Studies show that 86% of customers today pay for purchases using their credit cards. More than half of people who buy products online favor credit and debit cards as the primary payment method.
However, a growing number of people use payment gateways as a convenient alternative. If your business has an e-commerce portal, you will need merchants services to provide payment processing and more.
How to Select the Right Merchant Services
Nowadays, there are several merchant services to choose from compared to what was available around a decade ago. Back then, PayPal and credit cards were the only way to do it.
Answer the following questions to determine which service is a good fit for your business:
- Does it provide support for your country?
- Are you required to have a merchant account to use that payment gateway?
- What are its features?
- Do they have virtual terminals, fraud security, and other important features?
- How much will it cost your business?
These are all important factors for e-commerce companies. Apart from answering these questions, you also need to understand several key elements that may affect your business, like the following:
- Scalability
- Service agreement requirements
- Effective transactions and provider guarantee
- Supported devices
- Integration process
- Mobile payment options
- Available customer support
Scalability
Merchant services should scale along as your business grows and develops. These services should support your payment flow as you add more options for your clients’ payment processing.
Service Agreement Requirements
You should also check the fine print before you agree to any service agreements. This includes the pricing, guarantees, and support provided by the company offering you their services.
Effective Transactions
Payment processes should be secure and effective. You can ask for a demonstration of their processing just to see if it is what you want for your business. Note that payment processing should not include any enrollment procedure. Studies show that 25% of customers abandon a purchase if that procedure is in place.
Supported Devices
More consumers today buy products and services using their phones. Not only should the merchant services scale with your business, but they should also be able to cater to and support various devices. Note that the types of mobile devices are expected to increase and diversify in the coming years.
Payment gateway options should provide checkout options that work for new upcoming platforms and operating systems.
Easy Integration
Many ecommerce businesses already have a shopping portal, app, and company websites. When selecting merchant services, you should make sure that the tools and solutions they provide can easily integrate with what you already have.
It will be a huge hassle to your enterprise if you have to rework everything from the ground up just to accommodate new payment platforms. It would help if you could offer different payment options to your clients and customers.
Each customer will have their own preferred payment method. You should be able to integrate their payment processing solutions without botching up the payment options that you are already offering to your customers.
Mobile Payment Options
Experts estimate that more people will prefer to pay using mobile payment solutions rather than the usual credit card, bank payments, and electronic cash transfers. Make sure that the service provider you are working with can support new and upcoming payment options that your clientele may be inclined to use.
An emerging payment solution nowadays is digital mobile wallets. Examples include Samsung Pay, Google Pay, and Apple Pay. These mobile payment options are optimized for mobile devices. Make sure that the merchant services and payment processing solutions provider you work with can support these options as well as any new digital wallets.
Available Customer Support
Finally, make sure that the level of customer support they provide is timely and highly responsive. You can encounter system downtime, payment disputes, and other glitches at any time of the day. There should be multiple support options provided for you.
Over-the-phone support options are still on the top of the list for many enterprises. However, there should be other solutions, too. Some of these options include emails, chat support, video conferencing, and support tickets.
There should be self-service support options as well. These include FAQ sections, chatbots, and a solutions knowledge base, among other things.
Conclusion
E-commerce solutions should be able to adapt and scale with your business. Work with a solutions provider with a track record of reliability and high trust levels from their customers.
Interesting related article: “What is Customer Service?”