How to take payments online from clients?

When you sell your product online, you must make sure that your customer can pay you easily. The easier the payment process, the more visitors will visit your website.

Also, you must keep in mind that you must find the most cost-effective ways to accept payments online. The more you pay in processing fees, the less profit you will make on each sale.

Different ways to take payments online

You can accept payments online in two ways, these are:

1. Direct debit and
2. Debit/credit card payments

Direct Debit

A Direct Debit agreement allows your company to deduct an amount of money from your customer's bank account. This could be a one-time payment, although it is most commonly used for recurring payments like bills. This makes it ideal for non-profit organisations and other subscription-based businesses.

Here are the ways to show how it works:

1. Join the Bacs-approved UK Direct Debit,
2. Check with your bank to see if you meet all of the requirements for receiving Direct Debit payments, and
3. Use a Bacs-approved UK Direct Debit bureau to submit payment files to Bacs. These payment files contain your customer’s bank details and payment amounts, allowing you to authorise the transaction.

Direct Debit is useful because it is cost-effective, thus you can avoid per-transaction fees charged on credit and debit card payments. This process is safe, reliable and fully regulated.

Payments can be done automatically with direct debit. Thus it is a convenient and time-saving payment process.

Follow the steps given below and start accepting payments through your website:

1. Open a merchant account - a merchant account is like an online bank account that temporarily holds money paid to you by a customer until the money is transferred to your actual bank account. Most UK banks provide merchant accounts with WorldPay and other dedicated providers. Some of the main merchant account providers are PayPal, Sage Pay, WorldPay and Braintree.
2. Set up a payment gateway – a payment gateway is a software that links your e-commerce website with a payment processing network. With the help of this, you can capture the card details of your customers and submit the payment. It can be linked with your merchant account.

With the help of both of these, you can sell your products online and start accepting card payments from clients online. Most people prefer online card payments because it is secure, easy, time-consuming and reliable.

Both merchant account and payment gateway providers charge fees per month. For example, a payment gateway charges a fee between £10 to £20 a month, with a small per-transaction fee added on top.

Card payments: use an all-in-one payment processor

For businesses who want to take card payments online, some suppliers offer an all-in-one package. Some examples of payment service providers or payment facilitators (PayFacs) are PayPal, Stripe, SumUp, iZettle, and Square.

Setting up with a full-service provider is easy, you just need to sign up and follow a step-by-step process to accept credit card payments on your website.

Using a PayFac instead of setting up your merchant account and payment gateway separately can save your money and time. You will usually receive access to a wide range of merchant services in one place, and you will have to pay fixed, flat rate percentages per transaction instead of monthly fees.