Automated payment providers eliminate the need to manually bill the customer, and keep track of accounts. In a fast-paced world where the attention span and patience of customers are at an all-time low; people expect a faster checkout experience that saves them time.

Therefore, businesses need to partner with the best payment gateway to ensure that customers don’t face any issues when shopping either on their online store or at a physical store; the checkout payment methods need to be seamless nonetheless if a business aspires to grow and sustain itself in the longer run.

What is a Payment Gateway?

A payment gateway is a system designed to enable multiple parties to communicate financially sensitive data over a secure network to enable online digital payment modes. Whenever a customer initiates a transaction, the payment gateway encrypts the data and establishes a secure channel between the merchant, customer, and the bank/card network for the transaction information to go through and for the payment to be processed.

How does a Payment Gateway Work?

The way a payment gateway works is as follows:

1. The customer selects a good or service and then initiates a transaction by hitting the ‘Buy’ button
2. The customer is redirected to the secure payment gateway where they need to enter their payment information
3. Once done, the payment gateway takes the customer to a secure page for payment authorization
4. The information is relayed to the customer’s bank which initiates a verification and checks the account for available funds
5. If everything is found to be in order, the bank approves the transaction which is shared with the payment gateway which relays this information back to the customer
6. The bank shares the payment information with the payment gateway and settles the payment which is further settled with the merchant, thus completing the transaction

Now, that we have a basic understanding of what a payment gateway is and how it works, let’s look at a few of the topmost benefits of automating your payments using a gateway!

Offers Secure and Seamless Payments

Payment gateway providers adhere to industry standards such as PCI-DSS, 3D secure, etc., and all data shared between various parties is encrypted. Moreover, it uses a system of tokenization that hides sensitive information behind a series of randomly generated numbers that can only be decoded by the intended party. This makes it very secure as fraudsters won’t find it easy to crack through this, keeping customer data safe. Moreover, it works across all kinds of digital payment options including credit/debit cards, UPI, digital wallets, prepaid cards, net banking, etc. providing seamless transactions across a range of preferred payment methods giving customers a choice when it comes to choosing how they pay for goods and services.

Eliminates the Guesswork

Manually keeping a track of real-time transactions is a tedious task; moreover, it is prone to human error and neither as effective as an automated payment system when it comes to ensuring a faster checkout process. By automating the entire process of collecting and making payments, businesses can ensure a smoother experience for customers by reducing queues (in the case of physical establishments) and handling multiple simultaneous transactions on their online stores with 99.99% up time helping keep things smooth and steady.

Reduces Overhead Costs

Manual processes require hiring real people which ends up in increased overhead costs for the business in terms of salaries, and other perks and benefits. This cost can be huge depending on the size of the business. When a business automates the process of handling payments, there is no need to hire additional staff to handle transactions as the system takes care of everything from keeping a track of incoming and outgoing payments, inventory management, taxation, etc.

Easier Management of Accounts

Automation makes it easier to manage books of accounts since every transaction can be tracked in real-time and all transaction history is stored in the server allowing for easy lookup in case certain transactions require a revisit. Moreover, since all transactions can be viewed via a centralized dashboard, businesses can plan their finances better saving time and costs.

Promotes Business Expansion

Online businesses that integrate a payment gateway system can expand faster than their counterparts as they can start selling beyond their home country expanding their reach to a wider consumer base. This is possible because online payment gateways are able to accept multiple types of international currencies which isn’t possible if such a system isn’t part of the business.

Enhanced Customer Experience

Anything that saves customers their time and makes the buying process seamless and convenient will result in an enhanced customer experience. Moreover, automated payment processing allows businesses to create targeted marketing campaigns for their most loyal customers allowing for better customer retention since digital payments can be traced back to individuals making the entire process possible.

The best payment gateway offers a range of benefits that businesses are likely to miss out on if they don’t switch over to digital payment modes. Moreover, by automating the entire process they save on costs while increasing efficiency and better customer management and support. 

So, talk to some of the best payment provider in India to automate your payments and give your customers one of the fastest checkout payment methods in the industry.

It’s a fact, that businesses can no longer scale at large unless they adapt and give their customers the best possible experience so that the business is always one step ahead of the competition!