It's the era of digital payments. Customers today carry their purchasing power in a mobile phone or a credit/debit card.
Online stores, especially small businesses have to be spot on to ensure that every customer they attract is converted.
According to researchers, 62% of online merchants lose customers to a failed transaction.
Therefore, smooth and successful payments are a necessity.
This is where payment gateways come into play.
An online payment gateway in simple terms is a network through which your customers channel money towards you.
It is a technology used by business owners to access and conduct money transactions.
In this blog, you will see some of the top payment gateway providers for startups and small businesses in the United Kingdom.
Before starting on the payment gateways, it is beneficial to know their role in an online transaction.
Now, let us jump right into that list of payment gateways you would like to see on your website.
Being the most popular payment processing company in the United Kingdom, it is a natural choice for small businesses and startups. Worldpay handles about 135 million transactions daily.
They currently service more than 250,000 businesses across the UK and Europe. The Worldpay team can support you in setting up the payment from scratch.
In case you are planning to revamp your eCommerce website, Worldpay can do it for you.
The payment pages are hosted by Worldpay which makes it more secure. Also, they accept all credit cards, debit cards and payments by PayPal as well.
Allowing a total of 135 local currencies and 31 different languages.
Now, the question is what is the catch for small businesses?
Small businesses can benefit from Worldpay in two ways:
Now, if you have an online and physical store, they will integrate the sales through a single online account. Restaurants, hairdressers, pubs, etc. form their major small business customers.
Pricings do change time-to-time. But, a drastic change is often rare. So the current pricing will serve as a benchmark for you when you compare it with other payment gateway providers.
The two plans that suit small businesses are:
Stripe is racing with Worldpay to earn “The Best” badge.
Because Stripe has some unique features that are driving it to the top and in the coming months it is bound to top the list of best payment gateway UK has ever seen.
What makes Stripe so unique?
Well, to start we can say it has more than one unique feature. Invented in the cafes of Buenos Aires as Patrick Collison co-founder says it was born out of a direct interaction with people.
Stripe is more than a payment gateway. Its special functionalities will add more colour to your eCommerce website features.
Stripe started with its focus on developers. In the early days, this strategy helped them self-market their services. Because, whenever a business needed payment integration they would ring a developer.
And what would developers do? Suggest a solution that they find easy to work with. And Stripe earned its way on to the top of the list.
Per Transaction price | EU cards: 1.4% + 20p / Non-EU cards: 2.9% + 20p |
Currency conversion of international cards | 1% |
Disputed payments (ie: charge-backs) | £15 or £0 |
Single Euro Payment Area (SEPA) direct debit | 1% + 20p (max: £5) |
You can trust Stripe if you want to make your payments futuristic. Because Stripe learns from its users.
Whenever you do a transaction in Stripe, the Stripe Radar is up and running. Based on the data collected from your behaviour, you are offered options to create rules.
For example, it can suggest you to “block all transactions when the phone number doesn’t match country code” or “invalidate a payment when CVV is wrong three times during a transaction.”
Perhaps the most familiar name in the payment industry, PayPal, founded in 1998 December, has more than 360 million active subscribers today.
Payflow by Braintree is the preferred payment system for small businesses operating in the United Kingdom. It accepts credit/debit card payments and PayPal account transactions as well.
PayPal Pay Later is also supported by Braintree.
Paypal is known for its speed of transactions. Studies show that PayPal helps businesses hit 88.7% conversion rates.
Let us take a look at those features that let PayPal stand out.
The Opayo, formerly the Sage Pay, began its operations in 2001. It was one of those payment platforms which grew to support small and medium enterprises in the UK.
Opayo is the right choice for small businesses which are looking to improve customer experience. It has a flexible pricing structure and there are no hidden fees.
Introduced in 2007, Amazon Pay is a reliable payment gateway. Amazon focuses on making every user's payment journey unique.
Amazon Payment Services offers integrated technologies to help you accept payments cutting across business domains.
The thing about APS is that they are highly customizable. It offers payment processing capabilities that support unique customer journeys.
The ease of accessing these features depends on your developing resources. If your E-commerce website development agency can help with this integration process, then you can leverage more from the website architecture.
Shopify Payments offer payment gateway services in the UK. It is another integrated platform like Amazon. The wide reach and customer base of these brands makes the payment process easy.
Access your payment gateway and analytic tools in one place with Shopify. Small businesses benefit from Shopify’s pricing structure.
Selling products over £100 is really a catch for you. You can also refer to their pricing plans.
Cardstream offers full end-to-end white-label solutions. It also offers modular payment solutions that can adapt to your changing requirements.
You can integrate Cardstream with a single API call. Alternative payment methods also come under a single platform that comes in through this API.
Configurable checkout process makes it very customer-friendly when international transactions are carried out.
Skrill, originally founded in the United Kingdom in 2001, was known by the name Moneybookers.
In 2007, it was among the top three e-payment solution providers which shows their undisputed expertise.
Skrill offers a fast, instant and secure payment environment that suits all businesses.
The integration is simple and opens your access to 100+ local payment methods including digital wallets, cards, and instant bank transfers among other alternatives.
You can also manage over 40 currencies from one account and handle international transactions with ease.
Times have changed, e-commerce is now a way of life for shoppers.
Though many predicted the return of customers to physical stores after the COVID-19 restrictions, that hasn’t been fully the case. Ecommerce continues to flourish and prosper.
McKinsey’s research on the future retail stores tells us that the future is different.
It is neither totally digital nor totally physical. It is phygital.
A connected paradigm of the best eCommerce platforms and tech-driven storefronts.
So there is no time to lose.
Plan your payment journey with a suitable payment gateway and awe your customers with security and trust.