Five popular payment options available for your online business
Rapid developments in technology are moving more of our lives online, leading to the rise of digital companies and online payment processing.
Like many of the knock-on effects of the internet revolution this can come with real benefits. Being able to run a business online provides you with much greater flexibility and freedom to balance your career with home and personal life.
Equally, using internet-based payment processors can be a quicker and more efficient way of paying and being paid. That is why it has become popular and why there are now so many online payment options that you can choose from.
These are some that you should consider looking into.
1) PayPal
If you are running an online business or are starting one, you will almost certainly have heard of PayPal. It is the market leader in digital payments, boasting a user base of over 254 million people around the world.
That means that it is a global force, something which makes it the online payment option of choice for businesses that aspire to reach international markets rather than just ones in their own country. The owner of PayPal is eBay, the giant e-commerce site.
It has over 17 million worldwide business users and is noted for being both simple to sign up for and extremely secure. That can be vital as people are often wary of paying over the internet unless they are sure that their details will be safe and protected.
The only downside of PayPal is the sometimes pretty steep fees for transactions and converting currencies, but it will certainly convince customers or clients.
2) Paysafecard
Paysafecard is another big name in the field of online payment processors. It offers you the chance to set up either a business or a personal account.
The payment service is extremely popular for online gamers who want a secure way to pay and feel protected. With more gaming sites accepting this payment method we have also seen a rise in the number of online casinos who accept a Paysafecard a form of payment. These sites frequently offer it to their customers as a method for depositing money and withdrawing any winnings.
Given how often money changes hands, the payment processors used by casino sites need to be highly encrypted and secure. The fact that so many now accept Paysafecards is a clear indication of their safety. Payment does not involve entering any bank details at all, which will reassure your customers from the start.
Instead, they can pay using their Paysafecard password and username, if they have an account, or with a 16-digit code if they do not. All of this makes it a highly dependable choice for your online company.
3) Stripe
This is a more recent addition to the online payment market, but one that is growing very fast. Stripe is one of the best designed digital payment options and it is well regarded among small businesses.
One reason for that is that – unlike many rivals – it does not hit you with unexpected charges. Some online payment processors deduct fees for setting up an account with them, for using them each month or just hidden charges, but that is not the case with Stripe.
It is very upfront about its fees – which are 2.9% for cards outside of Europe and 1.4% for European ones. Its design also enables you to create your own branded payment form that can be embedded into your business website.
If you have a small online business, keeping customers on the site for payments can be preferable to them being redirected to an outside payment site. They are more likely to continue browsing that way.
Stripe is a great choice if you are running an e-commerce company.
4) Opayo
Opayo currently has around 45,000 businesses using it. It is another digital payment choice that you can add to your business website, rather than having to transfer your customers to a third-party site.
The big thing that marks Opayo out from competitors though is the remarkable speed of its payments. Many online payment providers take up to seven working days to process payments, but Opayo does it within two days!
Not surprisingly that has sparked real interest among smaller businesses. That is because cash flow can be a critical issue for them, making swift receipt of payments very welcome.
It also offers excellent customer support at all times of the day and night, but is costlier than other payment processors, with $33.33 being the cheapest monthly plan. If you have European customers, you will need to fork out $56 a month.
That will place it beyond the budget of some small business owners.
5) Google Pay
A lot of online companies favor Google Pay because it is incredibly convenient and quick for their customers. It is an easy payment method because millions of people using the internet already have Google accounts that have banking information saved to them.
Google Pay simply lets them sign into that account and use the bank details stored in it to carry out financial transactions on the internet. If they are happy to create the account and save their card data within it, they will not have an issue with using it to make payments online.
Having a secure way for processing transactions will help determine the success of your online business. If customers don’t feel confident putting payments through, they will just go elsewhere.
