Last editedMar 20232 min read
Payment gateways are non-negotiable for ecommerce businesses. With the popularity of online shopping continuing at pace – in 2023, the estimated number of digital buyers stood at 2.64 billion – a strong ecommerce payment system can help you become a sales powerhouse. But what is a payment gateway, and what’s the best payment gateway for ecommerce websites in 2023? Find out everything you need to know about how to choose a payment gateway for your ecommerce store with our simple guide.
What is a payment gateway?
An ecommerce payment gateway is an online service or tool that authorizes and processes payments for ecommerce companies. Essentially, in order to process payments, merchants need two things: a payment gateway and a merchant account. Some payment gateways, such as PayPal and Stripe, combine these services. These are known as payment service providers or payment processors. The ins and outs of payment gateways are complex, but the bottom line is that if you’re selling products on the internet, you’ll need an online payment gateway. It’s also worth remembering that if you sell products overseas, you’ll need an international payment gateway (i.e., a payment gateway with the capacity to handle global/multi-currency payments).
Best payment gateway for ecommerce websites
With so many different ecommerce payment providers to choose from, it can be difficult to work out which one is the best option for your business. Here’s our rundown of five of the best ecommerce payment gateways in 2023:
PayPal
PayPal offers high-level brand recognition and strong anti-fraud measures, while it also accepts international and multi-currency payments from 200+ countries. There are two options – PayPal Payments Standard and PayPal Payments Pro.
Payment processing fees: 2.99% + 49¢
Monthly fee: $0
Stripe
Stripe is one of the most popular ecommerce payment providers in the world. While some consider it more complicated to set up than PayPal, it offers a broad range of features for ecommerce businesses, including automatic payments handling and direct deposit to your business’s account, and the ability to accept cryptocurrencies.
Payment processing fees: 2.7% + 5¢
Monthly fee: $0
Amazon Pay
Amazon Pay enables customers to use the payment details that are stored in their Amazon account to make a purchase on your store. Offering outstanding brand recognition and trust at the checkout stage, Amazon Pay is also API-driven, which means that you can customize the transaction process design to your exact specifications.
Payment processing fees: 2.9% ($0.29)
Monthly fee: $0
Adyen
Adyen accepts over 250 payment methods, as well as data analytics tools that you can use to identify patterns and buyer behavior. For an end-to-end online payment gateway option in 2023, it’s a strong contender.
Payment processing fees: Interchange + 12¢
Monthly fee: $0
GoCardless
GoCardless allows businesses to collect payments directly from customers’ bank accounts, whether it’s a one-off or a recurring payment. Integrating seamlessly with over 300 partners, GoCardless can be an excellent solution for boosting conversion in the checkout experience, as it offers a wide variety of formats to fit into your payment flow.
Payment processing fees: 1% + $0.25
Monthly fee: $0
How to choose a payment gateway for your ecommerce store
It’s clear that there are a wide range of benefits associated with different payment gateways and payment gateway APIs. So, how do you choose the right one? There are plenty of factors that should contribute to your choice of ecommerce payment gateway. Think about your budget, the number of countries and currencies you need coverage for, setup/service/monthly fees, and fraud protection. Of course, you don’t have to settle for a single ecommerce payment provider. Instead, you can offer a range of different options at checkout, although it’s worth remembering that you’ll incur additional costs if you choose to go down this road.
We can help
GoCardless is a global payments solution that helps you automate payment collection, cutting down on the amount of financial admin your team needs to deal with. Find out how GoCardless can help you with one-off or recurring payments.
