If you have an online store, you want your online payments to go through 24×7 regardless of the volume of transactions taking place. Therefore, your payment system integration must work as intended so that there are no cart abandonments and your customers have a great online shopping experience.
So, what if your online payments are failing? What can you do about it? Well, if your payment system is consistently giving you headaches and is failing to handle transactions efficiently, maybe it’s time to switch over to a new service provider.
In case, that’s the issue, here are a few tips that can help you look for a new service provider who can deliver the experience you want for your customers!
Choose a Reliable Service Provider
First and foremost, always opt for a reliable service provider known for offering a stable payment gateway service. Even though costing is something that you should keep in mind, just cost alone shouldn’t be a benchmark. Rather the quality of service is more important even if you have to spend a little more on acquiring the services of a reliable service provider.
Server Stability
The amount of load a server can take while handling multiple transactions at the same time is a good way to judge the level of services you can expect. As your online store grows, you are going to need a service provider who can keep pace with the growing number of transactions taking place on the website. If your online payments are failing now and then, this could be a potential issue you may need to take a look into.
Downtime
Many times, payments don’t go through because of server downtimes. Even though this sometimes happens even with the best of eCommerce websites, it could prove detrimental to your business in case they happen frequently and are prolonged. If that’s the problem:
- switch to a service provider who has the infrastructure required to handle large transaction volumes
- one that has a robust technical team to quickly get you back up to speed in the fastest turnaround time.
Now those are all possible solutions if you are a merchant, but what if you are a customer trying to buy something online, and your payment fails. What do you do in that case? Here are a couple of points to help you figure things out.
- You are Entering Incorrect Information: Many times, we fail to enter the correct information because of a typo. A few numbers that are wrong here and there, and your payments will fail as the payment processor won’t be able to validate it. The same goes for OTP, where we may end up entering the wrong one. So, the next time you are trying to shop online for goods and services, pay close attention to the:
- transaction information being entered
- following OTP that needs to enter before the transaction can go through.
- Security Concerns: Sometimes it may not be your fault. Even after having entered all the information correctly, you may still end up with a failed transaction. This could be a result of a security flag by your bank, as they may not have been able to validate the transaction.
There could be a variety of security concerns at play here, for such an issue to crop up. Some of the most common ones include:
- Security Risk: If there is a security risk such as in the case of a domestic card being used for an international transaction, the bank will most likely flag it and decline the transaction.
- Payment Gateway Rejection: Your payment may also get declined due to caps on the number of transactions allowed on the merchant’s site, or if there is an upper limit set for every transaction. If that’s the case, your payments will fail either because the merchant has exceeded his transaction limit or the product that you are trying to make the payment for exceeds the upper limit set by the payment gateway.
- BIN Rejections: BIN or Bank Identification Number refers to the first 6 digits of your card. Certain BINs that are blacklisted by the bank because of fraud don’t work. So, in case your BIN is on the blacklist, your payments won’t go through.
No matter if you are a merchant or a customer, a payment gateway is equally important for both parties. So, if you are a merchant and want all your online transactions to happen without fail, and customers don’t migrate off to competitor stores, then invest in a payment gateway such as plural by pine labs, so that your business is up and running no matter what!