People who do online business find payment gateways to be a huge convenience. Know more about online businesses here. This is because the customer can pay online without needing to chat with the seller, and the money can appear on one’s bank account after the transaction.
Most hackers also target these gateways because they contain invaluable information such as credit card details, customer’s name, address, and a lot more. Most of the companies who may rely on outdated technologies and those that are unaware of new and upgraded payment portals can be hacked easily.
There are reports on the internet that hackers have tried logging in to the websites of over 50% of online retailers. The total illegal login attempts are numbered by the thousands. This is why as an online business owner; you need to make sure that you get a gateway system that provides maximum security.
Aside from security, you should also choose a system that reduces loading times. When customers can complete a transaction in the fastest time possible, they will come back repeatedly if they need your product or service. If you are a trusted merchant, you may expect your customers to be repeat buyers and may even refer their friends and family to your shop.
Lots of Choices Out There
Online sellers are aware that there are a lot of portals to choose from. For example, Authnet and NMI are two popular gateways that offer security to their clients. However, there are subtle differences in each of them. These differences whether in security or in the pricing are discussed further below.
There are online debates that attempt to know the difference between NMI gateway vs authnet. In some forums, the answer is not much. Both have almost the same features. However, NMI is cheaper and will not depend on the reseller. Some features included in NMI such as recurring billing does not come with an extra cost. While in authnet, this feature can cost $10/month.
Both gateways are similar but with some exceptions. If you have an e-commerce business that runs on the internet 24 hours a day, seven days a week, then Authorize.net can be an excellent choice for you. But if you are a little advanced and you require mobile, retail, recurring bills, and email invoices, then choose NMI. NMI also has secured vault storage on an encrypted file where customer details are stored. This can significantly shorten payment processing times.
Choosing the Right Gateway for You
There are dozens of portals that are offered online. Each has its own features, prices, and add-ons. You may be faced with a complicated situation if you don’t know what to look at. Fortunately, here are some tips and guides that can help you navigate through some of them.
Supports E-Commerce Business
If you chose Amazon to be your platform, you need to select a gateway that can run on Amazon. Not all gateways can be integrated with Amazon or eBay. If you are running several shops, you should be able to operate a centralized payment portal for all of them. This is to familiarize yourself with its features and user interface.
Can Be Stacked to Another
This can be surprising to many people. However, to make things more transparent, you can use more than one gateway on your shop. This is because if a customer can’t see their favorite method, they won’t simply buy from you. One of the must-haves are PayPal, credit cards, and debit cards. These are the essentials, especially if you are doing international business. Many customers prefer PayPal over others because they don’t need to enter their card information to your site.
Reasonable Fees
There are merchant accounts and payment gateways that charge various fees monthly. Read more about merchant accounts here: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/53306. There are recurring ones, fixed prices, card transactions, variable expenses, chargebacks, conversion fees, and so on. These can vary whether a customer is using a local or an international card, so be sure to check these pieces of information before committing to a gateway provider for the long-term.
Locking in Contracts
Some providers want to lock their clients for two years into a gateway service. These lengthy contracts may not work if problems come out from time to time. There are providers that are happy to charge sellers with recurring monthly fees on a short-term deal. Some don’t require a contract at all. Regardless of these, you need to check the terms and conditions first before you sign up into anything.