Through the years, we’ve worked with plenty of online payment processing gateways for our clients’ e-commerce stores, subscription sites, or event tickets. What most people don’t realize is that integrating a website with a good payment gateway no longer needs to be a painful and time-consuming process. There is one online payment solution that we always recommend above all others: Stripe with WooCommerce. We’ll tell you why in a minute, but first you need to understand what your needs are when looking into various payment gateways.
When considering payment gateways…
There are so many payment gateways out there, and they all have their own fine print, fees, setup costs, features, and limitations. Some are easier to setup than others. Some may integrate with your e-commerce platform, and some may not. Some are a lot more expensive than others. When you are looking to signup with a payment processor for your store, there are several things you should consider:
- What is the signup fee (if any), and what are the transaction costs?
- Does it integrate seamlessly with my website and e-commerce platform?
- Does it accept mobile payments?
- Is it expandable and customizable using an external API?
Stripe’s valuation has doubled in less than a year!
The best payment gateway in our opinion is Stripe. We have experience with lots of gateways, such as PayPal, Authorize.net, Google Checkout, and many others. When we first started using Stripe, it was like a breath of fresh air. The account setup takes about 5 minutes (compare that to authnet!), and you can be accepting payments. Stripe’s website interface is super easy to use. It deposits the funds from each transaction into your bank account a couple days later automatically. It makes refunds really easy. And most importantly: There are no setup costs and transaction fees are 2.9% + .30 per transaction (very competitive, less based on volume). Here are also a few highlights of what Stripe provides:
- Extremely easy to integrate with WooCommerce
- Supports recurring billing (such as Subscriptions with WooCommerce)
- Supports “saved” credit cards for your customers (securely)
- Seamlessly integrated mobile payments
- Built for developers so it is easily customized
- Accepts all major credit cards and international cards
- Accepts payments in more than 100 currencies
- Integrates with accounting systems and ERP systems
- And much more that you can learn about here
If you’re not convinced yet, here are a couple articles that were recently published that show how Stripe is growing:
- The new king of online payments: Stripe now valued at $3.5 billion
- Payments Startup Stripe Lands $80 Million Investment Ahead of Twitter Partnership
Do you need help with online payment processing?
There are several things you need to think about when you add online payments to your website. How do you want to accept payments, and which cards do you want to accept? How does the process work for transferring funds from your payment processor to your bank account? How are you going to integrate the payment gateway into your website? Does your website even support it? If you’re going to accept credit cards seamlessly (direct) on your website, you need to make SURE you have SSL installed on your server so your customers can trust the security on your site. Does your checkout force SSL for checkout? You want to make sure your online checkout is secure, easy, and intuitive to use, and does not inhibit your store’s ability to make sales.
We love Stripe. We think you’ll love it too. Call us at 603-924-1978 or Drop us a line if you need help getting it setup on your website.
