There are several Payment gateways that throng the e-commerce scene today. PayPal, Google Wallet, 2CO, Authorize.net, Amazon are the most often used payment gateways.  And obviously, the e-commerce business person is confused with all the options. How does he choose the right gateway?

Reliability

Stick to a payment gateway that has a reputation and a clientele that has had a good run with it. A payment gateway is something that accepts money on your behalf from your customer and gives it to you. So, you need to put faith in the right place. Payment gateways like PayPal have been around for ages and generally they have good reviews.

Ease of setting up

A good payment gateway is one that makes a minimal fuss about setting up, maintaining the interface, sending and receiving payments. Typically, payment gateways take an email address and a bank account to set up. Anything more is going to be an extra step. And look for gateways that receive and remit money with minimal fuss. This is very important because setting up is a one-time process but money transactions happen on an everyday basis.

Transaction fees

A payment gateway charges you per transaction. So, make sure you read through the terms and go ahead with one only if you are fine with the charges levied. Some gateways accept clients of all business sizes while others have specific segments to target. So, choose wisely.

Modes of payment

Does the payment gateway you finalize accept payments via MasterCard, Visa, Discover, American Express and more? This is extremely important before you decide on a payment gateway. Remember that your customers would potentially abandon their cart before billing if they find that their preferred mode of online payment is not supported on your site.

Language support

Are there people from all over the world who shop with you? Make sure you choose a gateway that can serve your customers in several languages to make sure you don’t lose business thanks to the language divide.

Currency

Like with language, currency is a great divide. Someone shopping in your site from Europe would like to deal with a payment gateway that accepts payment in euros or whatever his local currency is. Apart from language and currency variances, there might be a list of countries that the payment gateway accepts payments from. Make sure the list is comprehensive from your perspective.