to connect each one separately.
- Payment using the payment aggregator is made in seconds.
- When paying with a universal payment aggregator, the commission is often much lower than when paying through a specific payment system.
- The site or service owner to which the payment aggregator is connected can view and analyze payments and transactions according to various criteria.
- The payment interface is simple and intuitive for every Internet user.
Summary
The more payment methods on the site, the better, as there is a guarantee that the client will find a suitable option for themselves and will not go to a competitor.
If you are starting to practice online sales or have a small turnover, we recommend that you consider payment aggregators. But an online store with a good turnover is guaranteed to lose tens, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars a month on the additional commission of the aggregator.
Choose the right payment system, increase customer loyalty, and increase sales through the site, thereby recouping the costs of connecting online payments.
