12 Considerations for Your Online Payment Gateway

Until recently, choosing a payment gateway was uncommon and difficult to find a reputable service for your website. Graciously, that is no longer much of a barrier for online businesses.

Conferring, the data from research; about 86% of customers make purchases online using their respective debit or credit card. Of those customers, more than 60% prefer that method of payment when performing a transaction over the Internet. 

Now, what exactly is an online payment gateway?

The Online Payment Gateway is technology that allows you to securely accommodate your payment method and the website you are purchasing from. Common payment methods include; credit, debit, or gift card, as well as any other online wallet.

BrainTree, PayU, Amazon Payments, Stripe, PayPal, and Skrill, are some of the most commonly known payment portal methods.

Online payment gateways have been a popular method for online retailers to have the ability to process and accept electronic payments. Without having to run the code, software, security, and connections themselves. Online payment gateway services allow for complementary resources with everything you’ll need to set up payments!

This may seem as though the online transactions operate seamlessly, however behind the scenes there are several processes working to ensure everything runs securely: getting funds from purchaser to seller. 

Asking a few questions to thoroughly understand how payment gateways operate; is a good practice when starting a business. Here are a few question starters:

1. What will the gateway cost?

2. Do I get fraud security, or virtual terminals?

3. Does your gateway require a mandatory merchant account?

4. What countries does your gateway support?

Along with those 4 questions; here are 12 crucial aspects when selecting a Payment Gateway provider:

1. Choose a proper payment flow

• As your business increases popularity, your payment gateway should have the ability to grow seamlessly

2. Selecting the right product

• When making sure you have the correct product, you should acknowledge the adaptability of your payment method, but also keeping in mind how secure it is

3. Ensuring your customers feel their information is safe and secure when making a purchase

• Whether it is for a small company or a large corporation, secure payments should be top priority

4. Consider any required fee and service agreements

• It is important to know what kinds of transactions your business will be making, as the price for a payment gateway will vary accordingly

5. Assure that the transactions are effective and efficient

• Approximately 25% of customers will leave a transaction unfinished if it requires them to have an account

• Make sure your browser has a guest checkout option!

6. Ensure that checkout is responsive to any device

• Nearly 15% of online sales happen through a mobile device in the most recent years

• Therefore, making it more important than ever to ensure your server works on all devices

7. Good feature selection

• Ensure there is something for everyone’s business needs

• The ability to accept varying credit and debit cards, as well as alternative currencies to just CAD or USD.

• Ensure that which ever payment gateway you go with utilizes electronic invoicing, all payment types, as well as email reminders for customers

8. Can be easily integrated without a difficult process

• Online payment integration is NOT something you can just DIY

• A significant number of them have detailed instructions on how to integrate them to online platforms such as

  • Shopify

  • Magento

  • WooCommerce

The best solution is one that doesn’t slow down your website’s other graphics.

9. Merchant Account

• An important feature in the online payment gateway world

• This allows for a customer’s payment online to be transferred into a company’s account rather than your own

10.  Option to allow for automatic billing

• Some businesses; specifically, subscription-based sites, require monthly payment plans, which then makes it a required feature for a payment gateway to offer recurring automatic billing, so the customer doesn’t have to input their information every month

11.  Allow for mobile payments

• Again, just the ability to pay on the go and through multiple platforms

12.  24/7 customer support

• The ability to troubleshoot and fix a problem that the business owner can’t fix themselves is important

• Therefore, making technical support an important feature in payment gateways

But, HOW do online retailers using a payment gateway operate?

Ultimately, the goal is to ensure that when consumers are making a payment online, the process should be effective, efficient, and secure, for both the seller and the buyer. 

We ensure that the payment gateway’s companies use the standards of PCI (payment card industry), which has recently started utilizing security techniques by Myriad to help lower the chance of fraud incidents. 

9 Steps to Payment Gateways When Purchasing Goods:

1. It begins immediately when a customer makes an order, and fills in their payment information

2. The Internet browser then encodes the data, to be transferred to the merchants’ server

3. The payment gateway then sends the transaction information to be processed at the merchants’ bank

4. The processed payment then sends information to the card used

5. The customers’ credit card bank will then issue the transaction as being approved or denied

6. Once processed, both the purchaser and the merchant will receive approval from the gateway

7. Once the gateway approves, it will transfer to the interface of the browser and process the payment

8. “Clearing Transactions” happens once the merchant is finished with the transaction

9. Finally, the bank that is in use, will then change the debit from being “auth-hold” to an allowed “settlement” with the sellers’ secure bank. 

Finally, Here are the Best Payment Gateways:

Small Businesses and Startups

1. WooCommerce Payments

• Turns a WordPress website into an online retail platform

• $0 annual fee

• Convenient

2. Shopify Payments

• Possibly the most used, worldwide currently

Established Businesses

1. Braintree

2. PayU

3. Amazon Payments

4. Authorize.net

5. PayPal

6. Skrill

7. 2Checkout

8. Stripe

9. Orangepay

10. BlueSnap

The online retail world in a shopper’s perspective just looks like browsing on a website, adding items to your cart, adding your payment information, and checking out. However, it is much more than that, and the software behind making online payments so easy has many components that help everything run so smoothly. Especially if online retailers want to keep their customers satisfied with maximum efficiency.

If you would like assistance with choosing the best payment gateway for your online business, please don’t hesitate to reach out.

 

 

Pixel Problems and How to Fix Them

Have you ever just been working away on your computer, but you realize something off about your computer screen? You notice a little dot on the display of your screen that looks like it shouldn’t be there. You can't help but stare at it for days on end and over time it starts to get on your nerves. There might be an issue with a pixel on your screen.

So what if you spot an odd pixel? Well this is a problem with the hardware that’s showcasing what we like to call, stuck and dead pixels. This can be incredibly annoying especially thinking about how long a repair or exchange might take. But wait one second! Before you run back to the store trying to return your item, you could in fact try and fix the pixel yourself.

Understanding How Pixels Work

Stuck pixels exhibit a mix of red, blue, and green colours which are dependent on the contents of your computer screen. There’s a number of reasons why a pixel might get stuck, this includes overuse of the screen or long bouts of intense colours on-screen.

You will realize when a pixel gets stuck because it’ll display one colour that may alter slightly while the pixels surrounding it function normally by changing colour. In regards to dead pixels, the pixel appears black and will never change colour. There’s a possibility that the pixel isn’t receiving power at all hence why they’re called “dead”.

Pixels aren’t supposed to get stuck or die over time, flaws in manufacturing are often the root cause of this issue. You might be able to fix the issue if it’s a coloured pixel, but if you see a black pixel, your chances are slim to none.

Here’s a few solutions that could help fix a stuck pixel!

Pixel Repair Methods

Firstly, by using full-screen mode on your computer, you can easily run your monitor across a variety of different colour palettes. This can be done through different standard colours, as well as black or white.

This method can help you identify dead or stuck pixels. The stuck pixel would constantly be asked to change colours, which could potentially result in it becoming unstuck. This method can help you identify dead or stuck pixels.

Let’s take a look at a few software programs that should do the trick.

1. JScreenFix – it’s a free, online app that can fix stuck pixels with no downloads required. At the bottom of the page, click the Launch JScreenFix button and follow the instructions. Most of the time, it’ll correct those annoying spots on your screen.

2. UndeadPixel (UDPixel)– it’s a tool on Windows with a built-in stuck pixel locator that cycles colours on your screen.

3. LCD – it’s a tool that you can access online, however, the website requires you to have Adobe Flash. You’ll have the capability to test your screen by going through all the colours. Click the ‘Fix My Screen’ button if you discover a stuck pixel.

If all these approaches don’t seem to work, at least you’ll be aware that it’s not a simple fix. Your screen may indeed need to be replaced. If you’re interested in learning more, ISU Corp is always ready to help, contact us today!

 

 

Security Breaches: How They Happen and How You Can Stop Them

One of your highest priorities for your business, regardless of the sector you’re in, should be security. The last thing you want is for your brand reputation to go down the drain due to a breach in security.

Not only will your client’s and potential client’s lose their trust in you, you will also suffer financial losses. This loss is not only the cost to repair the breach, but also loss of business overall. So, if your company operates in the B2B or B2C industries, pay close attention to your security systems and everything you would be held accountable for. 

Like most businesses, your company uses various software apps to conduct your day-to-day operations. To name a few: email, browsers, data analytics, and customer relationship management; which would inevitably cease to exist with a security breach.  

Are you certain that your security is top notch? Don’t let your business be vulnerable and susceptible to today’s breaches. 

Secure Your Information

Most people picture hackers who are specifically targeting their business and attacking each weak point they may have. Although this may be true (and certainly is in some cases), half of the security breaches that occur are due to software or human errors.

Companies like Facebook and Microsoft offer support through their bug bounty programs, which are essentially white hat hackers who find a corporation’s vulnerabilities and resolve the issue. These hackers are paid millions of dollars, enticing an exploitation system around software vulnerabilities.  

Common Vulnerabilities 

The Cloud:

• Using services like Microsoft Azure gives you more security for your information and a great infrastructure to protect your business. 

• However, make sure your cloud-based apps are set up by a professional in the right manner, because any little mistake is an easy-in for hackers.

On-Site: 

• Many businesses make the mistake of believing that having your data be kept internally will be the safest method. 

• Although this can work sometimes, you need to have the expertise and knowledge to sustain any challenges and build the proper firewalls, otherwise, your information is easily compromised. 

Standard Software:

• These consist of platforms like Microsoft SharePoint or Office 365, which is why many companies believe it’s a simple process to attain for their own information. This is not true! 

• This software must be configured properly, although it does not seem complex, simple mistakes can happen.

Custom Apps:

• Even when using standard software apps like the ones mentioned above, your business will most likely need to adjust a few things to align with your processes. 

• Customizations as such can cause holes and thus security breaches if not conducted by a professional developer. 

Procedures: 

• Even with technological advancements like AI, a lot of processes still have to be done by a human. Which is why, half of security breaches that happen are caused by human error. 

• This is why it is integral for your company to have clear and strict policies in place to avoid the risk of this happening.

Internet of Things (IoT):

• The concept of IoT is one that is both good and bad. It is most definitely an extension, a helping hand if you will. However, it is also a threat towards security, as it can be hacked just as any other technology. 

• If you’re incorporating IoT into your business, which most do as this can range from wifi routers to security cameras, be sure you have the proper security functions in place. 

Be Proactive Not Reactive! 

At the end of the day, no one wants their information to be compromised. Even if you think you have nothing worth hacking, there is always useful information: private client details, accounts, etc.

You need to be sure your company has the greatest security protection to prevent any type of breach. To do so, you need professionals for the installation and consultation process. 

ISU Corp is experienced and well-trusted as a software development partner. We can offer our expert advice on the best way to be proactive, so that when something does happen, you’re ready. 

Reach out today and be prepared for tomorrow!