How To Accept Payments On Your eCommerce Website

E-commerce businesses must offer their customers multiple ways to make payments online. Providing customers with a choice on how to pay is more convenient for them and gives them more reason to purchase something and complete an order. If you only have one way to accept a payment that might be convenient for you but inconvenient for the customer, you are missing out on business.

What do I need to start taking payments online?

Payment processors

A payment processor is a vendor businesses use to manage the logistics of accepting card payments. It shuttles card data from wherever customers tap, swipe or enter their card details to the payment networks — such as Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Discover — and banks involved in the transaction. Some key benefits of payment processors are:

• The ability to accept credit card and debit card payments from your customers
• Granting your customers alternative payment options, flexibility, etc.

The second benefit in particular is becoming a reason why companies are partnering with payment processor that offer unconventional methods of payment such as Thepeer.

Payment gateways

А payment gateway is the technology that captures and transfers payment data from the customer to the business. A payment gateway keeps the payments ecosystem rolling smoothly, enabling online payments for consumers and businesses.

When a customer clicks on the “Pay” button on your website, these are the key players involved in the payment process:

• The merchant: this is you, i.e. an online business operating in any vertical (travel, retail, eCommerce, gaming, Forex, etc.), offering a product or service to customers
• The customer: the customer, also called a cardholder, who wants to access the products or services that the merchant is selling, and initiates the transaction
• The issuing bank: the issuing bank is the customer's bank that issues the cardholder's credit or debit card on behalf of the card schemes (Visa, Mastercard)
• The acquirer: also known as the acquiring bank, the acquirer is the financial institution that maintains the merchant's bank account (known the merchant's account). The acquiring bank passes the merchant's transactions to the issuing bank to receive payment

Ways to accept payments on your website in Nigeria

1. Add a Payment Processor to Your Website

The first step in accepting payments online is choosing a payment processor. Look for competitive processing fees and a solution compatible with your website or eCommerce platform. While you won't find a reputable processor to accept payments online for free, low-cost options such as Thepeer are available.

Thepeer offers an alternative way for your customers to make payments conveniently through easy-to-integrate infrastructure for their customers to make transfers, fund their accounts, and make payments across multiple wallets - without any hidden fees. Once you have integrated Thepeer into your business, your customers can pay for items at checkout using their wallets from other businesses that have integrated with Thepeer.

2. Accept Credit and Debit Cards (Alternatively)

Adding a payment system that collects credit/debit cards via payment processors or gateways is a great way to accept payments from your customer and boost customer retention. Figuring out the best ways to get credit/debit cards online and choosing the suitable payment processor can be overwhelming initially. It's the lifeblood of your eCommerce operation and a necessary cost to consider when selling online – because if you can't properly take payments online, you have no business.

Rounding up…

Creating ease in the payment collection process is a surefire way to keep customers returning and your business running. Therefore partnering with a reliable payment partner is essential for business growth. This is where Thepeer can help.

Thepeer can provide you and your customers with a secure payment infrastructure to make transfers, fund their accounts, and make payments across multiple wallets without leaving your site.

Our checkout product allows customers to pay for goods and services on your site with their wallets from other platforms integrated with Thepeer. You can gain access to Thepeer's checkout via the integration of our easy-to-use Checkout API, which allows your customers to start making payments seamlessly.

Ready to get started? Create an account here- https://dashboard.thepeer.co/signup