How to choose the best buyer for your payment gateway

Choosing a good acquirer is key to optimising your payment approval rate and increasing conversion

Everyone is looking for a way to sell more online (now that selling in physical shops is more complicated). Selling more (both online and in Brick-and-Mortar format) is the result of a sales strategy that has been polished to the last detail in most cases. It's in the small details when your strategy can position you over those of your competitors. Today we come to talk about one of the key factors to increase your conversion (and in many cases forgotten): how to choose the best acquirer for your payment gateway.

What is an acquirer? How can it help me optimise my payments?

An acquirer is the financial intermediary who manages your business transactions; he is the intermediary between your client's card and the payment gateway where the customer enters his details. Its role is to receive the card details from the payment gateway, and process the payment to the merchant's account. The management carried out by the acquirer, in steps, consists of:

• Authorisation: it proceeds to check the validity of the customer's card with his bank, does he have sufficient funds?
• Authentication (optional): it checks the identity of the person making the payment, matching it with the cardholder.

When the first two steps (authorisation and authentication) have been successfully completed, the acquirer proceeds to carry out the transaction between the client's bank and the merchant's bank. How?

• It withdraws the appropriate amount from the customer's account (as we have mentioned above, upon confirmation by the customer's bank).
• It retains the money on deposit in the name of the merchant.
• It transfers the money to the merchant's bank account once the order has been received by the customer correctly.

Simple, isn't it? As simple as it sounds, it's one of the key steps to manage transactions between your customers and your bank. Now, how to choose the best acquirer for your business? There are several alternatives available to you, we will show you which one has the most benefits for you.

Benefits of a payment processing partner

The best multi-acquirer network

You might be thinking, why not just do it through my bank? It is true that banks offer acquiring services to their customers, but in addition to not being the most efficient, they charge high commissions for it, offering you a service payment service with insufficient results. However, there are external alternatives specialised in acquiring, where you will obtain a professional service at an unbeatable value for money, obtaining a true financial partner like a bank can never be.

Why does a financial partner offer you the best acquisition coverage?

The truth is that when it comes to acquirers, one is often not enough. The most optimised response is a network of global acquirers; in other words: a multi-acquirer network. Why? Because it gives you the advantages of all the acquirers separately, unifying them into a network. These are some of the disadvantages of working with a single acquirer:

• Each acquirer is compatible with certain cards. This can limit your payment gateway to certain cards (and therefore limiting the number of customers who can buy from your business). A global multi-acquirer network makes you accessible to a large number of cards from all over the world, expanding the number of potential customers you're targeting.
• A multi-acquirer network offers you maximum coverage at the best price. Hiring a single acquirer can be limiting and insufficient, especially if you're just getting started. They usually charge fixed monthly fees, regardless of the number of transactions they handle, for limited coverage services. A multi-acquirer network gives you maximum compatibility with cards from all over the world, at a much better value for money than a single acquirer.
• Each acquirer works in certain geographical areas. This adds to the factors to consider when choosing the right acquirer for you. Once again, working with a network becomes the most efficient solution. It allows you to accept card payments from multiple countries (since you get the geographic compatibility of all the acquirers you work with). In this way, you are getting maximum coverage at the most competitive price in the payments market.
• It accepts payments regardless of currency. We've already told you that you can accept payments from the most widely used cards globally; we've also told you that multi-acquirer networks allow you to sell to customers all over the world... But they also allow you to accept payments regardless of the currency your client uses. Once again, a multi-acquirer network becomes the most prepared solution to the needs of the globalised commerce to which we are increasingly accustomed.

A multi-acquirer network... And the best payment gateway for your business

If multi-acquirer networks have taught us anything, it is that we don't have to choose a single acquirer to process our payments: we can have all their benefits working with a network. This results in maximum compatibility with the largest number of cards globally.

But payment management goes beyond the acquirers. Although they do the work "behind-the-scenes", payment gateways are the visible face of the entire purchasing process. They are the interface with which your client interacts when entrusting you with their personal data, and from which they expect maximum security and confidentiality. And you know what else? Not all purchasers are compatible with all payment gateways. This is yet another reason why you should team up with a financial partner to obtain the most comprehensive and optimised payment management service for your business.

Payment partners like PayXpert know the complexity behind payment management. That's why we've developed specialised payment management technology for you. You no longer have to worry about how to choose the best acquirer for your business, or which payment gateway will best suit your customer's needs. Our team of experts has designed a multi-channel payment gateway with which your customers can choose the payment method or channel that best suits their needs at any given time:

• Pay-By-Link: through which they can access the payment page through a link (which they can receive in their email, SMS or chatbot). Always under PayXpert's maximum security guarantees (check out tokenization, the latest technology in data protection).
• MOTO Payments : through your agents or a powerful Interactive Voice Response.
• Electronic Payments. The classic of payments, but not the only option we offer.
• SOFT MPOS. Or how to turn your smartphone and that of your employees into a dataphone with which to receive payments. Payment technology that you can carry in your pocket: accept payments anywhere.
• POS. Point-of-sale terminal or dataphone. As experts in payment technology, our dataphone is the result of the industry's greatest innovation. PayXpert puts one of the most powerful POS on the market within your reach.

Sounds good, doesn't it? Because PayXpert is much more than payment technology: it's added value for your business. Do you want to know the financial solution that best suits your needs? Do not hesitate to contact our experts and request a demo without obligation. Because we can do many things for you.