Accepting payments online and integrating a payment gateway into your online business is your first step to success, but do you understand what a payment gateway is? We’ve been advising people for some time now and more often than not business owners are confused by what a payment gateway involves. It’s not surprising with so much misinformation out there and convoluted descriptions. However, it’s important for you to understand these basic payment processes and terminology as you embark on your exciting journey. We’ve compiled a list of common questions about payment gateways we answer daily, so you’ll be prepared and in control at every stage.

Costs reduction - Automated and regulated business processes allow you to reduce operational costs by decreasing the number of routine operations, which your employees were initially to perform manually. Quality of the service/product improvement - Using a CRM system, it is possible to make relationships with customers the first priority for your company, which allows for paying more attention to the level of the provided service and customer satisfaction rate. Performance improvement - Using a CRM system, it is possible to make relationships with customers the first priority for your company, which allows for paying more attention to the level of the provided service and customer satisfaction rate. Increases customer loyalty - Complete information on each client will enable marketing, sales and service agents to deliver truly personalized customer experience, which leads to increased customer loyalty and more sales. Increased number of customers- Having loyal customers, you can be sure that they will recommend your company to their friends or partners. Increased sales volume - With the involvement of new customers, the number of sales is also growing, and increasing the loyalty of existing customers leads to repeated sales.

CRM system is software that manages the relationship between an organization and its customers. The abbreviation CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management. Read more about CRM at the What is CRM page The main goal of any CRM is to ensure sales increase by optimizing business processes, improving the quality of goods and services, and effectively communicating with customers (after-sales service and technical support). CRM captures and analyzes leads, stores information about customers, accepts complaints and offers from these customers, and, based on all this information, provides you with the data, which allows for making data-backed decisions. This data is a great way to improve the quality of service and, as a result, increase sales.

For a quick understanding of the payment journey, we’ve set out the steps as follows; A customer when buying online enters payment details at checkout and presses submit. The payment gateway securely carries the transaction to the merchant’s bank. The merchant’s bank processor submits the transaction to the credit card network ( Like Visa or Mastercard). Who then re-routes the transaction to the bank that issued the credit card to the customer. The issuing bank then approves or declines the transaction based on the funds available in the customer’s account. It then passes the results back to the credit card network who will consequently forward this information to the payment gateway. The payment gateway receives this message and sends it to the website. The issuing bank sends the funds to the network which passes the funds to the merchant’s internet account. The bank then deposits the funds 1-4 days later, into the merchant’s account. If the transaction is approved, then the merchant delivers the goods or services to the customer, and everyone is happy. Think of the payment gateway almost like a train that carries information through all the different stations, the conductor talking along the way with the station master at each stop.