Kuala Lumpur, 1 October 2019
by Sunny Gan
Online shopping has become a norm in our everyday lives. Purchasing and selling are done within clicks in just a matter of minutes, where only minimal effort is required. All thanks to technology and easy accessibility, this have simplified the trading process for both consumers and merchants. Lives have been made easier and consumers are spoilt with choices from the number of e-commerce sites available in the market today.
While it is easy to figure out how to navigate an e-commerce site for shopping purposes, the rules do not apply the same for merchants. When it comes to operating an e-commerce site, there are a few key factors to take into consideration of. Regardless of the type of business, as long as a transaction is involved, a payment gateway integration into the website becomes a pre-requisite.
For those who are new to the subject of online business, a payment gateway is needed as it serves as a medium to accept payments conveniently and most importantly, safely. After all, you wouldn’t want to have your customers’ personal information compromised. Therefore, it is always important to choose a reputable and reliable payment gateway provider that suits your business’ needs. Here are some tips to consider while adding a payment gateway to your e-commerce site.
Tip #1 Define your target market
If your business targets international markets, then your payment gateway must be able to provide international payment methods such as credit cards. Similarly, if you have a large domestic customer base, your payment gateway should be able to collect payments through debit cards or online banking, as well.
On the other hand, you might want to add in additional features that cater to a specific target market. For instances, if you are targeting young consumers, then you can consider enabling a feature that provides them the liberty to shop online. iPay88’s Pay4Me provides this group of consumers who have yet to have access to financial institutions, to shop online. With Pay4Me, payments could be made by a third-party who is not the main shopper.
Tip #2 Choose according to your needs
There may be many payment features to add-on, but it is best to choose those that fit according to your needs. Depending on the type of the business, features like Recurring Payment helps merchants to simplify the payment collection process. If you own a site that offer online marketing tools, customers that subscribed to your services would be required to make a monthly payment in order to sustain their membership. Hence, what better way to minimise the payment effort than scheduling their payment every month? With iPay88’s Recurring Payment option, this will ease the process and deduct the payment amount automatically on a date selected.
Tip #3 Ensure that it is PCI-DSS compliant
PCI-DSS compliance is compulsory for every e-commerce merchant that accept credit or debit card payments on their website. This practice involves sensitive data of customers and hence, it must be safe-guarded accordingly. If you accept, store, process, or use credit card data in your business, you are subjected to PCI-DSS compliance requirements. However, choosing the right payment gateway can reduce the burden of merchants from applying for a PCI-DSS certificate.
Firstly, you must ensure that the payment gateway must be certified for PCI-DSS compliance. One way to do so is by searching for the publicly available list of PCI-DSS approved gateways from either Visa or MasterCard websites. The list displays information on all providers around the globe and the expiration date of their current certification. Most payment gateways, like iPay88, have been certified with Payment Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS) compliance Level 1.
For those who are new to starting an online business, it could be a challenge to choose what’s best for your business. Nonetheless, we should always be on the lookout on the latest trends and be sure to conduct sufficient research beforehand. Prices should not always be the main factor when choosing a payment gateway, instead look up for the reliability, features or value provided by the payment gateway.
