The Best Payment Merchants For Your Online Store

We’re often asked by our clients for recommendations on the best payment merchants for their online store. In this post we’ll share our two favourite merchants to work with. Who offer security, reliability and the easiest integrations to your website.

When you launch your online store, weather that be on WordPress using WooCommerce, or on Magento. You’ll need to be able to receive payments through your website. Allowing your customers to shop your products and services and complete their purchase online.

There are several options out there for accepting payments directly through your site. However we recommend two above all the rest, these are Stripe and PayPal. These two payment platforms can be integrated within your website, allowing your customers to check out securely and effectively.

Payment Merchants For Your Online Store

It’s important to opt for a payment merchant that’s safe and secure. We’ve found that selecting a premium service over a budget or free one provides a much higher return on investment. Not only keeping your customers and your business safe, but also allowing you to access support when it’s required.

Our two best payment merchants of choice when integrating payment functionality within a website are Stripe and PayPal. We always recommend these to our clients for their credibility and seamless integration with e-commerce platforms online. What are the unique benefits of each?

Benefits of Stripe as a Payment Merchant

Stripe is one of the most widely known payment merchants, used by both start ups and large scale businesses across the globe. Trusted by some of the worlds largest companies. Including Google, Uber and Spotify, to name a few. They hold several globally recognised awards for their rigorous security standards. While payments are compatible with a broad range of card types. Including Visa, MasterCard, Maestro and American Express. Not forgetting the ever popular digital payment services such as Apple Pay and Google Pay. Giving your customers more choice over how they wish to complete their transaction.

Being a globally recognised merchant, they’re able to complete your businesses international transactions. Displaying the cost of your product in the customers home currency on your site. While also converting all transactions at check out. An additional feature which may be attractive to businesses looking to increase their sales internationally. Meanwhile from a business standpoint Stripe combines the gateway function as well as payment processing. Allowing you to transfer payments from a customer bank account to a business bank account with ease. Via a sales transaction on your website, ensuring that any credit card related fees are handled during the process.

Stripe Pricing and Integration

Stripe pricing is a little higher than some of their competitors. Yet the extensive amount of options available makes it extremely worth the investment. Pricing is charged at a pay as you go rate. This is based on your sales and the active use of the service. As a result, you won’t be paying for a monthly or annual service fee, only a percentage of each transaction. So currently 1.4% + 20p for all European transactions. Find out more about Stripe pricing.

What about integrating Stripe with your website? It’s one of the the best payment merchants for your online store as it involves a simple set up process for a website developer to perform. It can be set up on WordPress by activating the WooCommerce Stripe Payment Gateway plugin. Allowing you to customise your shopping cart with custom fields and can be tested using mock credit card numbers provided by Stripe. Making it easy for a developer to test the functionality is running smoothly in a test environment, before publishing live on your website.

Other Payment Merchant Options For E-Commerce

You may find that Stripe is too large an investment for your business that’s just starting out. Or perhaps you don’t require all the bells and whistles in terms of functionality that are delivered by the service. So if you’re asking yourself what other options are, then why not take a look at PayPal. It’s likely that you’re already using PayPal in some capacity as a consumer. However, how does it compare to Stripe from a business standpoint?

Benefits of PayPal as a Payment Merchant

Like Stripe, PayPal is also a globally recognised payment merchant. It’s actively used by millions of businesses as a solution to collect payment for goods or services. It’s often used as a standalone service for smaller retail businesses. Yet it’s also used as an add on payment option for larger businesses who are already using Stripe.

Why use both we hear you ask? We’ll almost everyone who shops regularly online has a PayPal account. So having PayPal as a payment option can be a way to encourage your customers to make faster buying decisions. While allowing them to complete their transaction at lightening speed.

We’ve all been caught out making an impulse purchase while browsing social media. Just because we were able to complete the sale by logging into our PayPal account. It’s a 3 second process from a smartphone, that you can complete with your thumb print in an instant. Rather than the lengthy process of entering your address and card details manually to a payment form. The longer this process, the longer your customer has time to back out of their transaction. Choosing PayPal as a merchant, could literally increase your sales turnover by thousands of pounds each year.

PayPal Pricing and Integration

So what about from a set up standpoint? Like Stripe, PayPal is one of the best payment merchants for your online store as it’s easily integrated within an e-commerce setting. Installed to your website simply via an integrated PayPal plugin. While using fraud protection and seller protection to safe guard both customers and business owners. Making it a secure solution to protect your business from fraudulent transactions.

PayPal is also globally recognised and accessible, allowing you to trade and accept payments internationally. You can find out more about their merchant fees on the PayPal website.

Choosing the Best Payment Merchant for Your Website

Now that we’ve provided an overview of each of the services we recommend, it’s over to you to decide which is the on the best payment merchant for your website. As well as the most compatible with your business. This might be an easy decision, or you still may be unsure as to whether Stripe or PayPal is most suited to your needs. If this is the case then speak too your developer. They will be able to advise you on the best for your requirements. And may be able to highlight other features and benefits specific to your type of business niche.

Whichever you go for, we really can’t stress enough the importance of choosing a service that is reputable, reliable and secure.

If you’d like to discuss our website development service then contact us or share your requirements through our simple online form.

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