With the world shifting online, e-commerce is slowly becoming the primary place for customers to purchase from. Today, almost everything can be bought from an e-commerce website- from groceries to furniture and even automobiles! High-value online purchases have become standard for consumers who do not want to step out for market research and purchasing. All of it is being done online.
This saves time by a massive margin for the customers and makes comparing products across several websites easy. Customers can easily search for a product online, place an order and immediately pay for it using an online payment gateway without any hassle. As per Statista Research Department, India recorded 40 million digital transactions in 2021.
This is why payment gateways are gaining relevance amongst online stores and eCommerce websites due to their multiple benefits for merchants and customers alike. This makes payment gateway integration extremely important for e-commerce websites to survive in the competitive market.
What is a payment gateway?
Payment gateways are an online platform that enables a digital transaction between the e-commerce website and the customer. It securely verifies the customer’s payment details via the customer’s bank using a payment processor. After successful authentication by the customer and the issuing bank, the payment gateway transfers the funds to the merchant’s account. Zaakpay’s payment gateway charges the merchant a very nominal fee for this service. Using robust payment gateways, businesses can accept payments from customers using several payment modes, including Credit Cards, Debit Cards, UPI, Net Banking, and many others. Zaakpay is an affordable and feature-rich payment gateway for small businesses that support instant transactions from anywhere in the country.
How to integrate a payment gateway into the website
- Choosing the Most Suitable Gateway: The merchant must first select the payment gateway that suits their business model the best. Zaakpay’s payment gateway is built especially for eCommerce websites and online stores to help accelerate their sales. Consider these factors in mind before choosing the right payment gateway:
- Payment modes offered by the payment gateway
- Payment gateway charges
- Time taken to set up an account
- PCI DSS Compliance
- Scope for customizable features
- Compatibility with the eCommerce Website Platform: The second step to payment gateway integration is checking the compatibility of the gateway. After all, a payment gateway is a block of code that has to be integrated into the e-commerce website, which is again another code. The merchant has to check if the chosen payment gateway is compatible with the platform in which the e-commerce website is created. Advanced payment gateways, like Zaakpay, come with pre-built plugins that support programming languages like PHP, Python, and Java, and more for easy integration across all platforms. The payment gateway itself provides the code for easy integration. There are also eCommerce plugins that can be integrated without coding, and Zaakpay is the leading provider of payment gateways with pre-built plugins. This is the most suitable option for merchants who are not well-versed with coding.
- Sign Up for the service: Once the payment gateway service is chosen, the merchant needs to sign up and create an account. The process of signing up can take some time, depending on the gateway service selected. Many services today allow signing up and onboarding with little to no effort and activate the accounts.
- Verify Bank Account for Payouts: The payment gateway account needs to be connected to the bank account used by the merchant or the business. The merchant would have to provide their bank details, and the payment gateway service would authenticate the same. If everything is correctly provided, the gateway service will approve the account in no time.
- Choose the Payment Modes: Payment gateways like Zaakpay offer several payment modes to choose from. The business has to choose the best payment solution that fits its needs. The payment gateway charges might depend on the payment modes selected.
- Checkout: A checkout page on the payment gateway is where the customer enters their payment details. This can either be hosted on the servers of the payment gateway service or be integrated into the e-commerce website itself.
- LinkPay: This involves sending a one-time payment link to the customer.
- Subscriptions: This is used to collect repeat payments.
- Integrating the Gateway to the Website or Application: The merchant is given a merchant ID to generate a secret key. The gateway must be integrated into the e-commerce website by either coding it using the pre-built plugins or other no-code tools. The exact technical process varies from gateway to gateway. Many services like Zaakpay offer 24/7 customer support to solve queries and help with the integration process. Choosing a service with active customer support comes in handy in these times. The merchant can also customize the gateway at this stage.
- Test Transaction: Once everything is set up, the merchant must ensure that the system is working correctly. A test payment ascertains this.
- Going Live: After a successful test transaction, the gateway can be put up live to accept customers’ transactions. This is the process of making the website live so that anybody who purchases from the e-commerce website is taken to the newly set up gateway page for payments.
Conclusion
The process of payment gateway integration can seem complicated and time-consuming. However, it is not so when you have the right payment gateway to support you. Payment gateway service providers like Zaakpay offer step-by-step guides for setting up a merchant account and integrating it with a website or an app. With Zaakpay, merchant accounts can be activated within 24 hours. With a significant share of the customer base online, it is time for businesses to adapt to the online medium.
