By Hanan Tahir 
According to Statistica, e-retail sales exceeded 4.2 trillion USD in 2020, globally. The number shows the growth in e-commerce and how fast it’s moving. While the progress is evident, people shopping online are also prone to cyber-attacks.
With more people shopping online, their data becomes more readily available and subject to data theft.
If you are an e-store owner and want to prevent your customers from any inconvenience, you must take security seriously, especially during payments. To help you out with that, we are here with 6 tips to help you choose a secure payment gateway.
But, before we get to the tips, let’s try to understand what a payment gateway is all about!
What are payment gateways?
Online payments comprise two major parts: payment gateway and payment processing. Payment gateway deals with collecting user data to carry out a payment request. After user data is collected, the payment processing step comes in.
Through payment processing the client’s bank and merchant’s bank are contacted. That way, funds are transferred from one bank to another.
Various debit and credit card processing solutions are available to carry out payment processing effectively. For payment gateways, you will see 3 major types:
- Redirect: such a gateway redirects a customer to another page
- Off-Site payment: payment happens at the back-end
- On-Site payment: payments are handled on one’s server
6 tips to choose a secure payment gateway
Below are 6 tips you should consider while searching for the right payment gateway:
- Know your customers
The first step starts with evaluating your customers!
As an e-store owner, you should try to evaluate your ideal audience, their age, their needs, and how they perceive different payment methods. Certain age groups are more susceptible to confusion and are more insecure. That includes elder citizens.
On the other hand, millennials and users from generation Z, are very good at adapting to technology. Therefore their reservations and problems are very different from other generations. Thus, keep your audience in mind when you are making the choice.
Once you are well aware of your audience, you can look into certain security factors to cater to their needs.
2. Look into encryption procedures
A very important feature of a payment gateway to look into is data encryption. It is used to secure client data. Through data encryption, the user information is converted into a coded form so that it can only be read with a password or a decryption key.
A secure payment gateway encrypts user data through a public key when a customer adds his card details. That information is decrypted through a private key. This way, unauthorized parties cannot access the data of customers, saving your reputation and customer information.
To make sure you get the best, work with PCI-compliant companies. PCI stands for Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). PCI rules are meant to keep the online world secure.
3. Authentication methods
If the payment gateway stresses strong authentication, that can save the client and the brand from fraud payments. Certain brands offer client profiles on their websites. Using that profile information someone can log in to the customer account.
To prevent that, having a payment gateway that offers strong authentication methods can be a great idea. Through 2-factor authentication, the client will have to enter additional information along with his email and password. That way, you will save the client’s id and password from being misused.
4. Secure socket layer (SSL) and Secure electronic transaction (SET)
While choosing a payment gateway, you should look into SET and SSL!
Through SET you can establish trust with your client. A lot of the time, many customers are skeptical about the kind of data you are taking from them. They are unsure of the extent of your access to their details.
To make sure your customers are fully satisfied, you can try a payment gateway offering SET security to protect sensitive user data. Through SET, businesses cannot access sensitive information as the protocol blocks customer card details.
This way information is only transferred to the necessary parties.
About SSL, it allows for a safe transfer of data through public channels. That channel can be a browser and a web server. This process is used by most gateways to conduct safe data transfer between parties.
5. Data breaches and Malware
Malware can read passwords and data breaches can occur when data is on a server. To make sure payments on your e-store remain safe, you should look into the payment gateway that deals effectively with malware and data breaches. In the digital age, prevention against attacks is crucial.
6. The provider’s reputation
Last but not the least, consider the reputation of the payment gateway provider you are going for. After you have checked for the above features, you should also see how other customers feel about them. You can consider reputed providers that include:
- Apple Pay
- PayPal
- Amazon Pay etc.
These options are very secure. When customers see these payment gateways, they will feel safer and confident about their purchase
Conclusion
In this article, we went through a brief overview of payment gateways. We found out what it is, its types and what you should look for in a payment gateway. To keep user data secure, you should know the type of audience you are catering to.
Once you are aware of that, you should try and find payment gateways that have the best encryption methods and authentication procedures. You should also consider SSL and SET protocols in a payment gateway.
Lastly, you should check the provider’s image and how well it can tackle malware and breaches.
Along with the above, there are other factors to consider as well, so we recommend you carry out more in-depth research on the topic.
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