Payment processing platform integration has several challenges that e-commerce merchants should understand.
Payment processing platform integration can help online merchants streamline their payment processing and enable them to offer a more seamless, simpler, and faster payment experience to their customers.
For e-commerce merchants, payment platform integration means linking their existing system with a payment processor’s platform. Creating this link also enables businesses to access additional features and functionality from the payment processor, such as fraud detection and prevention, data analytics, and customer insights.
A payment platform must seamlessly connect merchant sites with payment providers so that the provider can securely accept payments from customers on behalf of the merchant. Payment platform integration is a technical and sophisticated task, and merchants may encounter several hurdles during the process.
Let’s look at some of the challenges online merchants should be aware of prior to integrating with their payment processor.
1) Lack of Technical Support
The process of integrating a merchant website with a payment processor’s checkout process requires solid technical support.
Merchants most likely will need in-house or contracted development support to guide them through the process. Not all payment providers offer developer support, or do so at an additional cost, and potentially without sufficient technical documentation necessary for the merchant to complete the integration process.
It is critical that merchants without in-house development support look to work with a payment processor that has development support and can guide them through the platform integration process. (Hint: Vendo does!)
2) Type of Platform Integration
Selecting the type of integration you want depends upon the level of control you want to have over the payment process, as well as the processor’s or your ability to be PCI compliant.
There are multiple ways to integrate with a website or ecommerce platform for payment processing. APIs, hosted payment pages, plug-ins, and custom integrations are a few options. Understanding how and which platform integration suits your business best is important.
Choosing the type of integration depends on various factors, including:
- Whether the merchant is PCI compliant
- Type of checkout used by the merchant (e.g. shopping cart)
- How much control the merchant wants to have over the payment process
- Features (hosted payment pages, translations, currency management, subscription models, retention features, etc)
Overall, it’s important for merchants to be able to achieve a seamless integration to improve checkout conversions with minimal friction or impact on the consumer experience. . This ensures they will be able to process more payments faster.
3) Security and Privacy
In the digital age, online fraud, database hacks, API abuse, identification theft, and phishing scams are serious threats. A key security standard for ensuring secure transactions and preventing data breaches is PCI DSS compliance. We can look at this from two perspectives: merchant PCI compliance and payment platform PCI compliance.
Payment platforms that will be handling credit card or other payment related details need to have Level 1 PCI DSS security, considered the strictest compliance level, offering the greatest security to consumers. It also indicates to banks that the platform is trustworthy because it meets security and compliance requirements at the highest level.
Merchants also must be PCI compliant if they handle customer credit card data. This can be accomplished by partnering with a payment processor that is PCI compliant and using their hosted pages. By partnering, merchants themselves do not need to be PCI compliant because they will not be directly handling cardholder data.
Ultimately, merchants that are handling credit card data should first determine whether they will meet the specific PCI requirements themselves or need to do so via a payment processor. Choosing to integrate with a robust payment platform that holds PCI DSS certification (Level 1) ensures the merchant meets their compliance requirements and does not have to invest in the lengthy process of becoming PCI compliant and maintaining the license through annual and ongoing audits
4) Testing
Before the integration goes live, there are multiple testing rounds to confirm security, verify the workflow via test transactions, understand the user experience, and optimize payment processing functionality. By doing so, merchants can be assured that their portal is well integrated with the payment platform.
Testing is essential for ensuring there are no issues when the merchant goes “live.” If the payment processing partner does not have adequate support to guarantee comprehensive quality assurance, they may miss something during this testing phase. It’s easy to imagine the fallout that could occur if anything falls through the cracks.
5) Operational Assurance
There are multiple steps that must take place before a merchant can begin to process transactions. This starts long before integration takes place, for example, securing a merchant account. Certain challenges must also be addressed, such as the obstacles high-risk merchants face.
If merchants haven’t done this work, they aren’t ready to begin an integration process. One option prior to integration is to follow a “go-live checklist,” which helps merchants understand exactly what they need to accomplish. Some payment processors offer assistance in checking those items off the list—a valuable asset for merchants that aren’t familiar with the various elements of payment processing.
While it is possible to progress with technical integration parallel to (or prior to) the merchant securing a merchant account, that runs a high risk of investing in resources towards an integration that may not even be approved for use.
Popular Integration Solutions
Being aware of platform integration challenges is just as important as choosing the right integration solution for your business type and needs. Reliable platform integration solutions for payment processing include the following:
NATS
NATS (Next-Generation Affiliate Tracking Software) is a reliable affiliate marketing and membership management software. It helps scale your business, delivering promotion tools, configuring offers, diverse billing options, and generating reports.
NATS is highly configurable and allows merchants to easily run affiliate programs as well as to connect to multiple payment processors and payment options
Ecommerce Plug-Ins: WooCommerce and Magento
WooCommerce and Magento are two popular e-commerce platforms for online merchants selling products. Payment processing providers, such as Vendo, have developed plug-ins for these platforms.
For merchants using WooCommerce or Magento, platform integration may be as simple as downloading and installing a plug-in in as little as ten minutes.
Hosted Checkout Pages
Merchants can get a simple and secure payment solution if they choose a payment provider who offers hosted checkout pages. In this method, the payment processing platform provides a hosted payment page that is integrated into the business’s website. At the point where the customer must enter their credit card details, the merchant’s website redirects the customer to a URL hosted by the payment provider.
The hosted page handles the entire transaction process, including:
- payment information collection
- processing payments
- protecting sensitive data
- localized checkout pages
- customized checkout pages
- localized and market specific payment methods
Using a hosted page also reduces the burden of compliance. At Vendo, hosted pages are a popular method of integration because you get all the features listed above with just one integration.
Server-to-Server API
This type of integration involves a server-to-server connection, using application programming interfaces (APIs), to connect the payment processing platform with the business’s system.
APIs allow the two systems to communicate and exchange data in real-time. It allows a purchaser to complete the entire checkout on the merchant’s website. Customer payment details are collected directly on the merchant’s website and sent securely to the payment provider to complete the transaction using the payment API.
SDK for Developers
SDK is a downloadable set of APIs, documentation, sample code, libraries, and other technical resources. It helps developers to integrate payment solutions into software and mobile applications.
SDK, such as the one provided by Vendo, can dramatically reduce integration time because merchants have access to pre-written code and examples.
The Bottom Line
A payment platform is more than just a medium to receive payments. It is an efficient link, facilitating secure financial transactions between merchants and their customers. A hassle-free integration opens the door to untapped opportunities and builds trust among your customers.
At Vendo, one of our main focus points is helping merchants achieve the most seamless technical integration possible. Whether it’s from our direct API, NATS, e-commerce platforms, or custom solutions, we help you get connected and onboard efficiently so you can start accepting payments immediately.
Our experts can also help with any additional steps needed prior to integration. While you concentrate on providing products, services, and subscriptions, we can do much of the heavy lifting surrounding payment processing.
About Vendo: Vendo offers comprehensive payment processing services to high-risk e-commerce merchants. Our innovative, AI-powered tools offer merchants simple, secure, and seamless payment solutions, along with expert customer support from integration to end-user concerns. Our expert team works 24/7 to shape your vision into reality.