Shopping online is nothing new and, if Amazon has anything to say about it, will be the primary source of purchasing goods in the near future. With unmatched selection, super deals, and convenience all coming into play, online shopping brings almost anything into the living rooms of customers all around the globe. This sounds way too good to be true and right now it is.
The cost of this purchasing freedom is security. Over 9.9 million people are victims of identity theft every year in the United States alone according to the Federal Trade Commission. Unfortunately, not all online retailers are created equal. Some are designed to steal your personal information and use it to make purchases on your behalf. I’m sure we have all heard a horror story about a friend who had their credit card information stolen. Savvy shoppers, aware of the potential dangers of online purchasing, have become conditioned to use only a handful of approved payment processors and are looking for a certain level of credibility before making a purchase.
Being a small business owner, entrepreneur, and marketing director for a shopping cart software provider I am aware of the psychology of the online shopper. For us business owners we must directly address this issue and take every step necessary to make our customers feel confident purchasing from our websites. Here at Wazala we want to offer the most secure and leading edge payment gateways to our merchants.
I recently had the pleasure of working with a popular new payment gateway, Stripe. I think the most stand out thing about Stripe was how easy it was to get started. Signing up for the service took less than 10 minutes and connecting it to my Wazala store was as simple as copying and pasting two lines of code. It doesn’t get much easier than that. The second thing that I really liked from a business owners’ perspective is that Stripe allows customers to pay with their credit cards right off of my website. This is super important because with every unnecessary click you risk losing the sale. I appreciate simplicity and function and don’t like to waste too much time setting up a service and worrying about redirecting my customers to someone else’s website.
Stripe’s security features are some of the top in the industry boasting two-factor authentication and is certified PCI level 1. Both large and small businesses use Stripe, and don’t let the “built for developers in mind” scare you, it’s easy for anyone to use! Stripe has recently moved its services into the United Kingdom and has firmly established itself as a credible payment gateway like Paypal. By giving me the credibility I need for customers to trust my site and by allowing my customers to purchase straight off my web page, Stripe is a fantastic option for me. Connect Stripe to your Wazala store in as little as 10 minutes and be sure to tell me all about your experience with Stripe here. We also suggest checking out their powered by Stripe badges to ease your customers mind.
