Ways to Accept Payments
Cross-Border Payments
Payment Optimization
Payment Types & Currencies
Fraud Prevention
Chargeback Management
Compliance
Payment Analytics & Reporting
Accounts Receivable Automation
Subscriptions & Recurring Billing
Invoice Payments
Virtual Terminal
Sandbox
Production
It’s a given: All businesses that buy and sell online need a way to collect payments in return for goods or services. (And increasingly, even the independent software vendors, or ISVs, that service those businesses are looking to provide this functionality for their customers.) But even though a payment gateway might fall under the category of “eCommerce 101,” that doesn’t mean it’s a simple decision to choose a payment provider—or that you should settle for the first one that comes to mind!
With just a little research you can find a payment provider that can actually help your company make more sales. Or… you can settle and go with what you know—and potentially miss out on some opportunities that could help your business grow.
With just a little research you can find a payment provider that can actually help your company make more sales. Click To Tweet
If you’re interested in settling, just ask prospective payment providers the following eight questions. Their answers should be telling enough that you’ll either get your socks knocked off… or you’ll be reaching for your running shoes.
8 Questions Your Payment Provider Doesn’t Want To Answer
1. How can you help me expand my customer reach?
You might not think you’ll have customers in other countries, but cross-border shopping is growing, with sales predicted to reach $627 billion by 2022. It’s a natural way for you to enter new markets—if your payment gateway has the global bank connections needed to pull it off. The more bank partners they have, the more likely it is they can clear payments locally, which ups your chances of satisfying a greater number of customers. If they have only one or two partners, and they’re both in the U.S., walk away.
2. How can you help me complete more transactions successfully?
There are lots of ways your payment provider can help with this (see question #8, too). One in particular has to do with how they approve transactions. Make sure they route transactions “intelligently,” meaning they send them to the acquiring bank most likely to approve them. (Another reason why multiple bank partners are crucial!) They should also support failover transactions, so that if one acquiring bank declines a transaction it is automatically sent to another bank to try again.
BlueSnap can help you increase conversions in other ways, too. Talk to us to find out what they are.
3. Do you support all the most popular payment methods around the world?
You’ll close more sales if you can offer customers their preferred way to pay. That includes emerging payment types like eWallets (Apple Pay, Visa Checkout, Masterpass, and more) and popular international methods like Sofort and Giropay—not to mention numerous different currencies. Any prospective payment provider should be able to direct you to a comprehensive, extensive list of all the payment methods it supports, in short order.
4. How will you protect my business against fraud?
Payment providers are more likely to have a good fraud prevention mechanism in place if they haven’t created it themselves. So don’t settle for a homegrown solution; look for providers that partner with fraud-fighting specialists who get the job done right. Other demands: You shouldn’t have to pay extra for it. You should be able to customize it to fit the needs of your own business. And don’t forget about chargeback management. Having an automated solution built-in can save you time and money.
5. How will you track my sales?
If you hope to increase revenue, it’s important to pay attention to your sales data. Find out what level of reporting the gateway provides, and if they can track things like subscriptions, sales transactions, revenue, conversion rates, recurring charges, payment declines, and more. You should be able to review all these reports on your own, but also have access to an account manager who can help you review analytics and improve your business.
6. How easy is it to implement your solution?
Are you offered multiple ways to enable payment processing, such as pre-built hosted solutions and robust APIs? And if you plan on using an API, make sure the provider has well-developed resources that allow developers to not only get the solution up and running quickly, but also lets them make changes to it throughout the life of your business. Readily available copy-and-paste code samples and the ability to try API calls right from the documentation are two must-haves.
7. What can you do to help me get paid faster?
For B2B companies, collecting payments can take forever. You shouldn’t have to print and mail invoices—then wait 30 days or longer—to receive checks! There’s a better, faster way available: online invoicing. The payment gateway you choose should give you the ability to email or text customers the link to a customized payment page (developed by the gateway), where they can then securely input their payment information. No more lengthy waits for payments, and it reduces the work involved for your accounting team. It doesn’t get better than that.
8. What’s your strategy to increase my current conversion rate?
There are lots of reasons why a payment can be declined or why shoppers abandon their carts; the key is to dig into why these payments are not converting and why customers are abandoning their purchases. The best payment providers can give you your processing success rate and dig into your payment analytics to help you understand where and why your payment process might need a boost. (For instance, are declined transactions associated with a lack of payment methods, or issues with a specific bank?) Together, you can fill in the missing pieces and implement solutions that will boost your conversions—which may include any or all of the things mentioned in the questions listed above.
Start your research by talking to BlueSnap.
Ask us all these questions—and anything else you can think of. We’ll gladly provide answers and talk through the payment solutions that will help your business grow. At BlueSnap we do more than just process payments; we build partnerships. Get in touch with us today!
