How to choose a payment gateway for your e-shop

The coronavirus has forced merchants to shift their business model and focus more on online sales, in order to keep up with circumstances and demand.  That is why so many merchants choose PrestaShop for their online store, because it is easy to use and has an effortless integration.

The choice of payment gateway is very important because studies have shown that people may abandon the cart if the payment process is difficult. But this is not the only thing to consider.

There are a lot of matters to consider when deciding which payment gateway to use for your online store.

Here are a few key questions:

• Integration: How will you integrate with the payment gateway? Will you need to write any code? Will you install a plugin with just a few clicks? Will you configure it effortlessly, selecting the payment methods you want to offer, and providing a few trivial details such as a logo and a business name?
• Experience: Does the payment gateway offer a straight-forward and friction-less user experience, thus ensuring high conversion rates? Will you be able to recognize returning customers and preferred payment methods, use stored payment details to reduce customer effort and accelerate the payment?
• Onboarding: How long does it take to open an account with the payment gateway and start accepting payments online? Will you have to review and sign multiple physical contracts? Will you get no-hassle all-digital user-friendly onboarding with instant activation?
• Account: Will the payment gateway provide you with a local IBAN account where the funds go into from your online sales and can be immediately used for all your business operations, or will you need to have an additional and separate IBAN account with a local Bank?
• Pricing: Does the payment gateway offer transparent and competitive pricing with low commission fees, so that you do not waste money needlessly? Will you even get 0% fees?
• Payouts: How frequently will you receive payouts into your account? Daily, every 2-3 days, weekly, whenever you explicitly request for the transfer of funds? What happens if the day you are supposed to receive your funds from your online sales is a weekend or a public holiday?
• Payment methods: Will you be able to offer multiple payment methods to your customers, such as Apple Pay, Google Pay and PayPal, as well as international and local card schemes, local and international digital wallets, and online banking and direct debit?

Further Considerations

• Security and compliance are an absolute prerequisite when accepting payments online. There are strict regulatory requirements that your payment gateway needs to comply with, and technologies to be employed to ensure the security of payments and customer payment data. Of course, the payment gateway needs to constantly enhance their online payment solutions, in order to comply with all the latest ever-evolving regulatory and security requirements.
• The technology employed by the payment gateway must be state-of-the-art technology to ensure that online payments are reliable, fast, and secure. Of course, the payment gateway needs to constantly enhance their online payment solutions, in order to capitalize on new technologies that offer a more effective and efficient solution.
• The payment gateway should offer their own-developed solution so that they are self-sufficient and do not depend on any third-party to offer their core products and services. This will ensure that the payment gateway has a flexible overall offering, being able to offer competitive pricing without additional margins from third parties.

The above matters are vital to your business; these are matters that will make payments smoother for you, reduce operational costs and risks, and even drive growth for your business.

The Viva Wallet module is here to offer solutions

Viva Wallet and PrestaShop collaborated and created the Viva Wallet for PrestaShop module to offer frictionless payments that adapt automatically to the client’s use. This module adapts to the merchant’s needs and gives solutions to the key questions and considerations mentioned above:

• The Viva Wallet payment module is easy to set up and has no monthly fees or hidden costs.
• No need to have a separate account for settlement, as we provide you with a local IBAN account, and a local BIN business debit card.
• Your money is settled into your Viva Wallet account the next day.
• You can use your Viva Wallet Debit Mastercard to pay for your business expenses and lower your payment acceptance fees to 0%.
• Accept all major debit and credit cards, including Visa, Mastercard, American Express, JCB, and Bancontact.
• When your customers pay, they are not redirected to an external page to complete their payment, thus you achieve high conversion rates.
• Through our reliable and state-of-the-art cloud-based infrastructure, you won't miss a payment.