Check Your Payment Gateways for These Common Mistakes

Integrating a payment gateway into a finance app is a straightforward task. Right?

Well, no.

This straightforward, at first glance, piece of work, in fact, is a complex and sensitive process. A process you can fail at so many stages. Properly working transactions, smooth and enjoyable user experience, and so many other things need to be done flawlessly and with security standards and regulations in mind.

Let’s try to really understand why payment gateway integration is so intricate and why the impact of poorly integrated gateways on sales is so massive. Common integration mistakes and myths about payment gateways you believe in.

So much to talk about, let’s begin!

The 3 Key Aspects That Make Integration Complex

The most obvious reason for payment gateway integration to be so complex is the technical aspect of the integration.

Payment gateway integration is the integration of APIs, the management of server-side scripting, and a huge amount of work that needs to be done to ensure compatibility with various payment methods.

Without a good team of programmers who know how to code it all together, without suitable server architecture and solid network security protocols – there’s no chance for you to end up with a properly working payment gateway.

Speaking of security. Security requirements are always important, but they’re especially important when we’re dealing with sensitive financial data. Apart from the PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) you’ve probably heard about, these technologies are becoming essential due to the increasing number of cyber threats worldwide:

• Encryption (be it AES, Twofish, or the freshly developed FIPS 203)
• Tokenization
• Secure authentication (Biometrics, SSO, MFA, and many others)

The next aspect is regulatory compliance. For this one, where you operate really matters, as different regions have different regulatory requirements for financial transactions. Double-checking that your payment gateway complies with local, national, and international laws is a must.

4 Common Mistakes During Integration

1 – Inadequate Testing

Skipping testing phases is a bad idea. Thorough testing phases make the situation where you or your users face some undetected bug very unlikely. Testing usually covers various scenarios:

• Testing high transaction volume handling
• Testing different payment methods
• Detecting device-specific errors
• And a whole bunch of other checks

2 – Going Cheap With Mobile Optimization

People make most of their purchases via smartphone. Therefore, to have a mobile-optimized payment gateway is simply essential. Want to deter a great share of users who shop mobile? That’s easy, you just need to have a non-responsive and poorly designed mobile version of your payment gateway.

3 – To Have An Over-complicated Payment Process

The payment process must be as straightforward and intuitive as possible. A good balance between keeping your user informed of the steps he needs to do and not overwhelming them is the key. Simplify the steps and reduce the time it takes to complete a transaction.

4 – Not Caring About Future Growth

Not considering future growth inevitably leads to issues as transaction volumes increase. You must be confident that your payment gateway is always ready to scale to handle that increased load without sacrificing a single bit of performance.

Being aware of these mistakes is one thing and knowing how to avoid them is another. To make sure these mistakes will not be a story about you, find yourself a good fintech app development company. They know how to give you a smooth integration process all while keeping the development cost as reasonable as possible.

A Poorly Integrated Payment Gateway Hits Your Business Hard

The impact of a poorly integrated payment gateway is huge.

The most obvious area is sales, of course.

A clunky or otherwise unreliable payment process leaves you with an unpleasant statistic on cart abandonment rate. Users will leave you before they buy anything if your payment gateway is:

• Slow
• Frequently fails
• Requires too many steps

Latency issues are a good indicator that you decided to save some finances during the optimization stage and now are enjoying your results in the form of delays in transaction processing.

• User experience is important! Give your visitors an intuitive UI with minimal redirects and the opportunity to provide real-time feedback to show them how much they mean to you

Do Not Underestimate the Aspect of Trust

Issues during the payment process erode trust, doesn’t matter whether they’re significant or barely noticeable.

A user needs to feel confident in the fact that their financial information is secure and not misused. If they see errors regarding security or warning signs like invalid SSL certificates, it’d be difficult for them not to question the security of the site. Make sure it doesn’t happen.

Another thing is to place visible security badges and comply with standards like PCI DSS or others to reassure them that your place is the safe place to be and to buy from.

Remember! Regular security audits, together with transparent communication, build trust and make users feel safe before and during transaction completion.

3 Myths About Payment Gateways

Myth 1 – “All payment gateways are the same”

That’s not true! Different gateways offer different features as well as different fee structures and integration complexities. Which one to choose depends on the specific business goals and needs you’ve set for yourself.

Myth 2 – “Integration is a one-time task”

Ongoing maintenance is as important as the initial development. You can’t do without it because it addresses security updates, compliance changes, and ensures continued compatibility with new technologies and platforms.

Myth 3 – “Payment gateways guarantee security”

A well-thought-out payment gateway provides a secure environment, yes. Nonetheless, it’s really recommended to implement other additional security measures. There’s no such thing as too much protection from fraud and data breaches.

Conclusion

Such a sensitive task of integrating a payment gateway into a financial application expects to be approached with the proper expertise and understanding of the whole process.

Being aware of the impact of poor integration will motivate you to do the integration process properly, without cutting edges. Do that and your app will offer users a smooth, secure, and user-friendly payment experience.