BY MARCI GAGNON

There are two types . Which one is right for your business ?

When it comes to designing your website , it ’ s crucial to make the ordering process as simple and seamless to navigate as possible for your customers . Starting with how customers place and complete the order from the checkout page . After all , the checkout page is where customers ultimately decide to place an order . In some cases , they are placing a will call order and deciding on your company for the first time . A good experience could result in a repeat customer .

There are two types of checkout pages to choose from : onsite or hosted .

An on-site payments page is one that is located on your website . You are the host , and your customers never leave your website . Consider it a “ self-hosted ” payments page . On-site payment pages are custom designed to fit your business needs and require a web designer or inhouse IT person to configure . With a self-hosted page , your company has the benefits of specific design elements as well as the downside of security responsibility . For larger companies that have an in-house IT staff trained in payment security this may be a good option .

A hosted payments page is a checkout page located on a third-party website . When a customer clicks on your site to make a payment , he or she is directed away from your website to a new site . In general , this new site with its hosted checkout page is provided by your merchant payments provider or gateway .

Hosted payment checkouts are made to order . Everything that is required to complete a sale at checkout is stored on the server of the provider . This includes the customer information needed to make a payment happen , the actual processing of the payment itself , and finally the generation of payment confirmations and receipts .

Once your customer completes the checkout payment process , he or she is redirected back to your website . But in all the time your customer is at the hosted checkout page , he or she might not even realize that he or she is actually at another web page .

Your customers will see the payment processor or payment gateway ’ s brand name on the checkout page , but they ’ ll also see your name if you utilize a hosted payment checkout page that allows for personalized customization . That means being able to add your logo and business colors and sometimes your own design templates .

Why should you want a hosted payments checkout page ? Lots of reasons .

The best reason to have a hosted payments checkout

page is that it puts most of the onus for security on your payment partner .

We all know how crucial it is for businesses to provide a safe and secure website for customers to place orders and make online payments . Without confidence in the safety of an online transaction , customers simply won ’ t want to do business with you .

With a hosted payments checkout , the responsibility for managing , transmitting and protecting sensitive consumer data falls to the hosted payment checkout provider . And that ’ s a good thing because they are experts at payment processing .

Frankly , handling security yourself can be a costly endeavor if you are a small business owner . It might also require some in-depth coding knowledge . Meanwhile self-hosted payment pages significantly increase the scope of your PCI compliance requirements .

Better still , should your business be the victim of a hacking or fraud , you will not have to reimburse any customers affected . That obligation belongs to the hosted checkout page provider .

And the cost for this service ? Just a small transaction fee . Which is not a lot to pay for a whole lot of peace of mind for both you and your customers .

In addition , the hosted payment page integration process is about as simple as user-experience design gets . This is excellent news for small businesses or those offering simple products or services . You don ’ t need a team of MIT graduates to set up a hosted payments checkout page . A few coding keystrokes should do the trick .

While larger companies that have access to an IT staff may have the expertise and business need to host their own check out page for a variety of reasons , small to midsize companies should take advantage of the simplicity , security and enhanced PCI-compliance with a hosted checkout page . The bottom line is that a hosted checkout page is less liability for your business , easy to set up , and simple to customize . When you add it all up , a hosted payments page is probably the right addition to your website l FON

Marci Gagnon is the Vice President of Strategic Alliances for Qualpay and has been in the payments industry for over 15 years with a concentration on recurring billing and the Energy space . Qualpay provides processing solutions to fuel delivery and service businesses . For more information , contact Marci Gagnon at marci @ qualpay . com or visit https :// www . qualpay . com / industry / utility-and-energy .

www . fueloilnews . com | FUEL OIL NEWS | OCTOBER 2023 19