What to Consider
Compatibility
Will your ecommerce platform be compatible with your choice of payment gateway?
Ease & Security
Does your ecommerce platform integrate easily with your choice of payment gateway? Is it a fully-integrated solution, or one that's hosted offsite, such as PayPal's Express Checkout.
Fees, Contracts & reputations
Before committing to a particular payment gateway, be sure to research the company and its solution making sure that:
- They’re reputable;
- Their prices are competitive;
- Their contracts are flexible enough for your projected needs.
It’s also a good idea to know your current and expected transaction volumes, as this will significantly affect your ability to negotiate monthly fees with most payment gateway providers.
Your Audience
How do your customers prefer to pay for your products? Be sure to know this in advance and implement a tailored solution to meet their needs.
There's always PayPal
Due to its sheer popularity, security and reliability, consider offering PayPal as a secondary (or even tertiary) payment option at checkout. You'll be surprised at how often this so-called "backup gateway" will be the go-to choice for your customers.
Our Payment Gateways Providers
Below is a list of our preferred/recommended payment gateway providers. Based on the points above, we'd usually recommend one or several of the options below to meet a client's payment gateway requirements. All pricing listed is indicative and correct as of July, 2019.
Pin Payments
With minimal effort to setup and implement, Pin Payments allows businesses to take card payments online with no merchant account - meaning, no lengthy application processes and no excessive waiting periods.
Pricing: 1.75% + 30c (for domestic cards) and 2.9% + 30c (for international).
Fat Zebra
Fat Zebra is closely aligned with most major Australian banks as they run one of the only genuine multi-currency platforms in Australia (perfect for merchants looking at expanding internationally). They can also provide Ingenico EFTPOS terminals and link the payment gateways back to the website so you can have a genuine omnichannel gateway.
Pricing (Small Plan): $110 annual fee + 24c per transaction (with 200 free transactions)
Stripe
Stripe arguably builds the most powerful and flexible tools for internet commerce. Regardless of whether you’re creating a subscription service, an on-demand marketplace, an ecommerce store, or a crowdfunding platform, Stripe’s suite of meticulously designed APIs and unmatched functionality help you create the best possible product for your users. It's the ideal solution for those looking to integrate a more complex payment solution.
Pricing: 1.75% + 30c (for domestic cards) and 2.9% + 30c (for international).
Braintree
Ideal for companies who want to want to expand globally (similar to Stripe mentioned above), Braintree (a subsidiary of PayPal) accepts payments in more than 130 currencies, with minimal fees. They also offer a premium mobile experience, accepting cards, PayPal and Apple Pay, and have flexible features including the ability to split payments between you and your sub-merchants. Their ‘Sandbox’ feature is also a great place for businesses to experiment with various options.
Pricing: 1.75% + $.30 per transaction.
Square
What started with a little white card reader hasn't stopped there. Square lets you process online, phone and mail order payments which integrate beautifully with their flagship Point-of-Sale system. Offline orders can be processed through their terminal (hardware supplied) and most, if not all cards – even those underused and unpopular ones – can be accepted online.
Pricing: Free best-in-class POS, 1.9% - 2.2% per transaction.
AfterPay
This one is a little controversial – some may say it encourages debt – but it certainly has seen significant growth in Australia this year. It basically splits a payment (performed at checkout) over four equal fortnightly instalments, using the customer’s chosen debit or credit card, and schedules automatic payments. Expect higher conversion rates across your store and on the plus side, Afterpay assumes all non-payment risk for every single transaction cutting our credit fraud.
Pricing: 5-6% per transaction (dependent on store turnover).
