If you intent to open an online store, to monetize your blog or to process transactions on your website, at some point you will have to choose a payment gateway.

What is a payment gateway?

A payment gateway is an e-commerce application service provider that authorizes credit card payments for e-businesses. There are hundreds of payment gateways in the world, so choosing the right one for your business can be a daunting task. Most hosted e-commerce solutions and shopping cart WordPress plugins integrate a payment gateway like Paypal and Stripe. But if you want to choose the payment gateway yourself, this infographic will help you make a decision based on the features to consider. 

How does a payment gateway work?

Here is how a typical transaction process goes:

• The customer places an order on your website and clicks ‘Order’
• Your website forwards the transaction details to the payment gateway
• The payment gateway forwards the transaction information to the payment processor used by your acquiring bank
• The payment processor forwards the transaction information to the card association (Visa, Mastercard or other)
• The credit card issuing bank receives the authorization request and does fraud and credit or debit checks and then sends a response back to the processor
• The processor forwards the authorization response to the payment gateway
• The payment gateway receives the response, and forwards it on to the website
• Your website then fulfills the order

Factors to consider when choosing a payment gateway

• Recurring billing
• Mobile payments
• Fees
• Currencies
• Infographic key
• On-site payments
• Payment types available
• Country availability
• Cutomer support
• Fraud protection

For details about each feature, take a look at the infographic below, designed by CueCommerce.