After setting up a WordPress WooCommerce site, you need to choose a payment gateway that suits your business needs. For those in the e-commerce business, choosing the right payment gateway is vital to receive payments and making the checkout process as easy as possible.
However, this process can be unfamiliar for a lot of new business owners or those unfamiliar with WooCommerce payment gateway solutions.
Fortunately, there are now many payment gateway options that can work with WooCommerce. Some of these are better than others, though.
Below, we’ll discuss why your WordPress WooCommerce site needs a payment gateway and how exactly® can help you achieve your e-commerce goals.
Why you need a payment gateway
Payment gateways process online payments. Without a payment gateway, your WooCommerce site will be unable to accept various kinds of payment, such as credit and debit cards, as well as other payment methods.
Users simply enter their payment information in a familiar form, and then the payment gateway handles everything behind the scenes. From the buyer’s point of view, the process is simple and quick. This means less buyer frustration and more orders.
Using a payment gateway is also secure. Online shoppers are rightfully security conscious and don’t want to enter their payment information without some assurances. Payment gateways provide this with platforms like exactly® offering all the latest authorisation technologies.
How do payment gateways work?
When buyers buy something from your WooCommerce store, a payment gateway will ask them how they’d like to pay and for their information.
This WordPress payment gateway can be integrated into the online store itself, or sometimes a buyer is redirected to an external page to complete the order.
After submission, the information is then cross-referenced with the bank or financial institution of the buyer using payment processing.
If everything looks good, the payment will be accepted, and a series of further transactions will be conducted to place the money in the WooCommerce store owner’s merchant account.
While a number of requests and transactions occur during this time, the whole process takes just a few seconds.
WooCommerce and payment gateways
When considering WooCommerce payment gateway options, it’s important to ask yourself some of the following questions:
Does the payment gateway accept international payments?
It’s important to ensure your payment gateway is capable of accepting payments in various currencies.
This is because your WooCommerce online store can be visited by people the world over. Having a payment gateway and processor that can accept various currencies means you won’t miss out on sales.
While the likes of Visa and MasterCard, you want a payment gateway that accepts regional equivalents too.
Can I customise my payment gateway?
Whether you’re using an integrated gateway or an external page, your payment gateway should look and feel like part of your WooCommerce store.
This should include branding and customisation options to reassure customers they are purchasing from your store.
Is the payment gateway secure?
One area where you don’t want to cut corners is security. Customers will only order if they feel sure their data and payment information is secure.
You should, therefore, only choose a payment gateway that features high-level, end-to-end security technologies, the best authorisation assurances, and data encryption.
Most importantly, gateways should be PCI-compliant.
Does the payment platform offer a merchant account?
Merchant accounts allow businesses to accept payments and store funds ready for withdrawal.
Without a merchant account, you may find that you can’t accept certain funds. For example, if a customer pays by credit card, a merchant account allows you to receive the funds prior to them paying their bill.
Be sure to look out for payment platforms that have a merchant account option to avoid frustration.
Is your payment gateway easy to integrate?
A good payment gateway should also be easy to integrate and require no specialist knowledge. If a payment gateway requires the editing of code and the hiring of specialist expertise, this can be a sign that the platform is not very user-friendly.
Exactly.com is the best payment gateway for WooCommerce
While there are plenty of options available, many now consider exactly.com to be the best payment gateway for WoodCommerce stores.
Exactly® has everything a modern WooCommerce store needs to sell internationally and grow as a business. This includes:
- Full WooCommerce integration
- All major payment options accepted
- Receive payments in all major currencies
- Accepts regional payment options
- Fully localised checkout experience
- Customisation and branding options
- Easy integration
- Integrated payment processing and merchant account
- PCI-compliant
- API and powerful dashboard
- AI-powered
Integrating exactly.com into your WooCommerce site requires no specialist knowledge and no coding experience.
Most importantly, exactly® is 100% secure and PCI-compliant. Using exactly.com as a payment gateway means your customers will always feel secure thanks to recognised technologies like 3D-Secure and backend tokenisation.
With the ability to accept payments in over 150 currencies, exactly.com can help your WooCommerce business scale up and grow. Payments can be made directly to an integrated merchant account and paid out in the currency of your choice.
And, thanks to comprehensive monitoring and reporting tools, exactly.com can help gain insights into your WooCommerce business. These include reports and analysis tools that can help identify actionable goals.
Verdict
Exactly® is a complete payment platform ideal for those running a WooCommerce store online. With built-in payment processing, the ability to accept a wide range of currencies and payment options, as well as unrivalled security, exactly.com is the perfect WooCommerce payment gateway.
