You’ll need a payment gateway for your eCommerce site for a variety of reasons. First and foremost, payment gateways help in securing online transactions. If you want people to give away their credit card numbers while shopping on your website, you need a reliable authority to manage the payment process. Payment gateways are instrumental in meeting the industry standard criteria that ensure secure transactions between the customer and the store. Other than that, payment gateways automate the payment process. You don’t have to micromanage the transactions with the bank or send someone’s credit card details to the bank. Payment gateways take over these tasks and help you spend your time on running the business.

When choosing a payment gateway for your website, here are some things you should consider:

Cost

Payment gateways aren’t free and will take a small percentage of your transaction for the service they provide. This isn’t a huge problem, as many stores add these to the cost of the product they are selling and charge the customer accordingly. However, care must still be taken before settling on using a certain payment gateway.

Some payment gateways even charge the customer for using a certain payment method. No customer wants to select a product and find out he has to pay extra to be able to pay using his preferred payment methods. So make sure you choose a customer-friendly payment gateway that clearly lists all the fees.

Payment Methods Available

The number of available payment methods on your website is important, especially if you have an international audience. You can use your website’s analytics data to find out which countries your customers are coming from. You then need to find out what payment methods are available in those countries and incorporate them into your store. In general, the more payment methods you can offer your users, the better.

Security

This is another important factor when choosing a payment gateway. In fact, for people familiar with how the internet world works, this is easily the most important variable when shopping online. People are giving you access to their personal data as well as financial information. If you want them to trust you, you better use a reliable payment gateway. It’s basically a no-brainer. You want people’s money, assure them that their data is safe with you.