How to Choose a Mobile Payment Gateway in 2022

Three out of every four Europeans used their mobiles to shop online in 2020. Not just this, more than half of all e-commerce sales in Europe took place on mobile. Europe has some of the highest internet penetration rates in the world. No surprise that mobile is becoming the go-to channel for many shoppers. Research suggests that mobile shoppers will grow at double the rate of desktop shoppers in Europe’s top 5 e-commerce markets.
Consumers today use their smartphones for pretty much everything. And they love to shop via their smartphones because of the better user experience and the flexibility it offers. Now, even social media sites, including Facebook and Instagram, have introduced “shop now” buttons to allow shoppers to easily shop for what they want without leaving the platform they are on. Mobile payments benefit merchants too. For instance, they help you widen your reach and customer base, and thus, improve sales and brand engagement.
Read on to know more.

How Do I Accept Mobile Payments?

You can accept mobile payments in two ways – through in-app and/or a mobile payment gateway.
If you sell goods or services in-app (for example, game rewards, subscriptions, etc.), you can accept in-app payments. These payments are processed directly by Apple or Google, through AppStore or Google Play. You don’t need an external payment service provider to process them.
If you sell goods that are outside of the app (for example, fashion products, groceries, etc.), you need a mobile payment gateway from a reputed third-party payment service provider (PSP) to process payments. In addition to these, you will need to set up a merchant account and apply for PCI DSS certification. A good PSP can help you easily address both these areas.

How To Add a Payment Gateway to your Mobile App?

To add a mobile payment gateway to your app, you will need a mobile SDK, or Software Development Kit. This is usually provided by your PSP. The SDK includes a set of software-building tools and documentation. These help your developers to design your app for safe payment processing and secure data sharing. Once your app is ready, you can use APIs (these are included in the mobile SDK) that allow your app to connect and share information with other parties, such as your payment gateway. For example, when a shopper enters their payment details into your app, it uses an API to share this info with the payment gateway, which in turn uses another API to share it with the bank.
You will also need PCI DSS certification if you intend to store customer data and process payments on your servers. If you don’t want to handle the sensitive data, a PSP like Novalnet can take care of PCI DSS for you. We encrypt sensitive payment data and send it to you as a token, so that it doesn’t stay on your server. This way, you don’t have to worry about data breaches or hacker attacks.

Factors to consider when adding a mobile payment gateway?

Easy integration
Integrating the payment gateway should be easy and take less time. It should be compatible with your app and other systems, and seamlessly connect with them. The gateway should be customizable. For example, if you want to re-design your payment forms to make them easier to understand for users, you should be able to do that easily.

Smooth checkout
No one likes waiting. Slow, clunky checkouts can be a bane to your shopping experience and cause shoppers to abandon their carts if it takes too long. Hence design a payment flow that is smooth, less cluttered, and clearly displays all relevant info for a buyer. This ensures a buyer has all info at hand while making a purchase.

Secure payments
Keeping payments and data secure should be your top priority. This helps you to build trust and loyal relationships with your buyers. Consumers today expect brands to protect their data and keep it safe from unauthorized access and misuse. Choose a PSP and payment gateway that also comes with top-notch AI-based fraud prevention tools. These tools are highly intelligent and learn on the fly to improve real-time threat detection.
Learn how AI-based fraud prevention helps you build a trusted business.

Local support
The gateway should support the most popular forms of payments and local currencies, based on your target markets. Different payment methods are popular across Europe. Hence, you should be able to optimize and tailor your payment methods to give you the best results. For example, in Europe, ensure you add cards, digital wallets, PayPal, and local payment methods (like iDEAL, Bancontact, Giropay, etc.) into your payment gateway.
Know more about the top 5 most popular payment methods in Europe.

Trusted payment partner
Use a gateway from a reputed, global payment service provider. Working with a trusted PSP gives you access to top-notch advice and technical tools that can make a big difference to your payments, and business. There are many options in the market, but choose wisely so that you get your money’s worth.
Tips to choose a PSP in Europe

How can Novalnet Help?

As a global payment service provider, we help Europe’s leading brands to process payments smoothly. Our technology helps you to accept payments globally in 125+ currencies in 150+ automated country-specific payment methods. You can set up your payments within minutes with minimal coding using our instant payment plug-ins. Our AI-based risk management solutions and advanced analytics help you design the best payment experiences for your customers, all in a fully secure environment.
Reach out to us today to know more about how we can help you in your payments journey.

Jose Augustine

Jose Augustine is the Chief Business Development Officer at Novalnet with extensive experience in European payment industry and a knowledge powerhouse.