As a small business owner or freelancer you are always looking for more and better ways to get paid. This is especially true when you sell your products and services online. You may have setup shop online, but sourcing a payment gateway that suits your billing and company culture can be a bit difficult.
Your clients can pay for their online orders via several payment gateways. Traditionally most businesses offer wire transfer, cheque, cash and direct bank deposit, but there are many other payment methods out there that can assist you to get paid. Let's take a peak at the criteria you should use when selecting a payment gateway for your company.
International vs local clients
Ask yourself if most of your clients are based in your own country or do the majority of your sales come from customers that are outside of your country. Whether you use a geographically general or specific payment gateway is up to where the most of your clientele resides. If most of your clients are from your country you can use a local payment gateway. If most of your business is conducted with international clients you need to get a gateway that supports this.
It is also important to ask yourself what currency your clients will be paying you in. Most payment gateways have support for specific currencies only. So always pick one that supports the currencies your clients will want to pay in.
Payment scheduling type
Do you sell a product or service that the client is required to make a single payment for or is the product or service paid for in installments? i.e. comes as part of a recurring subscription that requires a few successive payments.
If your clients need to make once off payments you can look at services that provide the client with the ability to make an immediate, secure credit card payment. You can also look at an online wallet, like PayPal, that allows immediate payment via an account that can be topped up via credit card, bank account or wire transfer.
Let's say that the most of your clients will need to pay on a recurring term for the products or services you offer. For example; a fortnightly payment for the gardening maintenance services your company supplies. This means you will need to look at a payment gateway that allows the submission of recurring direct debits to credit cards and bank accounts. Make sure you use a service that supports collection in the currency your customers use.
Service offering & cost
After you have narrowed down what kind of payments you require to debit and in what currency you can use the following criteria to determine which of the payment gateways that remain will best for your business:
- Online transactions cost money, to save as much as you can shop around for the gateway that charges you the least in transaction fees. Saving few cents on each transaction can save you thousands per month.
- Remember that you will need to reconcile payment made through your payment gateway. It is therefore vital to ensure that the gateway you select provides adequate and accurate reporting.
- Merchant account: Do you have a merchant account at a financial institution? If not, some gateways act as your merchant account. Find out what kind of bank accounts you will require to extract funds from or use a specific payment gateway before signing up.
- Safety and security regulations in the payment gateway sector are there to protect you. Always follow up with you local regulatory authority to make sure the payment gateway you want to use is a member and complies with their rules.
Your clients can pay for their online orders via several payment gateways. Traditionally most businesses offer wire transfer, cheque, cash and direct bank deposit, but there are many other payment methods out there that can assist you to get paid. Let's take a peak at the criteria you should use when selecting a payment gateway for your company.
International vs local clients
Ask yourself if most of your clients are based in your own country or do the majority of your sales come from customers that are outside of your country. Whether you use a geographically general or specific payment gateway is up to where the most of your clientele resides. If most of your clients are from your country you can use a local payment gateway. If most of your business is conducted with international clients you need to get a gateway that supports this.
It is also important to ask yourself what currency your clients will be paying you in. Most payment gateways have support for specific currencies only. So always pick one that supports the currencies your clients will want to pay in.
Payment scheduling type
Do you sell a product or service that the client is required to make a single payment for or is the product or service paid for in installments? i.e. comes as part of a recurring subscription that requires a few successive payments.
If your clients need to make once off payments you can look at services that provide the client with the ability to make an immediate, secure credit card payment. You can also look at an online wallet, like PayPal, that allows immediate payment via an account that can be topped up via credit card, bank account or wire transfer.
Let's say that the most of your clients will need to pay on a recurring term for the products or services you offer. For example; a fortnightly payment for the gardening maintenance services your company supplies. This means you will need to look at a payment gateway that allows the submission of recurring direct debits to credit cards and bank accounts. Make sure you use a service that supports collection in the currency your customers use.
Service offering & cost
After you have narrowed down what kind of payments you require to debit and in what currency you can use the following criteria to determine which of the payment gateways that remain will best for your business:
- Online transactions cost money, to save as much as you can shop around for the gateway that charges you the least in transaction fees. Saving few cents on each transaction can save you thousands per month.
- Remember that you will need to reconcile payment made through your payment gateway. It is therefore vital to ensure that the gateway you select provides adequate and accurate reporting.
- Merchant account: Do you have a merchant account at a financial institution? If not, some gateways act as your merchant account. Find out what kind of bank accounts you will require to extract funds from or use a specific payment gateway before signing up.
- Safety and security regulations in the payment gateway sector are there to protect you. Always follow up with you local regulatory authority to make sure the payment gateway you want to use is a member and complies with their rules.
About the Author:
Bill Bapsnill has been in the online payment industry for many decades. He suggests that you do your subscription billing via an online invoicing system.
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