The Ecommerce Minute: Payment Gateways

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Episode 1: Gateways

In this series, you'll hear from sticky.io experts on a variety of topics with insider tips and tricks to help you boost your bottom line and grow your ecommerce business. Today, we'll be discussing payment gateways with many more key topics to come, so enjoy and stay tuned for more.

In today's increasingly cashless world, payment gateways have become a vital component of the digital economy. Payment gateways are merchant services that process payments for both ecommerce sites and traditional brick and mortar stores. They can be thought of as the metaphorical cash register in an electronic transaction, but all payment gateways are not created equal. Before selecting a gateway, it's critical to understand how they work, what to look for and what options are available. Payment gateways can be on-site or offsite. On-site handles the entire checkout process on the seller's site, whereas offsite redirects the customer to a payment page to complete the transaction. On-site gives the merchant more control over the full customer experience. However, offsite helps alleviate the burden on the seller's end.

Understanding the limitations of payment gateways is essential as a single gateway rarely accepts all payment types. Merchants looking to accept international customers need to ensure their gateway can work with customers in different geographical regions using various currencies and customer data security needs to be the top priority. So, what should you look for when selecting a gateway? You want an option that supports security and compliance, your customers' desired payment methods, preferred currencies and geographies, processing limits, integrations with other systems and of course, your total cost. Considering these factors can help you choose the right payment gateway for your business.

Our team is always happy to help you along the way, so reach out any time to learn more.