Online shopping cart vs payment gateway
To enable your website to accept online payments, you will need both: a payment gateway and an online shopping cart.
These both can’t stand-alone and can’t operate without each other. But have you figure out the difference between the two?
The two main components of an e-commerce payment processing platform are payment gateway and a shopping cart and these components are often confusing to distinguish.
Don’t worry, if you are new to e-Commerce world, we are here to break down the information to you for a clearer and better understanding.
What is an online shopping cart?
A shopping cart is almost similar to a grocery cart that you wheel through the traditional brick-mortar store.
Just like what you would do in the store after you have done your window shopping, you would put the desired products into the cart and proceed to the check-out counter to pay for your goods.
How does online shopping cart work for your customers?
Now, this is exactly what an online shopping cart does, the shopping cart is a user-friendly interface for your customers to easily navigate through your online store/websites just like a physical brick-and-mortar cart.
Your online customers would then add the desired items to the cart using the “Add to Cart” feature and complete the payment at the checkout page.
Online shopping cart features
A shopping cart has this feature where the customers could save the item and make a payment in the future.
In the event that a customer abandons the checkout at the payment page, the merchant can send an email to notify the customers that they have abandoned the checkout and completed it.
But usually, if a customer abandons it for a long time, the merchant can also send an email offering special discounts/deals related to the item that has been left abandoned in the shopping cart.
Besides, a shopping cart has other functions such as; it allows the customer to hold the items for purchase, calculate tax and shipping costs, and add in discount/voucher code and a total order amount.
And there are plenty more other features as well.
Online shopping cart integration
iPay88 payment solutions are fully integrated into a wide range of popular shopping carts.
If you are new to e-Commerce, we do provide technical support and technical documentation to assist you with the integration of iPay88 payment service with your selected shopping cart system or e-Commerce platform.
We also have a pre-integrated payment module or plug-in for the following popular third-party shopping carts, such as:
- Easystore
- Sitegiant
- Shopify
- Magento
- WordPress
What is a payment gateway?
After your customers use the online shopping cart feature, then the payment gateway roles come in.
A payment gateway is just like an online point-of-sale terminal for your online business where it securely authorises online payments for your e-Commerce website by either approving or declining a sale.
It is most commonly used within the Internet range, but it could also be used in a traditional brick-and-mortar retail setting with a card swipe reader. Payment gateway allows your customers to input their debit/credit card details, shipping and billing addresses.
A customer will also know instantly if their sale is approved or rejected. Once the payment gateway has authorized the online payment, it will then transmit your transaction details to your merchant account.
Merchant Code and Merchant Key
For merchants, you will need Merchant Code and Merchant Key for payment processing. For example, in this case, if you sign up for a merchant account with iPay88, iPay88 will provide these credentials to accept payment once your merchant account is approved for payment processing.
Payment gateway features
iPay88 payment gateway features include:
- Multi-currency payment options
- Risk & Fraud Management
- PCI Compliant gateway
- 3-D Secure (OTP) depends on the selected bank)
- Customer & Merchant tokenisation
- Recurring payment
- Pay4Me (3rd party pay for your customer’s purchases)
- Virtual Terminal (an online version of a physical credit card terminal)
- Email Payment
- Easy Payment Plan (Instalment plan)
- mPOS (Accept Visa & MasterCard payments on your phone)
- Direct Link (Collect easy one-off payment for your goods and services)
- Campaigns and Promotions (Offer incentives for your customers with attractive promo deals)
- Customize your checkout page with your company logo (For corporate customers)
Now, all you need for your e-commerce website to be up and running live is a shopping cart, payment gateway, and a merchant account.
Conclusion
Now back to this blog topic again, without a shopping cart, your customers cannot get your items to checkout.
Without the payment gateway, your customers cannot pay for your items. So, these both must work together and cannot stand alone.
You can contact iPay88 – ASEAN’s leading provider of online payment solutions, and enquire about the list of comprehensive payment options available.
