If you are using WordPress for your online eCommerce store, in all probability, you are also using the WooCommerce plugin to manage eCommerce operations and payments. It is a trusted and secure platform providing end-to-end functionalities for online businesses. One of the crucial ingredients for your success is the selection of the best payment gateway for WooCommerce. While it might seem simple at first, you can get confused by the plethora of checkout payment options available.
The checkout process is one of the most underrated elements of user experience in the online shopping journey. As an eCommerce store owner, building a scalable business, you are focused on creating the best product strategy, an intuitive user interface and lightning-fast customer service. However, one of the most distressing experiences for your end-user can be when the transaction does not go through at the end of the shopping journey. On the flip side, smooth and flexible flows can boost customer stickiness and create a buzz around your brand. While you need a third-party payment solution; the selection, configuration and design of the process should be an integral part of your overall strategy. Let’s dive into choosing the best payment gateway for WooCommerce.
Content Index
- What is a WooCommerce Payment Gateway?
- How Does a Payment Gateway Work?
- How to Choose a Payment Gateway For WooCommerce?
- How to Set Up a WooCommerce Payment Gateway Plugin?
- 9 Best Payment Gateway for WooCommerce in India
- Get the Best WooCommerce Payment Gateway Plugin with Nimbbl
- Frequently asked questions
- Conclusion
What is a WooCommerce Payment Gateway?
By default, WooCommerce offers four core options for any store. These are Cash on Delivery (COD), Cheque, Direct Bank Transfer and PayPal standard. The first three do not require any online payment. The fourth one redirects the customers to PayPal.
If you want your customers to pay online seamlessly on your eCommerce store, you need to integrate a payment gateway. Think of it as the software equivalent of a point-of-sale terminal used at a physical store. It transfers the money from the customer’s account to your account smoothly and securely.
There are 80+ WooCommerce payment extensions on its marketplace. You can easily plug in any of these extensions or download the WordPress payment plugin directly too. The next step is to plug it into your platform with just a few configurations and settings with minimal or no coding knowledge for integration.
How Does a Payment Gateway Work?
While the customer completes the checkout process in just a few seconds, several steps happen between the processors, banks and your platform before you get the confirmation for shipping. Debit cards and credit cards via Visa, Mastercard, and JCB typically follow these steps:
- After the customer enters the card details or net banking credentials, the gateway checks the validity of the details entered.
- It also conducts special checks to identify and prevent fraud attempts.
- Once the details are validated, the issuing bank i.e. the customer’s bank checks if the necessary funds are available. If yes, it debits the money.
- The gateway deducts a certain percentage of the money as its transaction fees and transfers the rest to the merchant’s bank i.e. your bank account. This settlement to your account can be immediate or after a settlement period.
How to Choose the Best WooCommerce Payment Gateway?
There is no single best provider for WooCommerce. It rather depends on your use case and business type. Here is a checklist for selecting the one based on the specific needs of your customers and the nature of your business:
a. WordPress setup
First and foremost, it is important to choose a plugin that integrates seamlessly with WooCommerce and WordPress. This will ensure that transactions are processed smoothly and that your customers have a seamless checkout experience.
b. Cross-device responsiveness
The checkout page UI should be responsive, compatible across device sizes and mobile-friendly as more and more customers are shopping on their smartphones and tablets.
c. Price
Transaction charges play an important role in decision-making. These charges are around 1-3% of the transaction value as processing fees. This percentage varies with the method and volume. Some gateways also charge annual maintenance and monthly fees along with one-time initial setup fees.
d. WooCommerce payment methods
It is essential to check whether your gateway supports all the payment methods that are most convenient for your customers. For example, if your store caters primarily to Indian buyers, it is ideal to select a solution that supports UPI for business.
e. Recurring requirement
If you offer subscription-based services, you should go for a provider that supports recurring mandates to deduct money automatically from the customer’s bank account or card. You should also check if the gateway supports subscriptions on credit cards, cancellations and re-activation.
f. Buy Now Pay Later methods
Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) methods are seeing massive adoption across popular merchant categories. The convenience of a stacked repay option, faster purchases, higher conversions and an increase in average order value are some of its many benefits, slowly making BNPL a preferred choice over cards.
g. Personalised experience
A poor checkout experience which is filled up with OTPs, form fill-ups, and multiple clicks often leads to cart abandonment. Selecting the best WooCommerce payment gateway, biased toward getting more conversions for your business should be the top priority. The checkout process is a crucial part of the overall experience, and optimizing it can help reduce cart abandonment rates and increase conversions.
h. Easy onboarding
Documentation and onboarding of your business is the first step once you signup with a provider. It includes providing the necessary legal and tax-related documents to the gateway provider for verification. It also entails verifying the merchant account bank account to be used for payouts.
How to Set Up a WooCommerce Payment Gateway Plugin?
Once your WordPress website is ready and you have selected a preferred provider, setting it up is pretty straightforward. Assuming you have already installed WordPress for your online store, you do not need to code to integrate a payment gateway for WooCommerce.
- After creating an account with your provider, you can download the WooCommerce payment plugin zip file and upload it to the plugin folder on WordPress.
- Next, under your Admin panel, navigate to ‘Settings’ and click the ‘Payments’ tab. Along with the default methods, you will also see the newly installed extension. Click ‘Enable’.
- Click ‘Manage’ and enter the details as provided by your gateway provider. Most providers also provide a test setup to try out the checkout flow before making it live on the eCommerce store.
9 Best Payment Gateway for WooCommerce
Let’s look at the 9 popular payment gateway for WooCommerce.
1. PayPal
Features
- PayPal is a trusted brand and very effective for accepting International methods as it accepts 100+ currencies.
- It supports subscription and BNPL options and meets global compliance standards such as PCI and PSD2
- This United States headquartered company offers 24×7 fraud monitoring tools.
Best for
- It is suited for small businesses that require a no-code integration setup with minimum customisation.
2. Stripe
Features
- Stripe is the biggest competitor of PayPal in global transactions.
- Supports different currencies and international payments.
- Stripe meets the industry’s best compliance standards and supports recurring and BNPL.
Best for
- Global businesses looking to integrate its strong suite of APIs for card payments.
3. WooCommerce
Features
- It is a native extension of WooCommerce itself. and scores the highest in compatibility with WooCommerce stores.
Best for
- WooCommerce payments are best suited for merchants from outside India looking to use a payment processor fully compatible with Woo.
- However, it is unavailable in India currently.
4. Amazon pay plugin
Features
- Amazon Pay is a trusted brand and is available as a plug-in for eCommerce stores.
- Though it supports multiple modes, it falls short of providing robust features for subscriptions.
- If your business relies majorly on recurring options, you can give it a pass. A detailed comparison of subscription focussed gateways is available here.
Best for
- Merchants with a strong customer base of customers with an Amazon Pay account.
5. Square WordPress payment plugin
Features
- Square offers a flat rate for online and in-person transactions.
- If you wish to run your online and physical stores on a single gateway, Square is an excellent option to explore.
Best for
- Proximity (in-person) based use cases.
- It is not available in India.
6. Nimbbl checkout
Features
- For Indian customers, UPI is one of the most convenient and fastest-growing modes.
- Nimbbl provides an easy-to-integrate plugin for WooCommerce that supports Magik UPI, a fast checkout experience on UPI and BNPL methods.
- It also offers one-click checkout on BNPL with the likes of Lazypay, Simpl and Paytm postpaid along with traditional methods like cards, net banking and wallets.
Best for
- Indian eCommerce businesses looking to get higher sales and ease of payment operations without coding.
- It supports popular modes like UPI, cards, net banking, wallets, and EMI.
7. Razorpay
Features
- Razorpay is a feature-rich and top gateway provider in India.
- It is also available as an extension for WooCommerce with developer-friendly APIs, plugins, and libraries.
Best for
- Indian businesses with a strong technical team to manage the integration process and credit card payments.
8. PayU India
Features
- PayU is a widely used and one of the early entrants in the payment gateway market in India supporting a wide range of methods.
Best for
- Businesses looking for a time-tested gateway provider that supports a range of payment methods, including USD among others.
9. Cashfree
Features
- Cashfree is among the top providers in the country with a wide range of products including payouts, early settlements, international and more.
Best for
- Advanced features and customization options such as split payments, vendor payouts, woocommerce subscriptions and more.
Get the Best WooCommerce Payment Gateway Plugin With Nimbbl
Nimbbl goes one step ahead of other providers and enables you to integrate multiple payment gateways into your WooCommmerce store. These include some of the top gateway providers for WooCommerce like Razorpay, PayU, CCAvenue, Paytm and more. You get a powerful dashboard to check transaction details, run offers and manage refunds for your customers. With Nimbbl you can accept popular UPI apps like Google Pay, Phonepe, Paytm etc with a one-click checkout experience and higher conversions. Moreover, it provides you with the power to add or move to another provider without new coding requirements.
Frequently Asked Questions on WooCommerce Checkout Payment
You can easily add it by following these easy steps: WooCommerce account >> ‘Settings’ >> ‘Payments’ >> Enable the installed extension. Next, under ‘Manage’, enter the details as provided by your provider.
Various factors like checkout experience, support for new-age methods like UPI, BNPL, ease of onboarding, and pricing should be considered while choosing a WordPress payment gateway plugin.
Yes, you require minimal or no coding knowledge to integrate a WordPress gateway. Store owners can do it without coding by enabling it from the settings tab.
Conclusion
In conclusion, selecting the best payment gateway for WooCommerce in India can be a daunting task for business owners. However, with Nimbbl, you can access multiple gateway providers in one place and benefit from a simple one-click checkout process. This eliminates the hassle of dealing with multiple payment gateways and simplifies the process for both customers and businesses. With Nimbbl, businesses can streamline their operations and provide a seamless checkout experience to their customers.
