What are Payment Gateways?

By Adam  |  11 Sep 2015 08:00:00

Perhaps you've decided to start up your own eCommerce website; very good that's a very worthwhile endeavour. But perhaps you're also a bit in the dark when it comes to the more technical side of eCommerce. For example, you might see references to payment gateways in several places on Sellr and wonder what exactly they are; that's why I'm going to use this blog post to introduce you to the concept of payment gateways.

When you have an online shop, you might be surprised by this but you will never actually have access to your customers payment details. The reason for this is that all customer details go through a payment gateway; essentially what the payment gateway is, is the way that people make their payments. This is all done in the name of customer security. It's quite simple and there's quite a range of different options too: Barclaycard ePDQ, Sage Pay, Global Payments and so on. They each have their own strengths and it would be worth your time to do a bit of research before making a decision. Ultimately, you want your eCommerce website to accommodate as many different people as possible and that's the main thing you need to keep in mind before choosing one.

Anyway, I hope that's proved to be a helpful introduction to payment gateways! If you create an eCommerce website on Sellr then you are going to need a payment gateway, but you don't need to worry because they aren't really all that complicated. If you look on the websites of each gateway, you’ll find step by step instructions for using their services as well as information on the benefits of each one. But if you don't even have an eCommerce website yet, then why not sign up to Sellr right away? For no cost at all you can have all the tools you need to make your very own website. It could be what turns your eCommerce dream into an eCommerce reality.