How to Accept Payments Online: 7 Methods

1 Accept Credit and Debit Cards

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In 2019, approximately 1.06 billion credit cards were used throughout North America – hardly surprising, given that Americans own an average of four credit cards each. 

If you’re wondering how to accept payments online, the first place you should look is to the humble duo of credit and debit cards, no matter which type of ecommerce business you own.

Before you start accepting credit cards online, however, you’ll need a merchant account.

Also known as credit card processing, a merchant account is a type of bank account which enables your store to accept online payments.

(Psst! If you were already accepting credit and debit card payment in your brick-and-mortar store, then you’ll already have a merchant account, so you can skip to the next section if you like.)

Once a customer has tried to purchase something from your website, the merchant account holds the funds temporarily while certain monetary checks are made. The process usually goes like this:

1. Customer makes a purchase
2. Merchant account checks whether funds are available
3. Transaction verified by card association (Visa or Mastercard etc.)
4. Money enters your business bank account

Usually, the money is held within the merchant account for a couple of working days while the payment is verified, authorized, and deemed secure. 

As we said, a merchant account is a type of bank account, so you would connect your merchant account to your website as you would with any other type of bank account. You can easily open a merchant account through almost any bank, and you’ll usually be charged a flat fee of $10 to $30 per month for the service. As for the types of credit cards you should accept, the most widely used include Visa, Mastercard, and American Express.

2 Add a Payment Gateway to Your Website

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Simply put, a payment gateway connects your website to a checkout system. It links your website to the likes of Visa, Mastercard, and American Express, either embedding a checkout to your website or redirecting your customers to the payment gateway’s own website to complete the purchase. 

Payment gateways are simple to set up, and offer a variety of services tailored to different industries. Below are some of our favourite options which are easy to use, accept all major credit cards, and offer zero setup fees…

Stripe

Best for subscription-based businesses

Stripe is one of the most customizable payment gateways out there, enabling you to fully customize and embed a sleek checkout into your website. Most alternatives either require you to use their own checkout template, or force your customers to leave your site and use the payment gateway’s website in order to checkout. 

Stripe’s top feature is Stripe Billing, which lets you set up recurring bills or one-off invoices quickly and easily.

PayPal

Best for adding a checkout for free

As a household name, PayPal’s checkouts provide trust signals to your customers, letting them know their money is in safe hands. While PayPal’s checkouts are quite basic, they can be easily added at no cost. PayPal’s top feature is One-Touch checkout, creating a sleek experience for your customers. 

Square

Best for small businesses

The best option if you’re starting from ‘square one’, this payment gateway is simple and affordable for small businesses looking to accept payments online. You can even build a website for free using Square Online.

All-in-One Ecommerce Platform

While we’ve only mentioned three payment gateways, there are hundreds out there. The sheer choice can be overwhelming, what with all the different transaction fees and credit card processing features to consider. 

With that in mind, you might want to consider using an ecommerce website builder. These offer an ‘all-in-one’ solution, combining easy-to-use website builder tools with the world’s leading payment gateway integrations.

Shopify is the best all-around ecommerce platform on the market, combining awesome sales tools with an intuitive functionality that you’ll love to use. Meanwhile, Wix Ecommerce is a good option if you’re looking to build a beautiful website and sell a few items on the side. 

Shopify even offers its own payment gateway, Shopify Payments, which comes with zero transaction fees! However, Shopify also integrates with over 100 different payment gateways –  including PayPal, Square, and Stripe – so you can keep your options open.

3 Set up a Direct Debit

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Before we start, you should know that using a direct debit is not suitable for ecommerce payments. It’s a slow process. Direct debit requires the payer to authorize a business to withdraw money directly from their own account, which is why online store owners should stick to credit cards and payment gateways.

Having said that, direct debits are useful for websites that need to accept payments very rarely, such as local government websites receiving money from fines or penalties, or websites that use a subscription-based fee.

Direct debits for your business can be set up easily via the Automated Clearing House (ACH), the network in charge of direct debits in the US. In 2015, over 25 billion transactions were made on the ACH network, with direct debits making up 62% of those transactions.

4 Use eChecks

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Wondering how to accept payments online without dealing with cards or cash? Then check out eChecks. A type of EFT (electronic funds transfer), eChecks works just like a paper check, but online!

Much like their paper counterparts, eChecks will deposit money from the customer’s bank account to your business’ bank account, via an ACH (Automated Clearing House) software. All the customer needs to do is add some banking details into the online payment form, which is then processed by the ACH. Using eChecks allows your business to earn money and save trees – hooray!

5 Integrate Mobile Wallet Payments

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By 2023, it’s predicted that over 1.31 billion people worldwide will have used mobile payment apps over the course of at least six months. Clearly, if you’re mapping out how to take payments online for your long term strategy, you probably need to start accepting mobile payments. 

Also known as mobile wallets, these apps store your bank card details on your smartphone, enabling you to make quick payments online (if the online store accepts mobile app payments, that is!)

You’ll recognize the mobile wallets widely used in America, such as Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, and Google Pay, but there are some hugely popular alternatives in China – including AliPay and WeChat Pay – which you should consider if you’re looking to sell to the Chinese market.

The majority of ecommerce platforms – including Squarespace Ecommerce, BigCommerce – will provide your website with the ability to accept digital wallet payments within their most basic price plans.

6 Send Click-to-Pay Email Invoices

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This one’s quite self-explanatory. You can send invoices to your customers via email, who can then pay within a few clicks. It’s one of the most time-efficient ways for your business to accept payments online, while reducing your company’s use of paper. Everyone’s a winner!

You can use automated invoicing software to send out numerous invoices quickly and without a fuss. Some of the most popular automated invoice software include:

• Invoicera
• Zoho Invoice
• Certify Purchasing
• TimeSolv
• Ariba

These types of software will integrate your website, the invoice payment form, and your customer database all in one place, letting you see who’s paid and how much you’ve earned from invoices so far.

7 Install Recurring Billing Software

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You may remember that the payment gateway Stripe allows you to send recurring bills as part of its package. While Stripe offers many different features that allow you take payments online, you can choose to invest in software that specializes in sending bills to your customers automatically.

Recurring billing software – also called automated billing software – is ideal for subscription-based businesses because it allows your customers to pay automatically each time the payment is due, making your customers’ lives easier – and ensuring you get paid on time! Just think, happy customers means happy profits.

If you want to build an online store, then you should know that ecommerce website builders, such as Shopify, support the ability to send recurring orders, invoices, and subscriptions through third party apps.