Choosing an Online Payment Processor
You must choose the correct payment processor if you run a business accepting credit and debit cards online. Online payment processors do all the difficult tasks, from capturing sales to sending you a bill statement and collaborating with banks to ensure that you get paid.
If a customer purchases something from your website or in person at your brick-and-mortar store the credit or debit card details passes through a payment gateway or PoS terminal. The gateway secures the information to ensure its security and sends it to the payment processor, who transmits it to the card network of the customer. The card network then checks with the bank of the customer to determine if they’ve enough money to purchase the item. If the bank approves of the purchase, then the card issuer will transfer funds from the account to the merchant’s bank. The payment processor will relay this message to the merchant site or PoS terminal. This will notify the customer of the successful payment.
When choosing a processor, consider factors such as security, ease-of-use, and compatibility with existing systems. Find a processor that includes APIs or plugins which can seamlessly integrate with an ecommerce system or POS. Also, you should evaluate the customer experience at checkout and your team’s transaction management and reporting experience. Last but not least, make sure you are aware of the contract and how it is easy to switch providers in the future.