Building a software solution from the ground up is no easy feat—there are many factors at play in creating a SaaS product, one of which is enabling your customers to accept payments from sub-merchants. This can be done in one of two ways: creating a payment processing interface from scratch or using a payment application programming interface (API) that leverages the functionality of a payment processing solution to integrate payments into the software.
The latter option is one that many SaaS companies choose because of the clear benefits and ease of implementation. In this post, we’ll discuss how to offer payment processing integration in your software—the benefits, the steps to integrate payments, and how to find the right partner.
TL;DR
- A best practice for software solutions providers is to always optimize the software to accommodate both customers using their desktop or laptop computer or their mobile devices.
- An essential step for software companies looking to integrate payments is to research the various payment processors and decide which is the best fit for the business.
- Streamlining the payment process will lead to greater customer loyalty—which ultimately leads to more revenue.
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Benefits of Offering Payment Integration
Integrating payment processing with software solutions benefits the end user and the solution provider. Here, let’s break down a few of the benefits of payment processing integration.
Accept debit and credit cards and other convenient payment methods
Merely accepting just credit card payments is no longer sufficient for most businesses given the variety of payment methods in use. Whether your customers’ end users want to pay by credit or debit card, use Apple Pay or another mobile wallet, leverage PayPal payments or pay by an ACH transfer, offering multiple solutions is a standard best practice.
For example, many customers have recurring payments, which is a great fit for ACH transfers and can reduce payment processing fees. Though not all software solutions will be well suited to accept all payment types, it is important to offer as many options as makes sense for the business.
Offer secure, PCI-compliant online payment processing
Part of accepting payments is ensuring you treat the data security of your sub-merchant’s customer information as a top priority. To do this, it’s imperative that the payment processing function is PCI compliant. PCI compliance helps prevent data breaches and protects the customer and the business.
For a software company to build up payment processing capabilities from scratch creates many opportunities for error. Conversely, using a payment processing API to accept payments not only offers the assurance of a trusted and validated payment processor but also allows SaaS companies to focus on delivering a better user experience and not spend cycles developing an in-house payment processing function. This type of integration is helpful for all business sizes but can be particularly helpful for small businesses with limited resources—such as a software startup, for example.
Stax Connect goes beyond PCI compliance to ensure secure payment processing. Our API integrations allow you to accept payments on your platform or website—meaning you’ll never need to worry about the safety or security of payment processing.
Deliver an easy-to-use and on-brand payment gateway
A best practice for software solutions providers is to always optimize the software to accommodate both customers using their desktop or laptop computer or their mobile devices. Why? Keeping the customer experience at the forefront will help create loyalty and drive revenue. An important piece of this happens at checkout. Data from a 2022 survey indicates the following about cart abandonment:
- 24% of respondents abandoned their shopping cart because the site wanted them to create an account
- 18% because they didn’t trust the site with their payment information
- 17% because of a too-long or complicated checkout process
- 9% because there weren’t enough payment methods accepted
The thread tying these card abandonment statistics together has to do with the payment process. Making it easy for your customer to check out is one way to increase revenue, simply by ensuring the checkout process is convenient and safe.
Streamline payment processing to improve cash flow
By using a trusted payment processing API, SaaS companies are able to focus on delivering an on-brand point-of-sale experience and leaving the complexity of payment processing to the experts. Streamlining the payment process at the POS will lead to fewer abandoned carts and greater customer loyalty, which all ultimately lead to more revenue.
How to Implement Integrated Payments
The above are just a few examples of why integrating payments can benefit the business. While it may seem like a complex process to get off the ground to accept payments through an API, it’s actually quite simple, and most of the work is done by your payment processor. One of the first things a software provider looking to integrate payments will need to do is to research the various payment processors and decide which is the best fit for the business.
Stax Connect is a fully managed payments facilitation ecosystem equipped to handle the payment infrastructure, support all payment methods and help businesses accept payments quickly. As an example, with Stax Connect, enrollment can be completed in minutes, not days. The Stax Connect API has a pre-built enrollment platform that pays attention to all FINCEN regulations and allows businesses to process payments within 20 minutes of getting started.
How to Find the Right Payment Processing Partner
Choosing the right partner to process payments for your SaaS solution requires due diligence and research. There are many payment solutions out there with varying price structures and capabilities, so starting with some background knowledge will help to find the right payment service to partner with.
As an example of comparison research, this blog post compares Stripe and Stax Payments and covers the in-person and eCommerce payment capabilities, the pricing structure, hardware and software offerings, and more. There are also plenty of independent comparisons between the various payment systems, such as this Forbes article that compares Stripe and Braintree. Thorough research is important for any company in choosing their payment provider—and finding an integrated payment solution that scales for business needs without breaking the bank is an important choice.
With the end goal being to increase cash flow and create a streamlined experience for the user and the solutions provider, it’s also important to think about the integrations with other apps. Integrations with accounting software, the ability to view analytics, and connectivity to other business tools should factor into the decision-making. Stax Connect can integrate with widely-used business tools and provides analytics and insights to help improve the financial health of your business.
Another consideration should include reviews on customer support from the service provider—if support is needed, it’s imperative that it is available in real-time and not just during standard business hours. Relatedly, Stax offers 24/7, award-winning customer support and a robust knowledge base that includes self-serve resources and a FAQ for troubleshooting.
Final Words
Stax Connect is here to ensure your software is equipped with best-in-class payment processing solutions. Ready to learn more? Contact us today to learn how we can help you deliver seamless payment experiences to your customers that boost loyalty and retention.
