When you start an online store, there are many options when it comes to accepting customer payments. The most traditional route is to have a merchant account to allow you to accept credit card payments and a payment gateway to connect that account to your online store.
While this rudimentary solution offers a great deal of control and relatively low fees, you have to apply for both your merchant account and payment gateway, which can take time and is not guaranteed to be approved. You’ll also have to set up and support your own checkout pages while maintaining the appropriate level of security.
In the end, many find that these solutions end up costing more in terms of missed opportunities like failed payments, growing security requirements and evolving consumer expectations.
Some opt for slightly more advanced payment solutions like PayPal that combine merchant accounts and payment gateways into one solution. Advantages include faster set up and the ability to accept major credit cards. However, most will direct shoppers to an off-site page which can impact the customer experience and increase cart abandonment rates.
To fully take advantage of opportunities online, especially those looking to move to a subscription business model, the most successful online stores are choosing full-service solutions to accept payments. Not only can they help you get to market much faster, ecommerce-as-a-service combines all aspects of payment processing with additional features to maximize customer conversions and capture all possible revenue.
Specifically, this means effectively managing customer shopping and checkout experiences, being able to adapt quickly to new opportunities or changes in marketing conditions, as well as providing the data and expertise needed to fully realize the revenue potential of your product or service.
Selling online is incredibly competitive. No matter what they’re looking for, customers have a lot of choice, which makes them liable to quickly abandon a potential purchase if anything gives them hesitation. This makes having a consistent, branded and easy shopping and checkout experience vital.
Ecommerce-as-a-Service ensures you have an optimized, branded checkout based on the latest best practices and security protocols to convert more shoppers, including pages optimized for the growing number of people shopping on mobile devices. This also encompasses converting international customers with cart pages that display in a shopper’s native currency and language, along with their preferred payment methods.
Ecommerce-as-a-Service also means you don’t have to divert valuable resources to keeping your cart security credentials up-to-date, collecting and remitting international taxes, paying out partners or providing customer billing support. This allows you to focus on what your company does best – providing a great product.
With every business having unique payment processing needs, it’s vital to find one that’s the right fit. So, if you’re starting an online store or if you suspect that your current payment processing solution is causing you to miss opportunities to win more online customers, consider the value of a comprehensive payment processing solution.
Sue Connors, VP Business Development
