What is Payment Gateway?
Payment Gateway is a service that allows the credit card payments to be processed whenever a transaction takes place. This is for the online businesses as well as the traditional brick and mortar stores.
The job of a payment gateway is to process the transactions by transferring the key information between the payment portals such as web enabled mobile devices or websites and the front end processor or a bank. Payment gateways authorize the payment between the two main parties i.e. merchant and customer.
The most popular payment gateways include PayPal, Braintree, Stripe and Square.
Types of Payment Gateway:
There are four main types of payment gateways. These are as follows:
Hosted payment gateways:
This kind of a gateway directs your customer away from your site’s checkout page. When the customer clicks on the gateway link, he is redirected to the payment service provider (PSP) page. Once the customer has filled out all the relevant details about the payment, he is directed back to the website and asked to complete the checkout process. A well-known example is PayPal.
Self-hosted payment gateways:
This type of gateway collects the payment details from the merchant’s website.After the data is submitted, it is sent to the payment gateway’s URL. Examples are Trade Gecko Payments and Shopify payments which are both powered by Stripe.
API hosted payment gateways:
With this the customers enter their credit card and debit card details directly on the merchant’s check out page and the payments then get processed using an API (Application Programming Interface) or HTTPS queries.
Local Bank Integration:
The local bank integration gateways redirect the customer to the payment gateway’s website which is the bank’s website and the customer enters the payment details and contact details over there. Once the payment is made, the customer is taken back to the merchant’s website and the payment notification data is sent upon redirection.
Things you need to know while integrating payment gateway in UAE:
A payment gateway is what allows your online store to accept credit cards and process payments. These payment gateways cost money and can charge per transaction and since there a lot of payment gateway options out there, it is best that you do your survey and choose the best one for our business. Here are the steps that you need to look into for integrating payment gateway in UAE while starting your business.
Choosing a Payment Gateway:
What do Gateways do? The payment gateway takes the credit card information from the customer and sends it to the gateway’s web server. Once the transaction is done, the confirmation is sent back to the website. You can integrate your gateway into your website’s shopping cart software.
Check with your web host: Your web host or online shop software may offer the services of payment gateway therefore, you need to check your website’s control panel or the online shop’s admin page for any payment gateway options. If yes, you can quickly implement them.
Browse your options: The shopping cart software has a list of compatible payment gateways. Since not all are supported by your software, you need to go through the list and choose. These could be PayPal, Payza, Perfect Money, Ego Pay, Secure Pay, Authorize.net, Verify, Braintree and Secure Pay.
Fee and Conditions: Usually the gateways charge a one-time set up fee, then a monthly fee and then charge a small fee per transaction. Analyze these conditions carefully before making a choice.
External or direct gateway? External gateways send your customers to an external source to make the transaction whereas the direct ones, also known as transparent, do the processing within the store. The transparent one is more advisable.
Merchant Account: In order to link up to the gateway, you need to sign up for a merchant account. The account will charge you per transaction as well.
Sign up for the payment gateway: When signing up for the chosen payment gateway, it will give you some information that you will provide to your online store software. The information could either be login name and password or ID and an authorization file.
Integrating the Payment gateway into a web shop:
Setting up the Web Shop: A software is used to create a web shop for customers. This software helps create the ordering page and the code for transferring payment information to the gateway. The code is a difficult task therefore, it is best to contact third party professionals for this.
Payment Methods: For each payment method for example Visa, MasterCard etc., you will need to provide your gateway information. This process varies from service to service.
Testing the Gateway: The gateway service will provide you with Test or Sandbox accounts. These allow you to perform fake transactions in order to ensure that the system is working accurately. This testing is extremely essential before going live.
