There are two essential facilities that eCommerce business owners need to set up before they can even think about turning a profit. These are 1) setting up an eCommerce website, and 2) setting up card and payment solutions that work for both you and your customers.
In the booming era of eCommerce, there are a bajillion card and payment solutions available on the market. If you’re just starting out or even if you’re just updating your business model, the sheer volume of options is overwhelming. The stakes are high – without a payment gateway that meets a laundry list of requirements, your business is dead in the water.
Payflex has got your back, buddy. We’re eCommerce experts, and we’re sharing our insights into the top card and payment options for South African merchants in this handy guide.
Wait – what is a payment gateway?
Are you new here? That’s cool! Welcome to the club. Let’s go over the basics for a second. A payment gateway is what allows eCommerce merchants to receive payments. It’s kind of essential for anyone who trades online. But, you can’t just pick any old payment gateway.
Before you make your selection, you need to ensure that the card and payment solutions that you are offering appeal to your customer base. Now, this will change depending on:
- the nature of your goods or services
- your business needs
- the preferences of your customer base
What do I need to consider before selecting my card and payment solutions?
There are four questions to answer before selecting a payment gateway:
- Will it process my customers’ payments quickly, safely, and securely?
- Does the cost of this payment gateway make sense with my transaction volume?
- How easily can this payment gateway be integrated into my site?
Let’s unpack these a little bit.
Offering your shoppers assurance with safe and secure payments
Your top priority should be safety. Your customers aren’t going to entrust their cash to you unless they are assured that their card data is in safe hands. Plus, you’ll want a payment gateway that ensures that those payments land safely in your merchant account.
Furthermore, your card and payment solutions need to be PCI DSS and PASA compliant. PCI DSS stands for Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, and PASA stands for Payment Association of South Africa. Your payment gateway needs to be compliant with both.
Some payment gateways offer 3D Secure (3DS) payments. This just means that the payment process requires 2-step verification from the cardholder. It’s an extra layer of security against fraud, as no payments can be cleared without authorisation from the cardholder.
Data and analytics: getting to understand your business
Furthermore, a good payment gateway will offer functionalities that manage credit card chargeback, reconciliation, and overall account management.
It can also give you insights into your transactions and your day-to-day oversight of inventory, as well as a reconciliation report.
You should be offering your customers multiple payment options
If you want to win a larger customer share, you’re going to want to choose card and payment solutions which tick both your business’s boxes and your customers’ boxes. How do you do that?
Well, credit and debit card payments are still the most popular for eCommerce shoppers. So, it makes sense to ensure that you’re offering a payment gateway that can process card payments. However, more and more shoppers are making use of alternative payment solutions. These are your mobile-friendly options like SnapScan, Zapper, Mobicred, SiD Secure EFT, and Masterpass.
On the whole, you should be offering multiple card and payment solutions on your site. It’s the best way to win more customers in a highly competitive market. But, how do you choose the options that work best for you and your customers?
On that note…you should be offering BNPL
When it comes to flexibility, BNPL is changing the game. Buy Now, Pay Later services give shoppers a bit of breathing room by offering short-term credit. This is great news for merchants, too. BNPL reduces cart abandonment and increases conversion rates.
According to Klarna, the Stockholm-based BNPL giant, their services saw a 58% increase in average order value and a 30% increase in checkout conversion rates.
The best card and payment solutions for South African eCommerce merchants
The good folks at SME South Africa have compiled a list of the top card and payment solutions for South African eCommerce merchants. We’ll go over our top picks below, but you can read the full report here. You can also read our previous blog about selecting the right payment methods to prevent cart abandonment here.
Yoco
Most SMEs are familiar with Yoco. Their super-portable card payment solutions are changing the game for local business owners. They’re an attractive option for their affordable rates. It’s free to sign up, and they charge a nominal 2.95% transaction rate which drops the more you transact. Plus, the Yoco App dashboard offers valuable insights into your business numbers.
Yoco also features payment link functionality, which is a huge win for small business owners who don’t have a website set up yet.
PayFast
PayFast is a leading payment gateway in the market, and for good reason. It offers multiple options for shoppers and merchants alike. There are no monthly or setup fees, but they do charge a transaction fee for every sale you make.
By integrating PayFast into your site, you’re automatically offering your customers over 9 payment options. These include credit cards, Instant EFT, Mobicred, and store cards.
Peach Payments
Offering card and payment solutions with Peach Payments is just…well, peachy! Peach Payments is geared towards mobile users. They make it easy for your shoppers to pay you whenever, wherever.
They also offer both payment links and facilities for multi-currency transactions. It’s easy peasy to integrate with all major eCommerce platforms, including WooCommerce, Shopify, Wix, Opencart, Magento and nopCommerce.
Payflex
As far as local BNPL services go, you can’t do any better than Payflex. Look – we’re a little biased, but we stand by what we say. By offering Payflex at your site checkout, you’re offering your customers the freedom to pay at their own pace. You’re also reducing cart abandonment, driving up sales, and netting a wider share of customers who are looking for flexibility and variety in their card and payment solutions.
The bottom line on card and payment solutions
To win a wider share of the market, you need to offer a wide range of card and payment solutions. As far as payment solutions go, you can’t get much more flexible than Payflex. And flexibility is what your shoppers are looking for!
We even guide you through setting up your merchant account and integrating Payflex into your site. Let’s make your business better, together.
