Best e-commerce payment system?
Discussion
Hi. I'm in the process of setting up an e-commerce system and am unsure which payment system to use. I have heard bad things about paypal from the traders POV, but is it a necessary evil?
I've had a brief look at Worldpay which would appear to do the job but am not familiar with costs, security and ease of integration.
Can anyone comment on these or suggest any alternatives, plus give some practical suggestions going forward?
Cheers
I've had a brief look at Worldpay which would appear to do the job but am not familiar with costs, security and ease of integration.
Can anyone comment on these or suggest any alternatives, plus give some practical suggestions going forward?
Cheers
I'd say it depends on your budget as a start up
My Mrs has a start up online business and she has both Paypal and Worldpay. She is talking about getting rid of Worldpay as 80% of her customers pay via PayPal. Paypal is no monthly fee but a drawdown fee, Worldpay is £20 a month
As I say to her, Worldpay is peanuts, so keep both, so far she agrees which is rare
Personally I'd do both Worldpay and PayPal and see how you go then make a call after a year.
My Mrs has a start up online business and she has both Paypal and Worldpay. She is talking about getting rid of Worldpay as 80% of her customers pay via PayPal. Paypal is no monthly fee but a drawdown fee, Worldpay is £20 a month
As I say to her, Worldpay is peanuts, so keep both, so far she agrees which is rare
Personally I'd do both Worldpay and PayPal and see how you go then make a call after a year.
paypal has several options: https://www.paypal.com/webapps/mpp/compare-busines...
and a range of fees in their fee structure: https://www.paypal.com/uk/webapps/mpp/paypal-fees
you may also have a bank charge on transferring the cash into your bank account
worldpay sits in the context of worldpay fees / merchant account fees / bank account fees
paypal is basically non-negotiable on fee structure
worldpay is not very negotiable, but merchant accounts generally are - often you can find that joining the federation of small businesses (FSB) gives you good discounts worth more than the membership fee
in terms of integrating - paypal handles the card transactions and you have no PCI compliance issues
with worldpay, it will depend on how it is integrated - we integrated it into an eCommerce system we built for one client and it took c. 3 months to get approval from Worldpay & Barclaycard (merchant account) to go live
Put it into a system such as BigCommerce and it can be done within a day - someone else is handling the compliance issues and your responsibility is generally as simple as making sure you have the card icons on the screen and your name and address somewhere etc.!
I would be very cautious about setting up an eCommerce system in wordpress - I would strongly recommend a system such as Big Commerce / Shopify / etc. where that responsibiliyt is taken away from you - are there business critical reasons why you need it in wordpress?
and a range of fees in their fee structure: https://www.paypal.com/uk/webapps/mpp/paypal-fees
you may also have a bank charge on transferring the cash into your bank account
worldpay sits in the context of worldpay fees / merchant account fees / bank account fees
paypal is basically non-negotiable on fee structure
worldpay is not very negotiable, but merchant accounts generally are - often you can find that joining the federation of small businesses (FSB) gives you good discounts worth more than the membership fee
in terms of integrating - paypal handles the card transactions and you have no PCI compliance issues
with worldpay, it will depend on how it is integrated - we integrated it into an eCommerce system we built for one client and it took c. 3 months to get approval from Worldpay & Barclaycard (merchant account) to go live
Put it into a system such as BigCommerce and it can be done within a day - someone else is handling the compliance issues and your responsibility is generally as simple as making sure you have the card icons on the screen and your name and address somewhere etc.!
I would be very cautious about setting up an eCommerce system in wordpress - I would strongly recommend a system such as Big Commerce / Shopify / etc. where that responsibiliyt is taken away from you - are there business critical reasons why you need it in wordpress?
Plenty of options with Wordpress/Woocommerce to hand off card handling to the payment gateway so you don't need to worry about PCI compliance.
Personally, I'm a fan of being in total control of your own website if it makes up a big part of your business, rather than using a 3rd party ecommerce platform.
Personally, I'm a fan of being in total control of your own website if it makes up a big part of your business, rather than using a 3rd party ecommerce platform.
Check out Stripe, nice and simple card payments. http://stripe.com
No monthly fees, 2.4% + 20p per transaction.
Many of the wordpress commerce systems have a stripe plugin now days and if not it's fairly easy to get set up with it.
No monthly fees, 2.4% + 20p per transaction.
Many of the wordpress commerce systems have a stripe plugin now days and if not it's fairly easy to get set up with it.
Some things you may want to consider.
You can get integrations to payment gateways that supports cards and alternative payments. PayPal is obviously the biggest alternative payment method in the UK, but there are others like skrill.
If you have no trading history you may struggle to obtain a Merchant account from the big boys like Worldpay, Lloyds Cardnet. If they do approve your application, expect to operate with rolling reserves on your settled funds. This will all depend on your business as the acquiring bank will be underwriting the risk of card issuer charge backs against you the merchant.
Gateways to think about:
Realex
Sage pay
Datacash
Computop
worldpay
I would say Paypoint but they have stopped boarding new SME
If you can, you should look for an integration which allows you to avoid PCI with the exception of a basic SAQ. Is means a hosted payment page integration and not API.
In terms of the ecomm platform, make sure you get good support for security patching, especially Wordpress.
The major player in the sector is still magneto.
Happy to chat with you re more advice.
Also make sure you get all your paper work in order before you apply for your account. The KYC checks will take time, especially if you are new to online trading.
You can get integrations to payment gateways that supports cards and alternative payments. PayPal is obviously the biggest alternative payment method in the UK, but there are others like skrill.
If you have no trading history you may struggle to obtain a Merchant account from the big boys like Worldpay, Lloyds Cardnet. If they do approve your application, expect to operate with rolling reserves on your settled funds. This will all depend on your business as the acquiring bank will be underwriting the risk of card issuer charge backs against you the merchant.
Gateways to think about:
Realex
Sage pay
Datacash
Computop
worldpay
I would say Paypoint but they have stopped boarding new SME
If you can, you should look for an integration which allows you to avoid PCI with the exception of a basic SAQ. Is means a hosted payment page integration and not API.
In terms of the ecomm platform, make sure you get good support for security patching, especially Wordpress.
The major player in the sector is still magneto.
Happy to chat with you re more advice.
Also make sure you get all your paper work in order before you apply for your account. The KYC checks will take time, especially if you are new to online trading.
We use Stripe at work and I use it for personal projects. It's inexpensive and the best out there from a development point of view. The transactions are off site so there's no PCI issues and it's actually one of the best from a users perspective too. Another one to look at is Amazon Payments - similar to PayPal but they claim their data stays fresher because more people use Amazon than anything else, that's their sales talk anyway.
Jaypayne said:
lots of good advice...
The major player in the sector is still magneto.
not sure that is true really now that they have ditched Magento Go - they are no longer the best option for starting out...The major player in the sector is still magneto.
wordpress can work if you know what you are doing - but you hold responsibility for how it all comes together
best options are the starter hosted systems in particular big commerce / shopify at the moment
Hi All
Appreciate your responses and suggestions.
I have a business partner who is looking after development as they are experienced in WordPress. I believe we wouldn't use BigCommerce, shopify et al because of control to the site and what we are doing doesn't quite fit the ‘off the shelf’ solution they provide. However, I will discuss this with her to see if we are missing a trick.
From your comments (and my limited understanding) I would definitely not want to deal with PCI compliance. The following gateways have all been mentioned in this thread: Paypal, Worldpay, Stripe, Realex, Sage Pay, Datacash, Amazon.
I'm a bit confused here. Do they all do the same thing – as in host and process client payments, or is there a link I am missing?
In my mind this is how it works:
1) Client wishes to purchase product(s) from our site.
2) Client is passed to one of the above gateway companies along with transaction value.
3) Gateway company hosts and processes client payment.
4) Gateway company does relevant checks then accepts/declines payment and sends confirmation to client.
5) Gateway company transfers funds to our account and keeps fee.
Is that about right?
Thanks
Appreciate your responses and suggestions.
I have a business partner who is looking after development as they are experienced in WordPress. I believe we wouldn't use BigCommerce, shopify et al because of control to the site and what we are doing doesn't quite fit the ‘off the shelf’ solution they provide. However, I will discuss this with her to see if we are missing a trick.
From your comments (and my limited understanding) I would definitely not want to deal with PCI compliance. The following gateways have all been mentioned in this thread: Paypal, Worldpay, Stripe, Realex, Sage Pay, Datacash, Amazon.
I'm a bit confused here. Do they all do the same thing – as in host and process client payments, or is there a link I am missing?
In my mind this is how it works:
1) Client wishes to purchase product(s) from our site.
2) Client is passed to one of the above gateway companies along with transaction value.
3) Gateway company hosts and processes client payment.
4) Gateway company does relevant checks then accepts/declines payment and sends confirmation to client.
5) Gateway company transfers funds to our account and keeps fee.
Is that about right?
Thanks
depends life is never all that simple...
you can embed payment within your website - better experience for the customer / you might need to pick up the compliance
you can hand-off to the payment website (a la paypal etc.) - worse experience for the customer / less issues possibly
one issue with handing off is making sure that the client is returned to your website to confirm payment / automate the responses etc. one of the issues historically with paypal was that they tried to get the customer to set up an account, so took control of your customer rather than making it easy to pass them back - life has got better in that respect, but it is these subtleties that make a difference
life is never all that simple...you can embed payment within your website - better experience for the customer / you might need to pick up the compliance
you can hand-off to the payment website (a la paypal etc.) - worse experience for the customer / less issues possibly
one issue with handing off is making sure that the client is returned to your website to confirm payment / automate the responses etc. one of the issues historically with paypal was that they tried to get the customer to set up an account, so took control of your customer rather than making it easy to pass them back - life has got better in that respect, but it is these subtleties that make a difference
Unless the capital value is past, say, £500 or is a bespoke purchase then (many) customers will prefer PayPal. So you'll need that for a kick-off. If you're a startup then is there any need to look any further? PayPal is quite disliked from a merchant standpoint, though, so if value to you is more important than conversion rate look elsewhere.
Woocommerce integates nicely with WordPress.
Woocommerce integates nicely with WordPress.
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