Website Payment Transaction Platforms

One of the most important factors when setting up a new sales based website is which transaction platform to integrate into it. The first decision is to establish whether you want a seamless or a non-seamless payment gateway. There are advantages and disadvantages to both.

Seamless integration vs Non-seamless integration

Firstly, a seamless integration means the user does not leave the website at any stage of the transaction process and makes their purchase through your company. With a non-seamless integration you take the customer through the first couple of steps of the basket then they are transferred to the payment provider when entering their card details.

The costs of both systems can vary and one is not necessarily more expensive than the other in the long run. The main difference is that if you manage the payment system yourself, you need to become PCI DSS compliant as a business; if you are handling customers card data you must keep it safe, and being compliant to that standard ensures this. Using a non-seamless integration takes away the need to become compliant because the company you use takes this on instead.

The main argument for using seamless payment integration is that the customer trusts your brand and does not want to be taken away from the website. Using a third party piece of software for the transaction platform, that can be seen as different by the customer, may be  argued to be a cheaper option and can distract from the brand perception that the website tries to convey.

Which provider should you go with?

There are many suppliers all offering website transaction platform services, but as you need to pick just one I am going to give you the lowdown on the best ones. Some are more well known than others as they are supported by larger companies, for example World Pay which is owned by RBS. The main differentiator is the price plan you have with each service. Some are based on a % of each transaction, some on a fixed fee per transaction and some have a monthly fee allowing unlimited transactions for a set cost.

Commidea

The Commidea transaction solution is popular with larger sites as it is not cheap to set up but gives 12 hour a day support from a dedicated team. The price plan is also based around larger volumes with a fixed fee as opposed to a per transaction fee. Integration is also quite fast with the solution with the average set up time being around 8 or 9 days. This is highly recommended for sites expecting a large amount of orders on a monthly basis.

Paypal

Paypal is one of the better known systems and is used on millions of websites across the world. It uses this globalisation to gain a distinct advantage; once consumers register an account with them they can use the same details across all sites using the Paypal platform, eliminating the need to register again. It is well known and trusted by lots of people, although to have it as a standalone solution can be offputting for a larger site as people often associate Paypal with ebay style small trading. Costs are relatively low although there are cheaper solutions available, however a favourable element is the very quick lead times for setting up the platform on your website. This solution is recommended for smaller sites or as an addition to an existing platform on a larger website to give the customer more choice of payment options.

WorldPay

Worldpay is one of the more expensive solutions, but this is justified by the very high levels of security and fraud protection that benefit both the customer and the retail website. Costs are on a transaction basis and they’re not cheap (around 30p or 3% + 15p). There are also monthly fees of around £15 which Paypal do not charge.  The system allows either seamless integration or non-seamless functionality, so this gives another option over Paypal. Apart from that the platform falls short, there are better solutions out there, especially considering the average lead time for set up is around 2 weeks.

Sage Pay

As with Worldpay this solution offers good levels of fraud protection but offers this at a much lower cost. For websites with over 1,000 transactions per month, the cost  is only 10p per sale which is very competitive. The provider offers 24/7 support for the system and is this is also highly rated. Sage pay offers both seamless and non-seamless integration and setup is only around 4 days. In my opinion, this is a very good solution for a reasonable sized site with sales over 1,000 per month, given the only extra cost is a £20 monthly fee which is easily paid for on the unit transaction cost saving.

Google Checkout

The final system that I am looking at is Google’s own checkout solution. It is most similar to Paypal in that it is a quick solution to set up and can be used alongside other transaction platforms as a quick alternative. In a comparison with Paypal, Google checkout is cheaper based on the best rates available. There are also other advantages of having this platform. A Google checkout icon will appear on your PPC ads and whether it helps your sites natural rankings or not is debated (this is going to be discussed in my next post). The only drawback is management of the system; this is regularly more time consuming and there are often reports that the checkout system takes a long time to report a sale (around 30 minutes). All that aside it is highly recommended as with Paypal, particularly for smaller websites and even more so for an additional option on larger sites.

What else do you need to get transacting online?

Once you have decided which provider you are going for, before installing the system you will need to set up a merchant account with your bank if you do not already have one. This essentially allows you to accept credit and debit card payments as a business and is where the funds are sent once an online transaction is complete.

Apart from the other obvious elements you need such as the actual website, you also need a secure basket with a ‘secure certificate’ setting up on, to prove you are protecting the data the customer is passing over to you. Obviously, if you opt to use a payment provider as discussed above you don’t need to worry about the payment details but you still need to ensure the customers address details are passed over securely.

If all this sounds too daunting to set up yourself, please feel free to contact us and we can help you get transacting online using our extensive online experience.