Payment Gateways

There are a multitude of payment gateways available for integration today.

All Payment Gateways such as ProTX,  Paypal, Google Checkout and World Pay take a percentage of each transaction or have a flat monthly fee for their service. In order to take credit card payments online you need a Payment Gateway.

A Payment Gateway slots in-between the transactional process between your Ecommerce website and your Merchant Bank Account. In order to use the larger Payment Gateways, such as ProTX, you must have a Merchant Bank Account and not simply a Business Bank Account.

Merchant Bank Accounts generally charge a fee of approximately £450.00 per annum but this varies from bank to bank, and usually takes approximately two weeks to set up.

Dusza's preferred payment gateway ProTX and we have chosen ProTX after thorough research and much consideration. With ProTX your customer never leaves your website which unlike some other Gateways such as PayPal. By keeping the entire payment process on your website, it can build your customers confidence in using your Ecommerce and means there are fewer reasons for them 'dropping out' and not continuing with their purchase.

ProTX is also extremely secure as no credit card details are stored on your server which minimises your legal responsibilities, and additionally offers the ability to refund transactions via your websites Content Management System.

Other Payment Gateways do have their place, for instance, by using PayPal you can eliminate the need for a Merchant Bank Account altogether, and thus save you the expense of a Merchant Account every year!

However if you are serious about making money via Ecommerce then you should consider having multiple Payment Gateways on your Ecommerce. Having a selection of payment methods be it Credit Card, PayPal and Google means that it allows customers to choose a preferred method that they feel comfortable with.

It also has another huge advantage. It's called redundancy. Redundancy isn't as scary as it sounds, it simply means having a back up plan if something fails. And if your main Payment Gateway encounters a problem then you may not be able to complete your customers transactions, which equates to making no money.

This rarely occurs with the more reputable Payment Gateways such as ProTX but it can still happen. By having alternative methods of payment your customer can easily choose an alternative method of payment.