Since 2020, eCommerce transactions have exploded in popularity and, by 2026, will account for nearly 24% of all business. It's only possible to accept online payments with a payment gateway.

Simply put, not having a payment gateway can significantly reduce and limit potential business revenue. A seamless online payment process can reduce cart abandonment and increase customer retention. Savvy shoppers expect secure, reliable online payment processing. Meeting expectations improves brand loyalty and raises customer lifetime value.

A payment gateway still offers benefits even if you're not currently operating an online store. The virtual terminal allows keyed-in transactions when cards aren't present, such as:

• Over the phone
• Through email
• Via mail order
• Any other card-not-present transaction

If your card terminal or POS cannot read a customer's credit or debit card, a payment gateway will enable you to key in the data.

Service providers set their costs for payment gateways. In general, businesses can expect to pay a flat monthly fee plus a fee for every transaction. Monthly and annual expenses for membership or batch processing may also be added.

Finding the ideal payment gateway provider takes some research to evaluate each unique fee structure and the offered services for those fees.

Payment order flow and the process does involve several parties. Who is involved? General speaking, there are four elements needed:

• Merchant: Business owner charging for services or products
• Customer: Card holder paying for services or products
• Issuing bank: The banking institution where a customer holds their funds
• Acquiring bank: The banking institution where the business owner has their merchant account

Customers can submit payment through an in-store POS/terminal or submit a payment online, and a payment gateway will authenticate, encrypt, and then transmit the details of the transaction to the payment processor.

The payment processor sends the payment information details to both the issuing and acquiring banks. Then, the issuing bank will approve or deny the transaction. The approval or denial will update the gateway, which translates to the merchant at the point of sale. The approval/denial process only takes seconds to ensure a quick checkout. The processor then delivers the approved funds from the transaction to the acquiring bank, which is held in the merchant's account. FruxPay provides merchants with actual next-day funding, while other processors can take 48-72 hours.

Even if you're familiar with this process and its components, it's easy to confuse payment processors and gateways. The gateway secures and encrypts data from a transaction while the processor communicates the data and executes the transaction.

How do you find the perfect payment gateway for your business? First, it starts with finding a processor with robust gateways available. Outside of the comparison based on fee structure and processing rates, it would be best if you considered the following:

Advanced Fraud Tools A payment gateway can provide several advanced tools to prevent fraud. When using a payment gateway, ensure the below capabilities are available to help mitigate risk:

• AVS - Address Verification Service

• CVV - Card Verification Value Verification

• 3-D Secure Authentication

• Device ID

• Geographic limitations

• Transaction limitations

• Lockout mechanisms

• Transaction risk scoring

Robust payment options Not all payment gateways are created equal! Be sure your gateway of choice can process and support every payment method. Outside of debit and credit cards, other payment options are gaining popularity. These options include eWallets, cryptocurrencies, eChecks, ACH payments, and QR code payments.

Built-in virtual terminal Your payment gateway should include a virtual terminal. This solution allows you the flexibility of processing a payment from a web-based platform without needing any hardware. Orders made by email, phone, or mail order allow for payments when the customer's credit card, debit card, or checking account information is keyed and processed.

Level II & III Processing Remember that your payment gateway must support Level II and Level III processing to process these transactions. Business to business (B2B) and government-to-business (G2B) can significantly benefit from Level II and Level III processing. Because additional transaction information is provided this considered more secure and, in turn, lowers fees.

Visa's 3-D Secure Authentication and Mastercard's SecureCode are services that increase security and can help reduce overall interchange rates.

Multiple MID capabilities Merchants are assigned an identification number referenced as a MID. If your business requires multiple MIDs for different business segments and revenue streams.

Open APIs Application programming interface (API) is a connection between two separate software and allows them to communicate. APIs have been implemented to allow third parties, like payment gateways, to access and share transaction information from financial institutions. These APIs allow your provider to customize your gateway to meet your business needs.

Integration compatibility Partner with a flexible gateway that can easily integrate with third-party software and streamline your business operations.

Multi-currency conversion If growing a global brand is one of your goals, confirm that your payment gateway supports multi-currency conversion. This feature allows a website to accept payment in that customer's local currency but settle in USD.

Automatic Card Update New expiration dates or new card numbers creating additional declines in recurring payments? Implement an automatic card update feature automatically updates any credit card information your business has on file.

Yes, the point of a payment gateway is to not only process payment information, but it is also responsible for protecting cardholder data. Encryption and tokenization are essential security measures to ensure they are included with the gateway provider.

When the data is encrypted, a key is required to decode the sensitive cardholder information. Tokenization is when sensitive cardholder data is replaced with a token and inaccessible without the proper system to decrypt the tokens. These two security measures ensure that the gateway is safe and secure.

Other security measures to consider are to ensure the payment gateway is PCI DSS compliant (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard). Following PCI DSS compliance will ensure that the proper security measures by industry standards are maintained.

As the digital landscape continues to grow and become more widely accepted, a reliable and secure payment gateway is a must to stay competitive. FruxPay payment experts are experienced in helping merchants implement the best possible gateway solution for the order flow and systems being used in any industry while ensuring you get the lowest rates possible.

If you are in the market for the best payment gateway options for your business, contact us so we can schedule a needs analysis and do the heavy lifting for you.

Generally, a virtual terminal should be provided when the business utilizes a payment gateway. Although these solutions are similar, they are essentially two mechanisms with entirely different functions.

A payment gateway is a platform that secures and transfers sensitive cardholder information to your payment processor. A virtual terminal is a payment gateway function that allows a business owner to enter cardholder information to process a transaction manually. Payment options with a virtual terminal include one-time or recurring transactions.

Of course, "white label" options allow your business to customize and create the look and feel of your gateway. Some providers will enable a payment gateway to be branded and customized to fit a company's brand and name. Selecting a customized payment gateway to match your branding will create a better client experience that will ensure a seamless transition from shopping to checkout to complete the transaction.

PayPal does provide gateway and payment processing options. However, these options are extremely limited in function and do not allow for customization or branding requests for merchants. Transactions that flow through PayPal, will redirect your customers to a PayPal sponsored page that flows through their gateway, processor and merchant account.

In addition, the PayPal experience is extremely vanilla and will look the same for all businesses using their s have much tighter restrictions around merchant account restrictions and policies.

If you are not PCI compliant, know that sensitive cardholder data is at risk and not secure. In addition, you are paying for unnecessary fees that could easily be avoided.

When shopping for a payment gateway, it's recommended that you ensure the provider is PCI compliant and has safeguards in place to remind you about recertification each year. At FruxPay, we provide clients with annual rapid compliance surveys that will simplify the certification process and allow you to focus on what is essential to your business.

Not all payment gateways are created equal! Before selecting the best payment gateway for your business, you will need to identify the functionality you need specific to the needs of your day-to-day operations.

The below factors are a must when considering gateway options:

• Integration needs
• Functionality
• The payment types you are looking to accept
• Gateway features

The above options will significantly impact the order flow of your operations and are important considerations when selecting a payment gateway.

You must obtain a VAR sheet from your merchant service provider to set up a payment gateway. A VAR sheet contains your merchant account information and is entered into your payment gateway's backend.

This configuration allows communication between the payment gateway and the payment processor. At FruxPAY, we can provide you with a payment gateway already integrated with your payment processor. As such, FruxPay can connect you to a PCI-compliant provider, advocate for you to receive all your desired features at a cost-effective rate, and tailor your gateway to meet the needs of your business.