What is a payment portal?

A payment portal facilitates online credit card payments. It is based on a technology that creates a secure SSL connection between your company's website or browser and the financial entity that processes credit cards.

This secure connection is used to encrypt credit card payment details for each transaction, verifying the authenticity of each transaction and keeping the information confidential and secure.

In the modern world of e-commerce, the security of your clients' financial information is of utmost importance. In general, you can configure it by partnering with the credit card processing company of your choice. When you configure it through a provider, compatibility complications are less likely to arise. This is usually the fastest way to hire and integrate a payment portal.

Some credit card processors have their own payment gateways, while others work with third parties. The good thing of working through your bank provider, is that you can avoid setup fees. We strongly recommend all the clients to always check the terms and conditions before hiring this kind of service and obtain a clear information about the costs of integration and fees for processing.

Payment portals: keeping your operations safe and your customers happy

Online payment portals have never been so commonly used for commerce, nor have they ever been such an important target for hackers and scammers. Commercial activities that involve online sales may be the hardest hit, as cyber attacks are becoming more frequent. That is why it is important to choose a high tech payment portals that guarantee safe payment processing and secure transfer of information to defend against these attacks in real time.

High-quality payment portals also play its role in reducing loading time, making the purchasing experience more pleasant.

Public surveys among e-commerce clients show the following reasons for abandonment of shopping cart:

• 15% of buyers abandon the process due to a bad experience with online store.
• 6% of abandonments is due to lack of wide range of payment options.
• 4% of abandonments is due to technical problems of the payment system or checkout process.

So, as you can see, there are a lot of aspects that one should keep in mind when choosing a payment portal for his business since it should not only allow you to process payments, but also guarantee the sensitive information of your clients and minimize the fraud risks.

That is why, together with the 2x3 team, click here to meet them, we decided to create this article where we will touch each aspect of payment portals and its functioning.

How do payment portals work?

A payment portal completes its functions at the time of purchase, an online transaction, by encrypting credit card information when information is entered. This encrypted information is sent securely to the bank issuer of the credit card of the client, cards processor, the brand of the card (for example, Visa o MasterCard).

Once the transaction gets authorized, the customer's card is charged with the corresponding amount. The money from the sale is delivered directly to the bank account of your company (less the commissions and the costs of the processing that you agreed with your acquiring bank or third party provider).

What is a payment processor?

A payment processor is usually a company that handles credit and debit card transactions for e-commerce. While the function of the payment portal is to pass the encrypted data, the processor transfers money from one account to another.

The commissions that the payment processor can charge for its services vary depending on the number of transactions that a merchant generates, the level of risk of commercial activity and the number of chargebacks that the business involves.

The fees are calculated using percentage system, when a certain amount is discounted from the total value of sale, for example, 3% of total amount for each transaction. Some companies also offer a plain rate charged for a certain number of transactions made or a total amount processed monthly. For example, a processor can charge you 200 USD for 1000 transactions or for processing 3000 USD through its payment portal.

Types of integrations in a payment portal

There are three types of integrations that your e-commerce might need and use:

Hosted payment portal

It is a ready-to-use payment page where the clients, in order to proceed with the checkout and make a payment, are redirected to the webpage of the bank. Usually the servers that are used for hosted payments don’t save the information of the cardholders, maximizing the level of security and lowering the risk of card frauds.

Server-to-server integration

This kind of integration guarantees the fastest checkout and payment since the client doesn’t get redirected to the webpage of the bank but can introduce his credit card information directly on the website of the merchant.

Client-side encryption

When using this integration, which is considered one of the safest one for the client, the sensitive financial information goes through the process of encryption before it is sent to the merchant’s server.

Disadvantages of payment portals

Technical failure

A card payment portal is basically a software that can sometimes fail. Therefore, it is very important to work with a payment processor that offers 24-hour technical support service. In any case, almost all payment gateways work via several servers and if one fails, another continues to work.

Benefits of using multiple payment portals at the same time

Constant growth of your company requires excellent customer experience without exception and taking into account the competitivity of the market, sometimes it is not an easy task.

For 99% of e-commerce businesses a fast and reliable check out and payment processes are the key to success.

Using multiple payment portals, you can guarantee a convenient experience for your clients and smooth running of your online store. Also, you can offer your clients several options for payments including paying in different currencies.

As a result, you will be able to lower processing fees and number of cancelled transactions. You will also have several backup options to ensure that all transaction processing continues when providers experience failure or downtime. That will help you to increase sales and achieve better user experience.

Considerations when choosing a payment portal

As you have noticed, choosing a right payment portal for your e-commerce is not an easy task, since many aspects should be taken into consideration. Here are some of them:

Security capabilities

First and foremost, it is important to understand what security features are guaranteed by your payment processing provider. Is client’s financial information saved on the server? What is the level of encryption?

All these questions should be asked to guarantee the security of your potential clients because when they will have to make a purchasing decision, the security will be one of the aspects they will think the most of.

Integration capabilities

The sector of payment processing services is constantly growing creating more and more competition among participants. There are many online payment methods on the market, a fact that increases the possibilities of the commerce to choose the best one for his business and potential clients.

Also, thanks to a large variety of third parties who offer payment processing services it is much easier to find an alternative in case your commercial activity is considered high risk and therefore is rejected by the financial institutions.

An important characteristic that has to be considered is the easiness of integration of the payment platform with your e-commerce platform. As well as variety of payment methods available for the client when checking out from your online store.

Conclusion

The capacity to choose the right payment portal can affect dramatically your company's income and customer satisfaction. Therefore, it is important to make a good research of the market and to ensure you receive the best offer for your business. Adjust your choice basing on the type of business you have, the volume and value of your usual transactions and the countries of operation. Understanding the difference between payment processors, payment portals, and business accounts is the first step to increase your sales and guarantee a constant growth of your business.