Everything You Should Know About Payment Gateways with Dirk Habermann

Key Takeaways

• Payment gateways bring cashless payments to a store, whether that’s in person or online. They are even more important for eCommerce stores, as this is generally the only form of accepted payment.
• Cashless payments are most often thought of to be credit cards, but it could also be account-based payments like ACH / direct deposit, or Wallets, like Apple Pay and Google Pay.
• Payment Gateways offer a secure environment for eCommerce stores to accept payments. Payment and customer information are set to this secure area to process the orders and the payment.
• This prevents things like a “Man in the Middle” attack, where someone tried to steal credit card information as it’s being transfer.
• These gateways follow strict guidelines (called PCI Compliance) to ensure data security and integrity. They endure audits, not only of their technical implementation, but of their actual premises to ensure only verified people physically access the servers. This comes at great expense to them.
• You also need to have an SSL certificate installed on your site. While payment gateways securely process payment methods, the rest of your data needs to be protected too.
• There are several different types of payment players or systems that Dirk breaks down in the episode. They are Payment Service Providers (PSPs), Payment Methods, Acquirers, and Wallets.
• PSPs are the companies at the top. They assume the risk and work with payment methods. Payment methods generally work with an Acquirer, which is often a bank that works with the credit card companies. Wallets are a special form of payment that hold funds (unlike credit cards, which are, well, credit).
• It’s good to give customers some options, but too many will overwhelm them. In general, a credit card form and a wallet are a good start.
• When it comes to choosing a PSP, you need to determine what payment methods you need. This could be affected by what country your in, and a whole host of other factors.
• For example, if you need in-store payment, going with a PSP that only offers online services won’t work. If you serve a country where PayPal isn’t allowed, you shouldn’t offer that as a payment method.
• EVO Payments is a global company offering in several countries, and offers a wide range of methods. They also seamlessly integrate with Plesk eCommerce Toolkit to give Plesk customers the fastest way to accept payments no matter where they are.
• A BIG benefit of EVO Payments on Plesk is they are much cheaper than some gateways, like PayPal, and even more affordable because Plesk customers don’t need to pay the monthly fee to use it.