Payment Gateways and WooCommerce: Everything You Need to Know

WooCommerce is an eCommerce plugin used for WordPress. With many bloggers, small businesses, and creators taking advantage of WordPress hosting, finding the right payment gateways for WooCommerce sites can significantly improve individual success on the medium. 

What is a Payment Gateway?

The first thing any eCommerce merchant needs to know about payment gateways is what a payment gateway is. In essence, a payment gateway helps merchants authorize payments (such as credit cards, direct deposit, gift cards) for purchase through their eCommerce medium. These automate the acceptance and review processes for merchants so that the sellers do not have to deal with the nitty-gritty of the financial process.

Picking Your Gateway

Several gateways work for WooCommerce, and each one serves different needs. Picking the right WooCommerce gateway involves finding out what your own needs are.

This may depend on what you are selling, the type of eCommerce page you are trying to create, and the different opportunities you want to provide your consumer.

Payment Gateway Options

There are several payment gateways for WooCommerce sites to choose from, each with different offerings, such as:

-WooCommerce Payments

-Stripe

-PayPal

-Afterpay

-Square

-AmazonPay

These payment gateways create different opportunities for your eCommerce webpage on WooCommerce. WooCommerce Payments is already integrated into WooCommerce and immediately accepts most major credit and debit cards. This is the easiest strategy for anyone who wants an eCommerce store up and running immediately.

Stripe is a similar service, allowing for accepting debit and credit cards while also offering local payment methods.

PayPal is an excellent payment gateway for anyone to integrate with their eCommerce page. With PayPal’s integration with most banks and major credit and debit cards, offering PayPal as a purchase opportunity can help your consumers easily navigate the journey from discovery to purchase.

Afterpay is a service that allows consumers to make a purchase immediately but pay off the product over time with four installments. Being interest-free, it can be an excellent incentive for a prospective consumer. Especially if the offered products tend to exist within the higher price range, Afterpay can be a valuable WooCommerce asset.

Square has become an intensely popular payment gateway over the last ten years, especially with in-person payments. Utilizing Square’s payment gateway can allow you to integrate in-person and online transactions. In addition, it is very easy to use, with quick account deposits.

AmazonPay utilizes Amazon widgets to help your consumers stay on your webpage and quickly make a purchase without being redirected.

While there are many options, finding the best one for your eCommerce page can be an exciting process that helps create the best purchasing environment for your customers. With your WooCommerce site, you can use one or several payment gateways to offer the best ending to your consumer journey.

Crypto Payment Gateways

With the growth of cryptocurrency and cryptocurrency usage, offering a cryptocurrency gateway for WooCommerce can be a great way to bring in more customers. A small number of services serve as crypto payment gateways, such as CoinPayments or Coinbase. 

Crypto payment gateways help your business remove the risk of cryptocurrency trading and value volatility to permanently receive their product’s relative worth. They also allow for easy currency conversions and can make it quick and straightforward for you to integrate cryptocurrency into your WooCommerce store.

Do Payment Gateways Help with Fraud?

Utilizing a payment gateway can also be a great way to avoid fraudulent purchases and help your consumers feel safe making purchases on your WooCommerce site. Your payment gateways of choice have their risk assessment protocols and can ensure that you are not accepting fraudulent payments. Additionally, your customers will be able to feel safe knowing that you are not taking their information and distributing it anywhere else. 

Beyond simply credit and debit card payments, if you are utilizing a crypto payment gateway, they will perform blockchain verification and proper currency conversion to keep your money and investments safe.

I’ve Done My Research; what Now?

So you’ve learned about WooCommerce payment gateways, you’ve found one or a few that you like, and you’re ready to take the following steps on your website.

Feel free to experiment. If you don’t like it, you aren’t locked into your payment gateway. Try what you think is best for your website, and see if it helps your customers. If it works, excellent. Keep utilizing the gateways you found work best.

Try a new payment gateway for your WooCommerce site if it isn’t working. There are several integrated payment gateways, and it may take some time to find the perfect one for you. However, once you find the one that fits your needs best, you have only to continue focusing on your consumer.