How to integrate a payment gateway to a website: the basics explained

The number of online shoppers keeps climbing every year – people prefer buying on the go instead of spending time in queues. And this perk of the modern world means that more businesses now wonder how to integrate an e-commerce payment gateway to their website and start accepting payments online.

What is a payment gateway?

In our previous articles, we’ve already described, what a payment gateway is, why businesses need it, and what criteria help companies choose the best one for their needs.

Why do businesses need an e-commerce payment gateway?

Accepting online payments is not the only aim of utilising e-commerce payment systems, which usually include a number of capabilities. Depending on your business needs, you can benefit from additional features and make the payment experience on your site more convenient and secure for your users. e-commerce payment gateways often help with the following:

• PCI DSS compliance;
• Recurring payments under a subscription-based pricing scheme;
• Alerts to check the status of transactions;
• Storage of payment data so that your customers do not have to re-enter personal information;
• Virtual terminal simulating a physical credit card for easy data input;
• Developer information and API references for customisation to meet specific business needs;
• Encryption & tokenisation for the highest level of security of sensitive user information;
• Integration with other tools such as reconciliations and analytics.

Now let’s move to the next step – payment gateway integration. Imagine you’ve chosen the most relevant payment gateway for your website and now have one question – how to integrate it?

Payment gateway integration basics

First, you need to choose between an integrated or a hosted payment system.

Integrated payment gateways

An integrated online payment gateway for the website allows for establishing a connection with them through an API. Thus, buyers will make payments without redirection to third-party resources. On the one hand, this is convenient because it will not affect the conversion rate. But on the other hand, this method of payment acceptance requires online businesses to take responsibility for the safety and security of customer data. Therefore, there will be a need to undergo the PCI DSS assessment and hire developers to provide such a payment system with the necessary level of security. There are several ways of hosted payment page integration: flash (modal), embedded (iFrame), and pay-by-link (redirect).

Self-hosted payment gateways

A hosted payment gateway for website processes payments on its side or a payment processor’s one. Thus, it redirects users to a payment page on the third-party resource. Such systems provide a high level of security, so the client's banking data will be safe. This type of payment gateway connection also has its downsides, as some customers don't trust third-party programs. Customers may leave the checkout page, which may lead to abandoned carts and negatively impact the conversion rates.

To make the right choice, you need to analyse your e-commerce platform and your business needs. Contact our specialists if you need some assistance. We’d be glad to help.

What payment gateway integration type to choose?

The choice of online payment gateway integration type depends on the size and needs of each specific business. Simple internet acquiring will do good for small businesses, but more significant e-commerce players need more sophisticated solutions such as payment aggregators or payment orchestration platforms. They usually provide holistic solutions that allow for secure payment processing with additional useful tools and features.

How to integrate Corefy into your website?

You may have heard that we at Corefy love simplifying complex things. Thus, we believe that business owners should deal with business processes and development without distraction to technical matters.

We provide all the necessary tools and data for you to start accepting payments on your site with the help of our Checkout quickly and with minimal effort. It is hosted on our side and allows you to get started with just a few lines of code added to yours. Here are the available integration options:

• Flash. Almost no coding efforts are needed; you’ll have a popup checkout on top of your website without redirection.
• Embedded. This option allows for integrating a payment page as an iframe, creating a frictionless user experience.
• Pay by link. Enables you to generate payment links and send them to your customers to complete purchases.
• Self-hosted. If you have a development team and the PCI DSS compliance certificate, you might opt to host a Checkout yourself using our API and SDKs.

We understand that you want to start accepting e-commerce payments as soon as possible without losing time going into details. So, we are ready to assist you and give additional information on payment gateway integration. You may opt for a live demo to see how Corefy works with your very eyes and decide on the following steps.