Accepting payments online has been one of the cornerstones of every growing business today. This is one of the ways by which merchants can deliver products and services to their clients in any part of the world without a need for a physical shop to sell their goods and services. Nationwide Merchant Solutions want your business to open its doors to such an opportunity and enjoy the revenue potential it can bring to your business. That’s why you have to consider using a payment gateway to empower your business.
How do payment gateways work?
A payment gateway is basically a service provided by e-commerce applications that merchants can make use of when their customers are making payments either through e-businesses, online retailers, using bricks and clicks or even traditional brick and mortar shop. This works exactly like physical POS systems found in many retail outlets around the world.
It connects a merchant to the authorizing bank or processor that is acting as the front-end connection to the card brands. Submitted orders can then be completed by using the HTTPS protocol that takes charge of securely communicating information from one party involved to another. Gateways communicate with the bank or processor using web-based connections, dial-up connections or privately held leased lines. Some of these payment gateways can often convert currencies when transactions are made by two parties residing in different countries.
How does payment gateway protect your customer?
One of the core concerns of payment gateways is to protect the security needs of your consumers. This merchant service does that by:
- Encrypting credit card numbers and all other sensitive information. This will guarantee that the information will be securely passed from the customer to the merchant to the payment processor
- Automatically screening orders for possibilities of fraud even before authorization request is sent to the processor
- Using velocity pattern analysis, computer fingerprinting technology as well as OFAC list and black-list lookups in preventing fraud
Types of payment gateways
At Nationwide Merchant Services, you can enjoy different payment gateway options depending on your business needs. The two main payment gateway types are:
- Online payment gateways where your customers are given the choice to use either: a hosted payment gateway (also called off-site payment gateway) where your users or consumers are redirected to another page; or a shared payment gateway (also called on-site payment gateway) where the customer stays on your page to make payments.
- Manual payment systems where you can accept any form of manual payment from Cash on Delivery (COD) to mail order to direct deposit. Many traditional stores make use of such options when delivering goods and services to their consumers.
If you want to learn more about how payment gateways work, feel free to give us a call. Our friendly customer service representatives can also schedule a live demo at your business premises if you operate within the Tri-State area.