Is A Hosted Payment Page Right For Your eCommerce Site?

No event in history has had a greater effect on eCommerce sales more than the COVID-19 pandemic has. eCommerce has grown exponentially and stores opened at a staggering rate. Brick and mortar stores are either moving online or adding an eCommerce option to their site. In fact, eCommerce has seen an impressive 149% growth in online orders overall. If you’re opening an eCommerce store, one of your biggest considerations is how you will accept payments. One of the quickest, easiest, and most secure ways to accept online payments is with a hosted payment page.

What is a hosted payment page, and how does it work?

Most businesses don't have the time, money, or resources to build a compliant payment page into their current website. Building your own payment page would require an IT team with intricate programming and coding knowledge. And that's just building the page.

What makes it so difficult? In order to accept payments, you must comply with all Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI-DSS). By building your own payment page into your website, you will be capturing, storing, and transmitting sensitive payment card information. This means you must also be responsible for protecting that information. 

In order to comply with the PCI’s Security Standards, a business needs to become PCI Certified. Depending on the size of the company, becoming PCI certified can cost anywhere from $10,000 - $50,000.

Not only have you had to become an IT specialist, but now you’ve also had to become a security specialist too.

Instead, it may be best to leave it to your merchant service provider. Your experienced Merchant Service Provider is equipped to supply you with a completely PCI-DSS compliant payment solution.

With the hosted payment page, they host your payments page for you. The host has already complied with all PCI DSS required to accept payments. 

When your customer clicks the “buy” button on your site, it directs them to a secure payment page. This payment page is hosted on the processor's PCI Compliant secure server. The customer's sensitive payment card information is collected and encrypted by the processing solution. Once they approve the transaction, the customer is directed back to the main website for confirmation.

This transfer is usually so seamless that the customer feels like they never left your site.

Merchants must be picky when choosing a hosted payment page solution.

But merchants do want to be choosy when deciding who to get a hosted payment solution from. Your payment page can either help or hinder your sales efforts. Merchants must consider the quality of the payment gateway they choose to integrate with their website. You want to choose a payment page that increases trust in your website security while maximizing convenience for the consumer.

Two of the most important considerations in eCommerce are security and shopping cart abandonment. And they go hand in hand.

Customers abandon their carts for many reasons. But some reasons continue to be more common than others year after year. Two of the most common reasons are lack of confidence in security, and a cumbersome checkout process.

This is where the importance of having an integrated and secure payment solution comes into play. Consumers are more concerned with credit card and identity theft than ever before. And rightly so. We are buying online more than ever before, and that means we are at higher risk for fraud. 

Customers don't like to be sent to an external site to make their payment for an item. It feels sketchy, like it could be a scam. Even though it's common for merchants to have an external payments page, consumers don't necessarily understand that. So when they get redirected to an external site to enter payment information, it can raise the hairs on the neck. It tends to make people feel like it has tricked them.

The right payment gateway can help alleviate many of these fears for your customers. Your payment gateway can help instill trust with your customers. It provides a layer of encryption between the merchant's site and the transaction railways, making it harder for cyber criminals to intercept. It can also reduce load times, which is another common problem that leads to shopping cart abandonment.

Things to consider when choosing a hosted payment page for your eCommerce site.

Since your payment page is the last experience your customer has before clicking the “buy” button, it must be one of the best. So with that in mind, there are a few points to consider while you’re vetting your payment page provider.

Here are a few of the top considerations:

Multiple payment options

In order to increase conversions, merchants must allow customers to pay in their preferred payment methods. Most consumers shop online with credit cards, but merchants don't want to alienate potential buyers. Your payment page should accept debit cards and level II and level III credit card transactions.

But it should also offer a variety of payment methods, including PayPal, ACH, and digital mobile wallets. 

If you offer subscription services or will be in the future, you need recurring billing options. Most hosted payment pages have special features such as recurring billing capabilities already built in.

Global readiness

Your site is on the World Wide Web. Your payment solution needs to be ready and able to accept payments from all over the world. Even if you're not ready to go International, you still want your payment solution to be. Make sure your payment page displays totals in the currency of the shopper. You’ll also need to make sure your merchant account can support Dynamic Currency Exchange. 

Must be customizable

Your hosted payments page is designed to become a seamless part of your website. The processor must offer a customizable payment page so you can tailor it to your specific brand. You may want to integrate your logo and contact information and match the theme with your website. Even receipts will need to match your brand. While the gateway is hosted by the processor, it won't look or feel like the customer ever leaves the secure website they're shopping on. 

This makes for a seamless check out experience for the customer. And of course, that helps to build trust in your site. 

Are there benefits of a hosted payment page for your eCommerce site?

Hosted payments pages make it easier to sell on various social media platforms. 

“Pay Now” buttons that lead directly to the hosted payment page are perfect for selling on social media platforms. Instagram is a great place for consumers to find products trending on the market today. But you don't want them to first have to go to the website, then add the product to the cart, then finish with the checkout.

The “buy now” button takes them directly to a payment page where customers enter payment information in a secure environment. They literally just “Buy Now”!

Built in PCI compliance reduces the merchants' PCI compliance requirements while providing increased security. Hosted payment solutions let you leave data protection to the professionals. Merchant account providers have already completed the PCI Certification and PCI DSS requirements necessary to process credit card payments. 

As the merchant, you won't be transmitting or storing sensitive customer payment information. The payment data is encrypted and sent directly to the processor. From there it is tokenized before transmitting to the card issuer. This further protects sensitive data from prying eyes. 

These are all good things for the eCommerce site owner. Increased security and enhanced fraud control reduce your chances of becoming a victim of a data breach. I think it goes without saying that data security and fraud protection are paramount for eCommerce.

Merchant Payment Solutions offer enhanced features and functions.

Your payment page doesn't have to be just a checkout page. Enhanced features can help lead your customers through a pleasant buying experience. Create unique CTA’s enticing your customers to finalize their purchases. You can even add or remove offer codes at your convenience. 

And don’t forget about putting your valuable customer data to use wisely! Many have multiple options for collecting sales data. They can also create actionable reports that help you make informed decisions.

Payment solution providers understand that your goal is to get conversions. Their goal is to create a frictionless check-out process for your customer. We know that the main reasons customers leave without purchasing have to do with friction during checkout. That's why hosted payment pages are designed to work seamlessly with your website. Customers feel safe knowing they're on a secure website. 

The navigation is simple and intuitive to effortlessly guide your customer towards the purchase. And they offer a variety of payment methods, including a mobile-friendly interface. Everything is customizable to offer a continuous flow of store branding.

And the best thing is that it doesn't require the merchant to know intricate programming or coding skills. Integration with your website is quick, clean, and simple. Consider the monthly fee you pay for the gateway as the price you have to pay to NOT have to deal with PCI compliance.

Accept payments online with your own hosted payments page.

At MonerePay, we tailor a payment solution based on the needs of your specific business model. We’re able to do that because we work a bit differently than most payment providers. We have streamlined the payments process and created a more efficient merchant account.

Our goal is to bring truth and transparency to the payments industry. We offer eCommerce payment processing solutions that will integrate seamlessly into your web environment. And we promise to offer our payment processing solutions at the best price possible.

All our merchant advisors are ETA Certified Payment Professionals. They’ve demonstrated a high level of expertise in the payment solutions available today. And they’ve studied and understand industry regulation and governmental requirements for payments. It also means they abide by the ETA’s Code of Conduct to hold themselves to the highest level of professionalism, integrity, and business ethics. 

Whether you are a small business or a large national brand, you can expect a boutique merchant account experience. If you're ready to accept payments online with a merchant service provider committed to your success, call MonerePay.