In this modern era of technology, people have made online shopping as our preferred option for all our buying needs. Since there are so many options available in this space, the preference of people is decided by the experience that these e-commerce stores give to them. The basic factor of measuring the success of an e-commerce store lies in how it is selling products to its customers.

Apart from the smooth functioning of a Microsoft e-commerce website developed via Microsoft web development, a payment gateway ensures the trust of your visitors and allows them to trust you with their money and transactions.

A payment gateway acts as a bridge between the seller and the customer of an e-commerce website. It allows them to exchange products in return for money on a digitally available e-commerce store. Therefore, paying attention to the smooth functioning of the payment gateway for your Microsoft e-commerce store is crucial as it leads to customer satisfaction.

Using Microsoft development services provided by a Microsoft web development company along with successful payment integration options can give a boost to sales of your e-commerce store.

What is a Payment Gateway?

In simple words, a payment gateway allows your online e-commerce store to connect with a payment processing entity. Several checks are put in the process by your chosen Microsoft web development company before validating or approving the transactions.

A payment gateway developed by Microsoft web development company for your e-commerce store allows the facilitation of payments. It allows the transfer of payment details to the payment processes through the integration of certain APIs (Application programming interfaces).

Need of Payment Gateway for Your E-commerce Website

Integrating a payment gateway to your e-commerce business can help your platform grow faster. A payment gateway will allow your customers to pay for the products that they like quickly while at the same time, it will facilitate your electronic payment processing needs as an e-commerce store owner.

The importance of including a reliable payment gateway in your Microsoft e-commerce store is undebatable as it affects the buying decisions of your customers. A smooth payment gateway will drive your customer to make more purchases in a hassle-free manner.

If a payment gateway does not function efficiently, the chances of your customers getting irritated and leaving your website are very high which is not a good sign for your Microsoft e-commerce website. You should consider the following five factors before choosing a payment gateway for your Microsoft e-commerce store.

1. An ideal payment gateway should include multiple payment options that make it convenient for the customer to make a purchase. Check if your choice of payment gateway allows options such as Credit, Debit, PayPal, UPIs and more.
2. If your business targets a global audience, you must also check the number of currencies that the payment gateway supports.
3. Ensure that the transition fees that come along with the payment gateway of your choice is affordable and within your budget.
4. Before choosing any payment gateway, you must read the terms and conditions thoroughly as some payment gateways restrict you to sell physical goods
5. Operate the payment gateway from a customer end and check if it needs you to complete any extra processes like sign-up. If it does, try not to choose such gateways as they consume the extra time of your customer.

Types of Payment Gateways

For different e-commerce businesses, there are different kinds of payment gateways available. Any Microsoft development services provider can help you integrate these options to your e-commerce website if you are clear about which one do you wish to choose.

Before diving deeper to learn more about the choice of payment gateway for your Microsoft e-commerce store, let’s go through the types of payment gateways available:

Hosted Payment Gateways

One of the most common examples of a hosted payment gateway is PayPal. The meaning of a hosted payment gateway is that it redirects your customer to an external checkout page for completing the payment process. This redirected page is called as a payment service provider or PSP page. Once the customer lands on this page, he/she can fill the payment details and make a transaction. Then again, after this process, the customer is redirected back to your original website for completion of the final checkout process steps.

Advantages:

• This type of payment gateways are considered as more secure as the transactions that happen through them are PCI compliant (prevent customer frauds)
• They can be easily customized
• Hosted payment gateways are easy to set up and are also user-friendly in terms of use

Disadvantages:

• Merchants do not have the overall control on the process as the user is directed to an external page in the process

API hosted payment gateways

Opposite to the hosted gateways, API hosted payment gateways allow customers to directly enter their payment information and card details on the merchant’s website rather than redirecting them to a different page. This way the customer remains on the e-commerce website during the overall product purchase and the payments are processed with the help of an API.

Advantages:

• The customer never leaves the website so the overall customer experience is enhanced
• These gateways can be integrated with different devices including PCs, mobiles, etc.

Disadvantages:

• In order to use this payment gateway on an e-commerce website, merchants are required to purchase the SSL certification as well as hold the responsibility of PCI compliance in their own hands

Self-hosted payment gateways

Self-hosted payment gateways follow an approach where the payment details of the purchase are collected on the merchant’s website and then these details are transferred to the payment gateway URL in order to complete the purchase. The data collected and sent to the URL might need to follow a specific format or it can also use a cryptographic key to decode it on the other end.

Advantages:

• As the entire transaction takes place at one single platform, customer experience is not distorted.
• The merchant holds control over the payment journey of the buyer

Disadvantages:

• Since these gateways are self-hosted, they lack the concept of having a separate technical support team for them in case of system failure.

Conclusion

If you wish to set up your Microsoft e-commerce store successfully for your business, you must consider the payment gateway option that seems most suitable for your experience. Using Microsoft development services through a reliable Microsoft website development company, you can easily integrate a payment gateway that’ll help your business tremendously.

Make sure that the wide variety of options available online do not confuse you much while choosing a payment gateway for your Microsoft e-commerce business. Just choose the one that you like and get it integrated via a reliable Microsoft website development services providing company at affordable rates.