How it works
People and technology to power payments
Our Stax Connect partner program combines the technology, processes, and people required to help maximize the revenue opportunities from embedded payments.
The Stax API and integration tools enhance the developer journey, ensuring seamless integration and operation, while our high-touch sales and marketing programs increase integrated payment adoption rates for new and existing customers.
White label payment processing with payments-led growth
Having white label payment processing by partnering with Stax Connect combines the monetization power of payments with the control and security of your own infrastructure. Fuel your platform by enabling integrated payments and enhance your user experience.
White label payment processing
Today, it’s a given that e-commerce and digital payments have taken the world by storm. And while we might all know that it’s big, it’s worth asking: just how big is it?
To answer that, consider the fact that digital payment penetration is at 89%, meaning nearly 9 out of 10 Americans use digital payments in one form or another. What’s more, the global online payment market is projected to reach a whopping $15.17 trillion as early as 2027.
Clearly, digital payments are here to stay.
The industry is championed by the organizations like ISVs and SaaS companies, which in part keep growing by providing integrated payments. However, building the infrastructure to facilitate payments costs more than most companies can afford.
Enter white labeled payment processors.
Navigating the intricacies of white label payment processing requires a seasoned understanding of its nuances, benefits, and practical applications. In this comprehensive guide, we’ll explore everything from the fundamentals of white label payment gateways to the intricate decision-making processes involved in choosing the right provider. This includes a range of merchant services such as credit card processing, online payments, mobile payments, and POS systems that businesses can offer under their own brand without building their infrastructure.
By delving into the intricacies of white label payment processing, you are embarking on a journey toward comprehensive expertise in this specialized domain.
What is White Labeled Payment Processing?
We’ve previously talked about the differences between payment processing and a payment gateway, but here’s a quick summary in case you aren’t familiar.
A payment processor is a financial institution that takes care of your company’s online and in-person transactions, usually by providing the equipment you need to accept payments (generally a POS terminal).
On the other hand, a payment gateway is essentially an online POS terminal used for card not present (CNP) transactions, like phone purchases or online transactions. You need both a payment gateway and a payment processor to complete these transactions, but only a payment processor when you use your credit card or make a contactless payment using your card or phone in person.
With a white label payment processor, you would use a payment processing company to facilitate your payment. The difference is that now, you’d be able to fully customize the entire payment experience, aligning it with your brand identity.
From payment pages to dashboards, white labeled payment processing helps brands strengthen their relationship with their customers with a fully on-brand experience. Basically, this makes it possible for companies like ISVs and enterprise sized merchants to start facilitating payments themselves, all without actually being a payment processor (in other words, offering integrated payments). This allows businesses to resell payment processing services under their own brand without needing to develop their own payment infrastructure.
What is a White Label Payment Gateway?
To comprehend the realm of white label payment processing, one must first comprehend the concept of a white label payment gateway and its essential distinction from traditional payment gateways. While traditional payment gateways are typically associated with a specific payment service provider, a white label payment gateway can be rebranded and resold by various entities, allowing them to provide payment processing capabilities under their own brand.
A white label payment gateway is a fully developed payment gateway solution that businesses can customize to their requirements and rebrand as their own. It allows companies to offer seamless, secure, customized payment services without developing the technology from the beginning.
How it differs from traditional payment gateways
White label payment gateways and traditional payment gateways exhibit distinct differences that cater to varying business needs and preferences. Below are key differentiating points between these two payment gateway models:
Choosing the right payment gateway partner is crucial for ensuring secure online transactions and expanding your client base, whether on a national or international level.
White Label Payment Gateway:
- Rebranding: Can be rebranded and resold by various entities under their own brand, allowing for a personalized customer experience.
- Customization: Offers extensive customization options, enabling businesses to tailor payment solutions to their specific requirements and branding.
- Control: Provides businesses with a higher level of control over the user experience and payment process.
- Scalability: Allows for scalability and adaptability to accommodate evolving business needs and expansion.
- Cost Structure: May include setup fees and additional costs for customization, but can offer cost efficiencies in the long term.
Traditional Payment Gateway:
- Vendor Lock-In: Typically associated with a specific payment service provider, limiting flexibility and choice.
- Limited Customization: Offers standardized payment solutions with fewer customization options compared to white label gateways.
- Fixed Features: Often comes with a set package of features and functionalities, limiting adaptability for unique business needs.
- Costs: Usually charges monthly fees and per-transaction fees without setup costs, but may involve hidden fees or additional charges.
- Branding: Provides less room for branding and white-labeling, leading to a less personalized customer experience.
In summary, the choice between a white label payment gateway and a traditional payment gateway depends on factors such as customization requirements, branding preferences, cost considerations, and the level of control a business seeks in its payment processing solution.
How White Label Payment Gateways Work
White label payment gateways operate by providing businesses with a customizable payment processing solution that can be seamlessly integrated into their existing systems. Here are the key points that describe how white label payment gateways work:
- Reselling Opportunity: White label payment gateways can be rebranded and resold by various entities, allowing businesses to offer payment processing capabilities under their own brand.
- API Integration: They provide APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) that enable businesses to connect their systems with the payment gateway to send transaction requests and receive responses.
- Customization Options: White label payment gateways offer extensive customization capabilities, allowing businesses to match the payment process to their branding and user experience requirements.
- Payment Processing: They facilitate the secure transfer of payment information between the merchant, the customer, and the acquiring bank. This includes authorization, settlement, and reconciliation processes.
- Multiple Payment Methods: White label payment gateways support various payment methods, such as credit/debit cards, digital wallets, bank transfers, and more, providing businesses with flexibility to meet customer preferences.
- Online Payments: These gateways are designed to handle online payments efficiently, ensuring secure and seamless transactions for e-commerce and other digital platforms.
- Security and Compliance: They prioritize data security and regulatory compliance by implementing measures like encryption, secure tokenization, and adherence to industry standards such as PCI DSS compliance.
- Reporting and Analytics: White label payment gateways offer reporting tools and analytics to help businesses monitor their payment activity, track revenue, and gain insights into customer behavior.
- Customer Support: They typically provide customer support services to assist businesses and resolve any issues related to payment processing.
By leveraging these functionalities, white label payment gateways enable businesses to efficiently process payments, enhance their customer experience, and maintain control over their payment ecosystem.
Ready to partner with Stax?
Talk with a payments-led growth expert about maximizing your revenue with white label payment processing.
Benefits of White Label Payment Gateways
The allure of white label payment gateways lies in their ability to empower businesses to start their own payment processing company with extensive control and customization options, while also delivering cost and time efficiencies. Moreover, a strong emphasis on security and compliance offers peace of mind in an ever-evolving regulatory landscape.
Increased branding and customer loyalty
Redirecting users to another organization’s website or application to make payments can weaken the relationship between your platform and its users.
A white labeled payment processor allows you to seamlessly integrate payment options into the services you already offer, which means you’ll benefit from more valuable touch points with your customers. Plus, instead of having the payment service provider’s URL show up when customers make an online payment, they’ll only see your company’s URL, further improving your brand consistency.
Control and customization
Businesses gain greater control over their payments infrastructure and can customize the payment experience to the specific needs and preferences of their customers.
With white labeled payment gateway services, you’ll be able to make the payment experience look just how you want it. For example, you can personalize the payment experience with your own brand identity assets (logo, fonts, etc.) and even customize what services or features are available to customers. This way, software as a service (SaaS) companies and e-commerce merchants are in complete control of the merchant experience.
Cost and time efficiency
Developing a payment gateway in-house is a complex and costly process that requires specialized technical expertise. White label payment gateways come ready-made and do not require ongoing costs and efforts associated with maintenance, updates, security, compliance, and support.
Oftentimes, ISVs can implement a payment portal/gateway in just a few days or weeks and start processing payments for merchants. Gateways are less resource intensive across development and operational departments.
Security and compliance
White label payment gateways are designed with security and compliance at their core, employing advanced encryption technologies, fraud detection mechanisms, and other security features to safeguard customer data. They are often created by reputable payment processors, who are experts in maintaining PCI compliance and adhering to industry regulations.
Flexibility in pricing and revenue sharing
Gone are the days of brick-and-mortar merchants being charged exorbitant fees. Instead, organizations can now work with a reliable white labeled payment gateway provider offering transparent fees. Even better, it’s possible to monetize payments and unlock a new revenue stream.
It’s easy to integrate revenue sharing into your way of working, which means companies can earn money from network and transactional fees.
Access to a wider range of alternative payment methods
Without a white labeled payment provider, chances are high that you might only take payment methods like cash, card, or check. As consumers diversify how they pay, keeping up with the trends is important to ensure they don’t take their business elsewhere.
Using a robust payment provider with white labeled functionalities (like Stax Connect) means you’ll be able to accept a wider range of payments like contactless payments, mobile transactions, hosted payments, and more.
Choosing a White Label Payment Gateway Provider
Selecting the right white label payment gateway provider demands a thorough understanding of your business needs and objectives, along with a comprehensive evaluation of costs, benefits, providers, and their distinct products. Here are some essential points to guide ISVs in choosing a white label payment processor:
- Integration Compatibility: Ensure that the white label payment processor seamlessly integrates with your software platform or application without causing disruptions or compatibility issues.
- Customization Options: Look for a white label payment processor that offers a high degree of customization, allowing you to brand the payment experience and tailor it to match your software’s look and feel.
- Payment Methods Supported: Choose a processor that supports a wide range of payment methods, including credit/debit cards, digital wallets, ACH transfers, e-checks, and more, to cater to diverse customer preferences.
- Security and Compliance: Prioritize security features such as encryption, tokenization, and adherence to industry standards like PCI DSS compliance to safeguard sensitive payment data and maintain regulatory compliance.
- Scalability: Select a white label payment processor that can scale with your business growth and accommodate increased transaction volumes without compromising performance or reliability.
- Cost Structure: Evaluate the pricing model of the white label payment processor, including setup fees, transaction fees, monthly fees, and any additional costs for customization or support, to ensure it aligns with your budget and revenue projections.
- Support and Service Level Agreements (SLAs): Choose a processor that offers responsive customer support, clear SLAs, and ongoing maintenance to address any issues promptly and ensure smooth payment processing for your customers.
- Reporting and Analytics: Seek a white label payment processor that provides robust reporting tools and analytics capabilities to help you track transaction data, monitor performance metrics, and gain insights into customer behavior and payment trends.
By considering these factors and conducting thorough research and due diligence, ISVs can make an informed decision when selecting a white label payment processor that best fits their software offering and enhances the overall payment experience for their customers.
Key Features of a White Label Payment Gateway
Exploring the key features of a white label payment gateway sheds light on its branding and customization options, its multiple payment integrations, its scalability and security features, and its global reach and support, equipping businesses with a holistic understanding of their potential options.
Branding and customization options
White label payment gateways offer various branding options, such as customizing payment pages, using custom URLs, and tailoring customer communication. They can also have various different methods of merchant enrollment that are out-of-the-box and make application seamless.
Multiple payment integrations
A great white label payment gateway can support multiple payment methods. Depending on the vertical your platform serves, you’ll want to pay attention to the most popular and important payment methods your merchants will need. Card present and card not present methods are most common payment processing capabilities, but you may also need ACH, surcharging, split funding, etc.
Scalability and security
The payment processing industry has strict standards and regulations that must be adhered to. A white label payment gateway owned by a processor will be PCI compliant, GDPR compliant, tokenize card information, and more.
Global reach and support
Not every white label payment gateway will have strong customer support or global capabilities. If you are considering using a gateway for your platform, make sure to look up payment service providers that are also reputable.
How to choose a white label payment processing provider
If you’re ready to harness the benefits of partnering with a white label payment partner, there are a few factors you should be aware of to ensure you get the best out of your future partnership. Here are the top things to keep in mind:
Reliability and security
Remember, your customers (or sub-merchants) will be making and/or receiving payments via your platform. If something goes wrong, it’s your brand’s reputation on the line. To avoid any hiccups, find a partner that’ll put security and regulations front and center and will handle the underwriting and risk management for you.
If they’re PCI DSS compliant, you’ll be able to rest easy knowing they’re committed to protecting your data (and customers’ info) with state-of-the-art security measures. Other questions you should consider asking when shopping around include:
- What kind of anti-fraud, due diligence, and KYC measures do they have in place?
- Do they use safety measures like tokenization?
Flexible payment processing options
An excellent white labeled payment provider will have flexible options that will help you scale your SaaS company as needed. Whether you want to take ACH, split or recurring payments, or some other form of card-present or CNP payment, work with a provider that empowers you to create a customized payment strategy you can flawlessly integrate alongside your services.
Deep integrations with payment-related tools and services
If you start using a white labeled payment provider, you shouldn’t be expected to give up on everything you used before. By integrating white labeled payment methods into your current workflow of using tools like Xero, Monday.com, or Mailchimp, companies can better automate and streamline their workflow, leading to increased productivity and reduced costs. The end result? More time to focus on your business.
Quick FAQs
Q: What is white label payment processing?
White label payment processing allows businesses to offer payment solutions under their own brand using the infrastructure and technology of third-party providers. This means companies can customize and rebrand the payment gateway to reflect their branding, enhancing brand consistency and customer loyalty.
Q: How does white label payment processing enhance branding and customer loyalty?
By using a white label payment gateway, businesses can integrate payment solutions directly into their existing platforms. This ensures that customers see only the company’s branding during payment processes, strengthening the relationship between the brand and its customers and avoiding the disruption caused by redirecting to third-party sites.
Q: What customization options are available with white label payment gateways?
White label payment gateways offer extensive customization options, including the ability to use your own brand identity assets like logos and fonts. Businesses can also tailor the payment experience by selecting specific services or features to match their customers’ needs, ensuring a seamless and branded payment process.
Q: What are the cost and time efficiencies associated with white label payment gateways?
Developing a payment gateway in-house requires significant technical expertise and resources. White label payment gateways come pre-developed, reducing the costs and time associated with building, maintaining, and updating the payment infrastructure. They allow businesses to quickly implement and start processing payments, often within days or weeks.
Q: How do white label payment gateways ensure security and compliance?
White label payment gateways are designed with advanced security features such as encryption and fraud detection to safeguard customer data. They are typically PCI DSS compliant and adhere to industry regulations, ensuring that the payment processes meet high security and compliance standards.
Q: What are the benefits of using a white label payment gateway for pricing and revenue sharing?
White label payment gateways offer transparent fee structures and the opportunity to monetize payment processing. Businesses can earn revenue through network and transactional fees, creating an additional income stream while offering competitive and clear pricing to their customers.
Q: What types of payment methods can be integrated with white label payment gateways?
A robust white label payment gateway supports a wide range of payment methods, including credit/debit cards, digital wallets, ACH transfers, e-checks, contactless payments, and mobile transactions. This ensures that businesses can cater to diverse customer preferences and stay ahead of payment trends.
Q: How should businesses choose the right white label payment gateway provider?
When selecting a white label payment gateway provider, businesses should consider factors such as integration compatibility, customization options, supported payment methods, security features, scalability, cost structure, customer support, and reporting tools. Thorough research and due diligence are essential to find a provider that aligns with the business’s needs and objectives.
Q: What are the key features of a white label payment gateway?
Key features include extensive branding and customization options, multiple payment integrations, scalability, advanced security features, and global reach and support. These features enable businesses to create a tailored payment experience that enhances customer satisfaction and operational efficiency.
Q: How can white label payment gateways support business growth?
White label payment gateways are scalable, allowing businesses to handle increased transaction volumes without compromising performance. They provide the flexibility to grow and adapt to changing market demands, ensuring that the payment infrastructure can support the business as it expands.
Ready to partner with Stax?
Talk with a payments-led growth expert about maximizing your revenue with white label payment processing.
