A payment gateway is a service that is used by online merchants dealing in e-commerce activities that enables and authorizes online payment by the use of credit cards, debit cards, and Netbanking. The valid question here is – why do e-businesses need payment gateway?
Few of the principal reasons are as below:-
- The principal reason why business houses with online e-stores install payment gateways is that they are the backbone of a secure network. They take complete responsibility for ensuring that the information exchange between the website and the customer is hack-proof. The gateway is built with SSL and tokenization technologies to attain the highest level of security. Remember one of the significant drawbacks of online transactions is their potency to be harmed by virtual hackers who are always on the lookout to target soft spots in existing systems of e-commerce sites. These cyber criminals spare neither the big nor the small e-commerce platforms. Any virtual area that seems hackable using harmful software of phishing emails is a potential threat point and can be blocked off only using a thoroughly approved gateway.
- Any merchant that uses a secure payment gateway can attract more customers towards its site. It is because customers today are aware of the presence of cyber threats and hence want to use sites that are exercise maximum security. Therefore investing in a strongly protected payment gateway increases the chances of better sales and revenue.
- One significant advantage of using an authorized payment gateway is that it processes payments efficiently and with high speed. Other than taking care of the security of data, gateways are also the main component in the payment processing system that connects the website and the bank and exchanges information related to acceptance and rejection of payments. And finally, on a regular basis, the merchant’s earning is transferred to his account by the gateway. Thus it helps in taking care of all payment related processes of the e-business at no extra costs.
Integrating the payment gateway with the e-commerce site is comfortable and straightforward even if the platforms and code scripts are different. Whether the portal has been designed and created from scratch or has been hosted on any ready to use e-commerce software, connecting the site with the gateway is a one-time task and can be done in the matter of few hours – as a result, the e-commerce site can be up and running within a day’s time.
All merchants cannot and do not have the money to develop their payment gateway. Also the fact that getting a gateway approved takes time and requires lots of documentation and registrations. Hence the affordable thing to do is to work with some of the existing payment gateways in the market. Many of these are the payment gateway aggregators that are capable of handling business transactions for multiple businesses smoothly. Since the required authorities already approve them, the merchant needs to pay the start-up fee to start using their service.