An important step when setting up an online business is integrating a payment gateway. After all, how else can your customers pay for your goods and services, right? Read on below to find out how you can have one up:

What is a payment gateway

Have you noticed those POS (point-of-sale) machines or devices that brick-and-mortar businesses use when a customer pays with a credit card? A payment gateway works the same way online, by allowing merchants to process credit card transactions. This happens when gateways provide a link between a merchant’s website to the acquiring bank. Essentially, a payment gateway receives credit card details that customers submit, then passes the information over to the acquiring bank for verification. The acquiring bank checks the data, then replies with an appropriate response back to the merchant web server for the customer to see – whether if the transaction was successful or not.

Steps on how to integrate a payment gateway

Here are the gateway integration steps needed for your online shop:

1) Sign up for a merchant account

A merchant account is needed for online stores to receive payments. This account is linked to the payment gateway. You can sign up for a merchant account by getting in touch with your preferred local bank or directly from the payment gateway if they provide client onboarding. On its own, merchants can directly accept credit card payments from customers by signing up for an account. However, this would also mean that the merchants would do the payments process themselves (similar to doing business without a POS terminal – a lot of time wasted, since the merchant would need to bring the physical card to the bank to process!).

2) Choose a payment gateway for your business

There are a lot of payment gateway integrations to choose from. Here are some questions you may want to ask yourself, to guide you when choosing which payment gateway integration is best for your website:

– are the methods offered by your preferred payment gateway integration applicable for your business?

– do you clearly understand the fees, terms and conditions, of your chosen payment gateway integration?

– is support provided, and does the service respond to you in a prompt manner when you need help?

– do you think your business will increase revenue with your chosen payment gateway integration?

3) Add preferred payment methods

Once you’ve picked a gateway integration, you would then need to set which payment methods will be used for your website. When choosing which method will work best for you, consider your business’ location and your target market. For example: if most of your customers are from Europe, then you may want to have a credit card option, since this is the most common way to pay in that area. Or if you’re a game developer, then virtual currency or prepaid cards can be a good option, since most gamers are minors or do not have bank accounts.

4) Set up the payment gateway’s APIs

Check the API credentials of your preferred payment gateway to see if it matches with what you want to accomplish on your website. Depending on the function, some payment gateways can provide more than one API. If you need help, make sure to contact your payment gateway’s support team.

5) Integrate on website or application

Check the documentation and/or guide on how to integrate your preferred gateway. Most gateways offer a simple copy-paste of a code onto your website, but always make sure to contact your gateway’s integration team for help. This is particularly true for integration of multiple functions, and for widget customization, if your chosen gateway offers this option.

6) A/B testing

Always conduct A/B testing during and after integration. You can experiment by integrating multiple gateway integrations, to check which works best for you. A/B testing will help you find out the best way to reach out to your customers – offering them an easier and simpler way to pay will lead to a higher chance for your business to earn revenue.

Why should you have a payment gateway integrated

You may be thinking that integration is time-consuming, or that a lot of work seems to be going on in the background, with three (the merchant, acquiring bank, and the payment gateway) parties communicating with each other just to process a transaction. But an integration offers benefits that both users and merchants can enjoy:

Streamlined process to save up on time

Great customer experience results from less steps needed when completing a purchase. Customers simply just need to provide their credit card details, without being redirected to other sites to pay.

Global business expansion

Merchants can expand their business globally. A wider scope means a higher revenue potential for the business.

Additional features

Some gateways offer extra features for merchants, such as analytics, UI/UX set-up, and customer/merchant support. Others even have features that combine services from a merchant account. However, these companies are typically limited to just credit card transactions.

Integrating Brick as a credit card payment gateway

Credit card payments are the most popular payment method in the world, and merchants need to have a stable and effective way to allow their customers to transact this way. Paymentwall, a global payments and distribution platform, can help you on a payment gateway integration with Brick, its premiere credit card solution that allows merchants to optimize their sales. Here is how Brick is integrated:

API Credentials

Brick has these API credentials for you to charge cards to your customers:

Public API Key – used for building the Frontend credit card form. This can be publicly available to your customers.

Private API Key – used for charging cards from your backend. Make sure to keep this private at all times.

If you need to test the credentials, a pair of test API keys can be found here.

Brick frontend (retrieving credit card information)

The purpose of the frontend script is for you to get your customer’s credit card details, which would then be passed to the backend for processing.

Some notes:

– the process is PCI DSS compliant, assuring you and your customers that the information is safe.

– also for security, payment pages are require to be loaded via https:// (at least TLSv1.1 is recommended).

– frontend will tokenize the collected details for processing on the backend. More information on tokenization can be found here.

Brick backend (charging the credit card)

The backend script functions as a billing service for the token retrieved by the frontend script.

Some notes:

– the retrieved token allows the backend script to check if the credit card information is compromised (in coordination with the Paymentwall User Profile API).

Testing the API keys

For testing purposes (to check if forms for getting credit card information is working and/or if credit card is to be charged), your merchant area allows you to use these API keys:

  • 4242424242424242
  • 4000000000000002

Details on the test CVV/CSC values are found on the Documentation page.

In summary, a payment gateway integration gives merchants the ability to accept credit cards (and other payment methods) in a fast and simple manner. This results to the merchant focusing on what they do best – selling.
Payment gateway integration is easy with Brick and Paymentwall. Send us an email at bizdev@paymentwall.com to learn more.