ecommerce blog

What can your gateway do

Written by: Richard | August 20th, 2010

The world of Online payments has become an extremely complicated playing field. Payment systems now vary hugely in ability and operation and it can be a struggle to know which payment system you should be using.

The situation gets even more complicated when you realise that many off the shelf ecommerce platforms require to use the gateway already integrated, something that to my mind is daft because you are then limiting your customer base to those clients who require your services exactly, but then that has always been an issue with off the shelf systems.

Research is key here to ensure that your gateway does what you need it to and because of this you need to be sure of the capabilities you do need and are planning to need; it’s no good commissioning a store, and setting up you merchant account through a standard gateway and then two months after your site launches, deciding that you now need a gateway that can support and authorise recurring payments.

Also don’t forget the plan B gateway, to make sure your customers can pay in the way they feel comfortable you should try to include a second gateway, most usually a Paypal integration. This is usually straightforward enough but make sure that your ecommerce company is aware of the peculiarities of Paypal, particularly the way that the paypal system does not give you an instant notification of payment completion that your ecommerce solution may use to progress the order.

Good luck with your gateway and don’t forget that Advansys create bespoke systems to your specification, which means we can do the hard work for you of selecting a gateway that will cover your business’ current and future needs.