What does my ecommerce site need to collect online payments?
A great way to increase cash flow for any business is through an online shopping cart. For purchases to be made at ‘at the click of a button’, however, your online store will need a credit card merchant facility (how the bank takes payments for you) and payment gateway (how your customers securely pay you via a credit card, debit card or internet banking payment system such as POLi).
All this happens in the background.
What are the available ecommerce options?
There are two main options when choosing a shopping cart for your website. The first is ‘hosted’, such as Shopify, where you essentially “rent” your space. You can create a website with a shop to sell your products, but you will never own it. They provide the website hosting and payment gateway, which comes with regular, on-going costs that do begin to add up over time.
The other is ‘non-hosted’, a self-hosted e-commerce platform. We recommend WooCommerce as it offers great flexibility and control over the store. With Woo Commerce there are options to increase the flexibility of design elements, features and functionality, letting you create something unique so you can showcase your product properly. You will also be in full control of your data (you own the website) and you won’t have on-going subscription costs. With WooCommerce you’ll need hosting, a payment gateway and a Linked Gateway merchant account, all of which is a piece of cake with our designers and PayStation.
What is a payment gateway?
A payment gateway is an external application that processes and authorises payments. When a customer clicks ‘buy’ and confirms their purchase, the gateway will process the credit card. In order for your customers to pay for your products or services securely, choosing the right payment gateway is a crucial step in designing an E-commerce website.
Which payment gateway?
The question is: which payment gateway suits you best? An entry-level payment gateway could be PayPal or Stripe. These gateways do not charge monthly fees, but they do charge a relatively high percentage per transaction. Also, PayPal can be a pain for customers from some countries and can require users to have an actual Paypal account to make a payment: a real turn-off for some consumers.
Clearly, as your online shop becomes more popular and volumes increase, you won’t be interested in high per transaction sales percentages as they can really take a chunk out of your profits.
That’s where PayStation comes in, our favourite certified payment gateway. Paystation processes all credit card transactions and is owned and operated by a trusted New Zealand brand: Trade Me.
Your customer selects what they want to purchase in the shopping cart on your website, then gets directed to the secure payment page at PayStation. With an online purchase, all credit card information goes straight to your bank, none of your staff ever see any credit card details; no details are ever stored on your server, providing maximum security.
Supported New Zealand banks
By allowing your shopping cart to communicate with credit card merchant accounts from any of the five major New Zealand banks – ANZ, ASB, BNZ, Kiwibank and Westpac – Paystation lets you seamlessly accept online payments. Once you have created your Linked Gateway merchant account with your bank of choice, taking payments online is simple, secure, and swift.
Cost of a payment gateway
Paystation’s fees are lower than most other gateways. With low monthly fees and slightly higher transaction fees, you get a fully branded, secure payment gateway. Paystation is an excellent choice for smaller online businesses. Use the promotion code below to obtain a discount.
- Online Payments:
One-off set-up fee: $149 + GST.
Online Starter: $39 + GST per month, 100 include transactions
Online Growth: $99 + GST per month, 300 included transactions
Online Enterprise: $149 + GST per month, 500 included transactions - Manual Payments:
One off set up fee: $99 + GST
$19 + GST per month includes 75 transactions, with a transaction fee of 32c per transaction once over the 75-transaction threshold. (Ideal for smaller accommodation providers.) - Use the promo code GEEKFREE on signup to get the first month free.
What is a manual payment?
A manual card transaction (or ‘Card Not Present’ or MOTO) is when you process the transaction for your customer. This might occur when taking payments over the phone or processing an accommodation booking received by an OTA such as Booking.com, for example. You simply enter the required card details in the admin portal and click ‘Pay Now’. There are options to add a transaction reference, send a transaction notification, authorise a card prior to full payment and more.
Who can shop using Paystation?
Paystation accepts Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Diners Club, Q Card, POLi, MasterPass, and China UnionPay. They support 15+ supported currencies and there are also useful offerings such as repeat payments for subscriptions, pre-authorised payments, MOTO payments, batch processing, and call centre integration.
Why Paystation?
In summary, Paystation makes taking payments easy, understandable, and accessible.
- Simple pricing with no contracts on standard plans.
- Safe and seamless product experience.
- A friendly New Zealand based customer support team.
How to make online payments happen for your site
Talk to our team. Using Woo Commerce and Paystation, we can convert any WordPress site into a fully functioning, very versatile e-commerce platform. We make it easy for your store to stand out from the crowd and have all of the functionality that you need it to have.
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