Payment Gateways and Online Commerce in Ireland

payment gateways & online commerce

Ever paid for a product or service online using your credit card?

Chances are it was conducted through a payment gateway. Most online stores and businesses use a payment gateway service.

This enables them to process their payment from customers and clients as it is more convenient than doing it internally.

It cuts the need for additional concerns for their own hosting services in creating their own websites. It is far more efficient and cost effective to have a payment gateway do the grunt-work.

This preferable to negotiating for and creating an internal payment processing method.

Payment gateways & Online Commerce are prevalent and Ireland is no exception. Ireland based businesses are continuously becoming tech savvy.

With this, payment gateways are becoming more commonplace. But which payment gateways are best to choose? Which payment gateways offer the best options and versatility? Read on to find out more.

What Exactly Do Payment Gateways Do?

It is useful to have a clearer understanding of what these services actually do. Payment gateways offer the convenience of making payments quickly and easily. They also offer security in protecting their vital information.

After all, clients and customers would not want their credit card or banking information to be compromised.

It is, of course, not a perfect system. Anything done electronically can be taken advantage of by parties with enough resources.

This is possible as long as they have the necessary information (in the case of hackers etc). This is the reason payment gateways should be following a strict and secure guideline. Processing payments through payment gateways generally follow the following steps:

  • Encrypting data. Perhaps the most important part of the process, this step ensures the data transfers have protection. Depending on the chosen source of funds, this could be credit card or banking information. It could also be any other third-party merchant service handling finance for clients.
  • Generally, this is when the approval for the payment or transfer of funds is performed. In some cases, there are multiple sub-processes done here as well. These include multi-step authorizations through email or text confirmation.
  • At this stage, the payment goes through. Funds move, and a message goes to both the client/customer and the host that the transaction is completed.

As part of this process, payment gateways will also do some other standard requirements. These can include tax computations based on the amount of the payment.

They may include scheduling transfers of funds for clients and customers who have set up a specific cycle for payments. Even calculating for conversions due to international transactions, among others.

For Ireland based businesses, this is important. This is because transactions may be sourced from places like North America and Asia, for instance.

Payment gateways aim to be reliable payment processing options, but they are not all cut with the same cloth. It goes without saying that the more established and bigger the payment gateway business is, the more likely that it will perform well.

Which Is the Best Payment Gateways for Ireland?

There are many payment gateways available online for Ireland based businesses to choose from. There are also some choices that are better than others for various reasons.

Below, we look at some of the best that present the best range of options, reliability, security, and versatility:

  • Jeff Bezos probably does not need more money coming in from his brainchild business. It is undeniable however that Amazon is one of the most prevalent and reliable payment gateways available in the world.Amazon offers gateways for regular customers as well as merchant services and online small to medium businesses. Amazon’s payment gateway options are robust, and very secure.

    Furthermore, Amazon does not add any charges for processing these transactions.

  • Authorize.net. One of the longest running payment gateways online, Authorize.net has been doing business since 1996. Many online transactions for merchant services use Authorize.net.In particular for those using hosting services through Magento and eCommerce, for example.
  • Established by Elon Musk in 1999, Paypal is perhaps the most popular and widespread payment gateway out there today.Paypal works with most major banks, Mastercard, and Visa across the globe, and Ireland is no exception. Many online businesses conduct their payment primarily through Paypal.
  • Based in the UK, Skrill works for both consumers and businesses in the EU and the rest of the world. Recently, Skrill has become available as an app for mobile devices.This is an important development, as many customers prefer doing their transactions on the go.
  • A more recent player in the payment gateway industry. Stripe was established in 2010. It uses a framework that works well for customer transactions and business processes on a cyclical basis.

Note that this is not an extensive list. There are other payment gateway options that may be suited for Ireland based businesses. These however are the most ideal for a broad range of transactions.

Payment Gateways & Online Commerce

Business to business and business to customer transactions are part and parcel of the online world today.

Encrypting and protecting the data used to process these transactions is vital to the industry.

Those businesses based and operating in Ireland should select from the best choices available. Always choose the one that provides the most convenience and security in helping with conducting your business.

On that note, payment gateways & online commerce that offer mobile apps and have mobile-friendly websites are ideal choices. Most people conduct their transactions from their portable devices.

Having a mobile-friendly website for your own business based in Ireland would be a no-brainer.

If you are interested in creating a mobile-friendly Ireland business website, Hose.ie can provide that for you.

Host.ie is dedicated to providing anything from hosting, VPS, and SSL options to make things convenient for you. Check out our services and resources on our website.