Using WooCommerce to sell products online means that you have access to all the major online payment gateways to collect your payments through easy-to-integrate plugins. So how do you decide which virtual payment channel is right for you and your customers? We have compiled the best payment gateways for your WooCommerce website and how to choose the right one for your business. Let’s explore How to Choose The Best Payment Gateway for WooCommerce.
WooCommerce payment gateway integration allows shoppers to securely pay for their orders by connecting a WooCommerce online store to a payment processing service.
What you need to know when choosing a payment gateway for your WooCommerce site
There are a myriad of ways to purchase products online – from using your credit or debit card to bank transfers and crypto-currencies. Usually, no matter how you choose to pay, your payment will be processed by a payment gateway.
Payment gateways process payments for online stores, transferring their money for them. Payment gateways increase the security surrounding a transaction, ensuring both the online retailer and their customers are protected.
There are two main types of payment gateways: direct and redirect:
A direct gateway: Processes your payment on your site only and a customer will not have to leave your site to pay.
A redirection gateway: Your customer must leave your site to pay.
Redirection is your best option if you do not want to secure your site against hackers or risk your customers’ credit card and personal information being stolen. Redirection is not perceived to be as professional as a direct gateway. This may be a problem for you if you choose a payment gateway that your customer is unfamiliar with. If they do not trust the site they are redirected to for payment, they may abandon the sale when redirected.
Things to consider when choosing a payment gateway:
- Where are your customers located? Some payment gateways do not support all types of payments – which may restrict you if you expect customers from specific countries and locations. Select a payment gateway that supports the most popular payment method/s used by your main customer base and/or target audience.
- Does the payment gateway integrate easily with WooCommerce? You will find that the major payment gateways support WooCommerce integration. If you choose to go with a lesser-known payment gateway, ensure that the one you have selected will integrate easily.
- What are the transaction fees? Research the fees each payment processor will charge you for each transaction or product you sell. This is particularly important if you sell low-profit margin items or products with a lower price point.
- Does the payment gateway accept credit card payments? Overall, credit card payments are the most popular mode of payment for online purchases. A payment gateway that does not accept credit card payments could cost you, customers.
WooCommerce offer a variety of Payment Gateway options for WordPress. As you may be aware, WooCommerce is a WordPress plugin. For each of the payment gateways discussed below, you can install a simple WordPress payment plugin to integrate it with your WooCommerce site (if you have a WordPress site without WooCommerce, you will have to install it for these plugins to work).
How to choose the best payment gateway for your WooCommerce website
1. PayPal, PayPal Pro & PayPal Express Checkout
PayPal is incredibly easy to use, supports over 20 different currencies, is currently the most popular online payment gateway for most online stores and offers different payment options, including PayPal Standard, Express and Pro. Some PayPal gateway options use the redirection method, while others do not, however it remains one of the world’s most trusted payment processing services.
The PayPal Pro payment processing service supports your customers regardless of whether they have an account on the platform or not. PayPal pro allows you to customise your store checkout process. Customers are able to pay by using their credit card or customers may even choose to use their PayPal account balance to complete their payment.
PayPal Express Checkout allows the customer to either:
- jump to the PayPal site, log into their account and then complete the transaction on your store site, saving them having to enter their address and other details on your site (thus the term “express”), or
- continue through the checkout process on your site and go to the PayPal site after creating an account on your site (similar to PayPal Standard).
If you choose to set up your site so that “PayPal Account Optional” is enabled, your customers can use the PayPal Express Checkout to pay without having to have their own PayPal account.
Once the proceeds of your sale is processed by PayPal, you can withdraw those funds from your PayPal account by transferring them to your bank account or you can choose to store it in your PayPal account’s wallet.
PayPal is easily integrated with WooCommerce, and can even be designed to offer PayPal Express Checkout to your customers.
PayPal Pro is a direct payment gateway costing $35 per month, in addition to the transaction fee of 2.9% (plus $0.30 cents). The WooCommerce extension for PayPal Pro is $79 for a single website subscription (you can also take a look at the PayPal for WooCommerce plugin).
2. Stripe
As an online payment processor, Stripe is one of the main competitors to PayPal. From the customer’s side, Stripe works just as efficiently as PayPal. However, from the store’s side, Stripe offers a little more than PayPal, allowing store owners to store customer information and supporting metered billings and subscriptions.
With a higher-ranked customer experience than PayPal, and a free Stripe extension that provides easy integration with WooCommerce, Stripe is an excellent choice with one notable drawback: Stripe is only available in a limited number of countries.
3. Amazon Pay
From the company that brought us the giant of online stores, Amazon, comes Amazon Pay – a payment processing service that most online stores can use.
Amazon Pay allows your customers to pay at your checkout using their Amazon accounts, set up to pay using their usual payment settings. Customers do not have to spend time creating a new account and when your visitors see the trusted Amazon Pay name, they may feel more secure than using other, lesser-known payment options.
Amazon Pay can be integrated with WooCommerce easily using the official extension.
4. Braintree
Braintree is a PayPal company and offers subscriptions, which is a great solution with a huge bonus: it’s free! You won’t pay any monthly fees, and it accepts payments from all the major credit cards, in addition, to pay wallets such as Android Pay and Apple Pay. You’ll pay a transaction fee of 2.9% (plus $0.30), but your first $50,000 is free.
Braintree also allows your customers to save their payment details for ease of repeat custom. Integrating with your WooCommerce site is easy by using the WooCommerce extension for Braintree, which is also free!
5. net CIM
Authorize.net is a better-known credit card processor that offers enhanced fraud protection. (You will pay more for Authorize.net’s added security and fraud protection, though). Authorize.net charge a one-off $25 fee for each credit card payment dispute case, which will be repaid if the credit card company decides in your favour, and you will pay a monthly fee for the service in addition to the charges you will have applied to each transaction.
It is easy to integrate with WooCommerce using the Authorize.net WordPress plugin. You should consider the service’s higher cost, particularly if you are a start-up.
6. Square
Square accepts all major credit cards, accepts faster deposits than larger competitors like PayPal and offers physical Points of Sale (PoS), which is great for businesses with a physical storefront.
Square is easy to set up using the official Square extension for WooCommerce, however, Square does not offer the customisation options at checkout available elsewhere.
Square’s fees are competitive, with a flat 2.9% of each sale (plus $0.30) and zero monthly fees for online credit card processing. This would suit companies with high-profit margin products but may not suit retailers whose products are at a lower price-point.
7. 2Checkout
2Checkout is very similar to PayPal and Stripe, however, is not yet as well-known as a payment processor. It is free to set up and takes payments from credit cards with charges of 2.9% (plus $0.30) per transaction.
2Checkout is ideal for those selling subscriptions and other digital products because it does not charge additional fees for recurring charges (such as membership fees, subscriptions, etc), unlike other gateways, such as PayPal. While 2Checkout will charge an additional 1-1.5% per transaction for international transactions, 2Checkout accessibility rivals its larger competitors with it being available in more than 200 countries.
The 2Checkout Inline Checkout plugin makes it easy to integrate with your WooCommerce store.
When it comes to WooCommerce payment gateways, you need to consider the most suitable options for both you and your customers. Your customers may abandon their cart if your checkout is not a quick and easy process, ultimately costing you the sale.
Selecting a payment gateway that is only available in certain regions or markets can restrict your ability to make sales. You can always use a few different payment gateways together, offering your customers more choice. A good combination may be PayPal, Stripe and Amazon Pay – so if a combination works best for you and your business, take the time to determine the ideal combination for you and your customers.
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