Payment Gateways for E-commerce Websites

 Internet has increased the reach of businesses these days by making their products and services available to shoppers globally with the aid of e-commerce websites.An e-commerce website enables the buying and selling of goods and services online. E-commerce has brought trading online and increased its reach from one’slocal market to a global scale. This convenience of shopping from the comfort of one’s home has been made possible through e-commerce websites. In this form of online shopping, data as well as funds are transferred electronically between two or more parties.

These e-commerce websites are hosted on the servers of a particular web hosting company. Web hosting companies or web hosts are companies that provide the service and technology needed to make a website accessible to the world with the aid of the internet. There are many web hosting companies available to choose from with services like shared, dedicated, VPS and cloud hosting. Some have earned the reputation of being the best Windows Hosting Company India or the best cloud hosting company in the country as well abroad. Every e-commerce website is hosted on the server of a particular web hosting company.

There are different types of e-commerce websites available based on their function-

Business-to-business (B2B). It entails electronic transactions of goods and services between companies.

Business-to-consumer (B2C). It entails electronic transactions of goods and services between companies and consumers.

Consumer-to-consumer (C2C). It entails electronic transactions of goods and services between consumers, mostly through a third party. 

Consumer-to-business (C2B). It entails electronic transactions of goods and services where individuals offer products or services to companies. 

Once an e-commerce website is set up, the products to be sold are displayed on it along with the necessary details such as product descriptions and the price tags. A CTA (call-to-action) button is placed near the products displayed online, so that a product can be bought. If a customer wants to buy a product, he can click on the button and make the payment after filling up a form to provide his details for the delivery of the product. There are different payment methods used in the e-commerce industry for making payments, such as, making payment through a payment gateway like PayPal or by directly using credit cards/debit cards or by opting for COD or (cash on delivery). In this blog we will discuss briefly some of themain payment gateways for e-commerce websites in no particular order.

PayPal

It is an American company offering online money transfers throughout the world since the late 90s. It is the most popular solution for such payments to provide secure online money transfers. One can use credit as well debit cards on PayPal. It has an added bonus as it does not charge any membership fees. Hence, it can be said that it is free to use in a way.

Authorize.net

It is an American payment gateway service provider that was founded in 1996. Unlike the other payment gateways, it does not require the customer to sign up for a payment service before performing a transaction.It lets customers enter credit card and shipping information directly onto a web page.  It had been designed for merchants to make payments online.It offers fraud protection services, recurring billing subscriptions, and simple checkout options.It was designed for merchants to make payments onlineand is noted for its ability to help small businesses fight fraud. It is not a free service and one has to pay a set-up fee as well as an ongoing monthly fee on top of the transaction fee.

2Checkout

It provides global payment solutions that are used by companies and has Level 1 PCI compliance. It supports all major credit and debit cards. Here one pays a certain percentage of the transaction amount. In it there are no ongoing fees.

PaySimple

It is another payment solution for small-medium-sized e-commerce sites which accepts all the major credit cards and debit cards. It has a bonus feature that manages ‘echeck’ payments. 

PaySimple offers two pricing plans. One of these is a ‘Pro Plan’ that costs a certain amount per month plus transaction fees. The other one is an ‘Enterprise Plan’ that costs more than the Pro Plan per month and there is an additional transaction fees.

Stripe

It is an American company that primarily offers APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) and payment processing software for e-commerce websites and mobile applications.It is noted for offering a certain level of flexibility which allows developers to easily incorporate it into their designs.It offers a user interface (UI) toolkit and it is easily customized. It allows users to set up payment forms very quickly. It is a chargeable service.

These are a few of the most prominent payment gateways for e-commerce transactions. E-commerce is booming these days with most businesses having a website for online sale of their products and services. E-commerce increases the customer base of any business by making its products available for sale everywhere where internet has its reach.A Major credit for this e-commerce evolution goes to the payment gateway service providers who have made online payments easy and secure. Hence, their role cannot be undermined when it comes to the rapid and constant growth of the e-commerce industry.

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