E-commerce Payment Gateways

Payment processing gateways are online services for automatically processing card payments via the web

If you are processing card transactions online, you will almost certainly need to utilise the services of a payment gateway service. These services handle the financial transaction - taking funds from your customers' payment cards - and ultimately transferring them in to your own business bank account.

Depending on how you integrate with a payment gateway, you will generally find they take care of the security and compliance issues regarding your customers' payment details - ensuring you, as the site owner, are never in contact with those details - and so avoid the responsibility of being exposed to holding your customers' payment data

The payment gateway providers

SagePay: Probably the most-popular e-commerce payment gateway provider in the UK, SagePay (formerly known as Protx) is, as the name suggests, owned by the accounting software giant Sage. We always recommend SagePay to our e-commerce clients, as the application process, the technical integration - and the end customers' experience with SagePay tends to be the simplest of all the gateway providers. www.sagepay.com

WorldPay: Owned by the Royal Bank of Scotland, Worldpay was one of the first payment gateway providers - and is one of the best known. Clients with RBS-related bank accounts often find their business bank promotes WorldPay to them for their e-commerce services. www.worldpay.com

HSBC Secure ePayments: The online card processing arm of HSBC bank. While HSBC often push their customers towards using their payment gateway service, we tend to recommend that clients avoid it - as, in our past experience, the process of integrating it technically - and, more importantly, the process for customers to make their payments - has been more long-winded and complicated than the other gateway providers. www.hsbc.co.uk

Barclays ePDQ: The online payment service offered by Barclays Bank to its e-commerce customers

PayPal: Probably the most-widely known payment gateway service - because of its wide use as a personal payment service, PayPal also offers a range of business payment solutions. We tend to advise against using PayPal as a sole method of payment on an e-commerce site - partly because its reputation as a 'free' and personal (as opposed to business) service, can give the impression of a more amatuerish e-commerce operation that might be desirable for a serious business - and also because the PayPal payment process favours customers who have a PayPal account over those that do not. However, it is a popular option - and should be considered as an alternative option for e-commerce checkouts. www.paypal.co.uk

Google Checkout: Google's rival to PayPal has not taken off to quite the extent that PayPal has - but offers broadly the same kind of service. This is another popular payment option for e-commerce sites, as long as it is offered in conjunction with other more mainstream card payment options.

Applying for a payment gateway

To open a payment gateway account, you will already need to have payment processing facilities enabled with an existing 'acquiring bank'. You will also need to ensure that you have an 'internet' merchant number with this bank. Once you have this in place, applications via the relevant gateway websites are relatively straightforward and can be completed online.