Receiving online payments

Adding eCommerce to your website

When you’re thinking of selling online, there are a few things to consider. Ask yourself - what makes an appealing online ‘shop window’? How do you set up secure payment options? What can you automate?

There are several ways to add eCommerce to your site. You can:

• Work with a Payments Provider who can help you update your website to take payments.
• Hire a web designer.
• Use a website design tool that already links to a secure payment system.

How to begin your search:

Giving people a safe and easy way to pay is an essential part of your eCommerce site or app. So you’ll need secure, third-party payment software.

Let's look at some of the things you should try to keep in mind.

Payment methods

There are many ways your customer might want to pay. They may prefer credit or a debit card. They might use a virtual wallet like Apple Pay, Google Wallet or PayPal. To cater to this, you should always check your software offers a good range of options.

Security

You need to keep your customers' details protected. To do this, make sure your selected method is safe. Look for safety features. These can be things like data encryption, 3D Secure authentication and other securities. You also need to make sure you meet GDPR and PCI expectations.

Ease of use

Simple is always best. Select a platform that is easy to use for both you and your customer.

When looking at easier to use options, you should also check you can scale and change them. This is important to make sure that as your business grows, your platform can too. Even if you don’t use all features at first, it's good to know you can.

Cost

One thing you’ll need to balance is impact and cost. It may be difficult to get all of what you want. So, you need to ask yourself what drives the most impact for less. Put simply, make sure you’re getting value for your money.

The best way to do this is through researching the cost and features of various tools. You can then use this to narrow down your options based on the impact they’ll have on your customer. Also look at what best achieves the goals you have for your business.

Reputation

Check and make sure the provider has a good reputation. You can do this by looking at reviews. You may also want to speak to other business owners to see what they think.

By doing these checks, you can narrow down the chance that you won’t like the option you select. You need to make sure you get a good service and product.

International payments

If you are taking international payments, there may be some extra things your need to think about. You can find out more about international payments here. You also need to consider this when selecting a platform.

Your user’s location might change the way they can pay you. So, you may need to think about, for example, the ability to use International Bank Account Numbers to pay.

Making your choice

No matter what features you want, you should do your research. You need to select a platform that's right for your business.

Some of the things you can do are compare fees, demo products and check what other services come with it. Also check how it protects your customers’ data.

Consider order monitoring

No matter what option you select for your online sales, you need to think about how you’ll monitor orders from customers. A good order tracking facility will let you see the progress of orders from start to finish. Some can also help with things like customer questions and stock management.

If you’ve picked the hosted option, then the ready-made tool you pick may have this built in. Add it to the list of things you want from a platform. This can help you make sure it either comes built in or that you can add it easily.

If you self-host, you still need to keep track of your inventory and keep up to date with incoming orders. So, you’ll need to select a system to add to your platform. There are plenty of systems to pick from, including shopwired, Ecwid, OpenCart, and Zen Cart.

These tools allow you to check details of incoming orders, payments and transactions. So, you can you stay on top of your business. It also means you can create a better customer experience.

Whether built in or separate, here are the features you should consider:

• Visibility - Can you see the status of the order at every step of the process?
• Accuracy - Some programs offer options to confirm quantity before shipping an order. So, you’ll never send out 100 items when the customer wanted 10.
• Customer use - Can the customer track orders?
• Returns - Can the software track returned items?
• Integration - For separate order tracking software, how easy is it to integrate with your website?

Website content

There’s some information you need to include on your website. You need to look into the regulations that apply to you and make sure you’re doing your own research.

Here’s a checklist of some of the basic things you need to include:

• Your business name
• Company registration No
• VAT No if applicable
• Contact details
• Any trade or professional memberships
• Terms and conditions
• Website terms of use
• Privacy policy
• Cookie policy
• Refund and return policy

Accessibility

Design your website so that anyone who wants to access it can do so. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has created a set of accessibility guidelines. These help you make sure that people, including those using assistive technology, can understand and use your site.