Payment processing is a key component of business operations of brick and mortar establishments as well as online stores. Businesses that accept credit or debit card payments will need a specialised service to authorise these payments, which is where payment gateways come in.

A payment gateway can be described as a technology that collects and transfers data to verify the customer’s bank details to make sure they have the necessary funds to complete the payment or transaction.

If you look at an ecommerce business, the online store will be integrated with a payment gateway, which is a part of ecommerce application development. Once an order is received, the online store contacts the payment gateway, which confirms the payment with the payment processer. The payment processer settles the payment with the bank, which in turn, provides the merchant with the payment.

A payment gateway may be provided by a bank, but merchants can also use a payment gateway provided by a specialised financial service provider. While the payment gateway you use depends on your requirements, integration with your business is likely to be carried out by a software development company.

There are different types of payment gateways and they each have their pros and cons. Hosted payment gateways, for instance, redirect the customer from your checkout page to a separate payment page to complete the transaction. This is a simple, secure, and customisable payment gateway.

Self-hosted payment gateways lack a support system, but are better in terms of customer experience as the customer is not redirected to another page.

API hosted payment gateways are customisable and have better integration, but can be lacking in terms of security because the merchant is responsible for certification. Local bank integration gateways have a quick and easy setup but limited features.

There are various factors to consider when integrating a payment gateway with your store, but one of the key considerations is secure integration as it can reduce or prevent fraud and theft, which is important for both merchants and buyers.

1.Certification

If you want to make your payment gateway secure and protected, there are a few things you can do. One of these measures is SSL and it is important that all transactions that take place on your website or mobile app is protected by SSL. With SSL, you can encrypt confidential information like your customer’s credit or debit card details.

Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS) are another certification to look for if you want secure payment gateway integration. PCI DSS provides guidelines for merchants on protecting sensitive customer data when processing payments.

Several requirements must be met to receive the PCI DSS certification, making payment gateways with PCI certification a secure option for your store.

2.Three domain secure

Three domain secure of 3-D Secure adds an additional level of security for online credit and debit transactions and involves three parties, which is how it gets its name. The three domains are the merchant domain, the issuer domain, and the interoperability domain.

With 3-D Secure authentication, the merchant can prevent fraudulent Card Not Present (CNP) transactions, which are transactions that occur with the absence of a bank card. When your payment gateway has 3-D Secure authentication, the transaction is approved only when the buyer’s identity is confirmed via a password and this is beneficial to both buyers and merchants.

3.Tokenization

Online transactions deal with sensitive data, which is why secure payment integration is extremely important. When paying for an order, buyers may have concerns about entering their credit or debit card details into the system as this information could get into the wrong hands.

With tokenisation, sensitive data like credit or debit card information is turned into a token, which are a non-sensitive equivalent that does not have an exploitable value. The original sensitive data is stored in a secure token vault and the token is used instead.

One of the key features of this process is that tokenised data is undecipherable and irreversible. This means that tokens cannot be returned to their original form, mainly because there is no mathematical relationship between the original data and the token.