- Awareness of the important role of payment gateway
- The right payment processor
- PCI compliance in e-commerce
- Payment methods: the more, the better
- Robust security measures for payment solutions in e-commerce
- Mobile-first instead of mobile-fits-all
- Brand-consistent checkout process
- Guidelines for chargebacks and reversals
- Securely manage and store payment data
- The right partner for e-commerce payment solutions
Payment gateways are like the virtual bouncers in the e-commerce club. They ensure secure and smooth transactions between the online store and the customer. While sensitive data is kept under lock and key, payment gateways act as trustworthy interfaces through which the money flows in one direction.
These gateways are the number one tool to improve the shopping experience - if they are chosen correctly. The best e-commerce payment solutions are those that can be integrated into the natural flow of a store without redirecting the user to a third-party site. Existing e-commerce solutions enhance the payment system, increase conversion rates and ensure a smooth checkout process.
Choosing the right payment processor is crucial, especially in e-commerce. The choice is vast, the list of potential solutions long, but the number of processors that guarantee truly seamless and trustworthy integration is manageable. The selection of the right payment processor therefore plays a decisive role in providing customers with a convincing experience.
PCI what? PCI compliance may sound like alphabet soup, but it's essential for e-commerce security. Basically, it's like a seal of approval that ensures your payment process is up to scratch in terms of data protection. In other words, it's the safety net that prevents your customers' sensitive data from falling into the wrong hands.
No two customers are the same. That's why a store should offer several payment options that are tailored to the audience. Be it credit card, invoice, SEPA direct debit or even cryptocurrency - once everyone has found the right payment method for them, the transaction can be completed smoothly.
Customers need to feel secure when paying online. Even the slightest doubt can lead customers to choose the competition. Especially when they are just a mouse click away, as is the case in e-commerce. Security measures such as SSL certificates, encryption and fraud detection tools have long since become a basic requirement.
The design, front end and branding must also meet the needs and experiences of customers. Users already feel insecure when they have to enter their credit card details online, for example. A good level of trust can usually be created with professional branding. Security certificates, customer ratings and a checkout process that is as simple as possible can help here.
Mobile-first, i.e. developing a website for mobile devices first and then for desktop computers, has been a common term since 2016. So anyone who still thinks that it's enough if their website just looks "okay" in the checkout on smartphones is losing a lot of customers. The smooth checkout process on smartphones must be just as easy, accessible and fast for your customers as it is on desktop computers.
That's why it's so important to drive forward optimization for mobile devices. Because nowadays, the vast majority of online orders are placed from smartphones. In the second quarter of 2023, cell phone sessions accounted for almost two thirds of total global e-commerce traffic. The share of tablet sessions amounted to just 2.63 percent(source).
Brand consistency across the entire checkout process is extremely important. Many e-commerce payment solution providers offer ready-to-use white label solutions for businesses. These help to integrate seamless payment and checkout systems into the website without requiring much effort or technical expertise. And all with a uniform look and feel.
Chargebacks, reversals and non-payment are just as much a part of e-commerce as returns. Transparent guidelines and a suitable strategy to avoid being caught off guard here are crucial for processing. If you make it easy for customers to contact the company with their concerns and questions and can solve problems immediately, you will have fewer chargebacks and cancellations. Always keep in mind: Satisfied customers are regular customers.
The correct handling and storage of payment and customer data are not only legal and data protection issues, but also crucial for the customer. Anyone who has been the victim of a data leak and now sees automatic warnings in browsers such as Google Chrome when data on websites has been leaked is unlikely to store in the affected stores again.
E-commerce companies must therefore pay particular attention to keeping their security systems up to date with the latest booth. Proper encryption and data protection have top priority in this area.
Payment solutions and checkout processes in e-commerce are highly complex, fast-moving and often time-consuming and resource-intensive topics. At least when companies want to solve them on their own, without external expertise.
Providers such as Unzer offer quickly integrated, customizable payment solutions for e-commerce and all other places where payments are received and managed. Unzer is qualified for this not only because of its specialization in this field, but also because of its many years of successful cooperation as a payment partner for companies such as FC St. Pauli, Rose Bikes and Bergfreunde. Do as these brands do and integrate the right e-commerce payment solutions as a growth engine for your company.
So there are already reliable and established providers of e-commerce solutions that enable your customers to make smooth purchases. No one needs to reinvent the wheel or hire expensive developers who work with API calls to develop their own novel and usually error-prone payment solutions. Those who use established services here are ready to go faster.
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