Businesses and developers first choose the Acquiring APIs to design fast and seamless purchasing experiences. Acquiring APIs consist of Payment gateway APIs and online card acquiring APIs.
Any company or individual with an app or website loves Payment Gateway APIs. These APIs integrate with your company’s checkout system to payment acquiring networks like Visa, Mastercard, Discover, etc., making purchasing your product secure and effortless for your customers.
On the other hand, online card acquiring helps you receive payments on behalf of web merchants using credit cards like VISA, MasterCard, or internet banking.
So, if you have an app or a website, do you need to use it? Let’s investigate further to find out.
Payment Gateway API
Payment gateway API allows you to control user experience and interface—that is why businesses love it. If you’re using a third-party hosted checkout page, your customers are bound to disconnect because of the sudden changes in the brand’s image.
Imagine an enthusiastic shopper changing her purchase decision when she sees a 3rd party hosted checkout page loading. This happens due to the change in the thought process when the experience shifts from shopping to paying.
Integrating Payment gateway APIs into your website will reduce the possibility of a change in the customer’s thought process. This helps maintain the customer’s decision-making momentum until the purchase is done.
Maintaining the user experience is just one of the benefits of integrating payment gateway APIs. There are quite a few more like –
- Using a robust payment gateway API, your business can interact with customers through different channels, such as your mobile app, Twitter, or Instagram.
- You will get real-time data feeds that’ll help you understand & act on the buying behaviour of your customers.
- Your customers will get a wide variety of payment options.
- Your customer’s data will be secure & remain out of your hands.
Now, if you’re a developer needing payment gateway APIs, here is a checklist you must remember before zeroing in on one.
- Design—Check if it uses the most common design, RESTful, which has become the “API standard.”
- Security—Since the transaction involves credit cards and other financial details, security should be a significant concern. Check whether your payment gateway APIs are PCI compliant. PCI compliance ensures that all companies that process, store, and transmit credit card information maintain a secure environment.
- Ease-of-use—Look for a payment gateway API that provides seamless integration and whose functionality is easy to use and test. Also, taking APIs live from the sandbox environment has to happen with fewer hurdles.
- Proper documentation—You should look for a payment gateway API that has been perfectly documented. For example, Open’s APIs are perfectly documented and simplify developers’ jobs.
In summary, for all online businesses, checkout is where the customer’s money is—therefore, give it the time and attention it deserves.
Online Card Acquiring APIs
Online Card Acquiring APIs help you collect online payments on behalf of a web merchant using bank cards or internet banking. Typically, internet acquiring assumes accepting VISA and MasterCard.
The difference between online card acquiring APIs and payment gateways is that Online Acquiring APIs facilitate transactions. In contrast, a payment gateway is a tool that communicates the approval or decline of a transaction between businesses and their customers.
The various stakeholders in this process include the acquirer, issuing bank, cardholder, payment system, and a service provider.
Acquirer Bank:
An acquiring bank, often referred to simply as an acquirer, is a financial institution that processes card transactions on behalf of merchants. It acts as the intermediary between the merchant and the card networks (like Visa, Mastercard, or RuPay) to ensure that customer payments reach the merchant’s account securely and efficiently.
Issuing Bank:
An issuing bank is a financial institution that provides payment cards (such as credit cards, debit cards, or prepaid cards) to customers. It is responsible for maintaining the customer’s account, extending credit (in the case of credit cards), or facilitating fund access (for debit cards).
Service provider:
These guys integrate the retailer’s website with the acquiring bank. Zwitch is one such banking service provider that many tech businesses in India use.
Though APIs are a technical concept, many companies have strategically used them. Acquiring APIs has helped businesses shift online and position themselves according to customers’ demands. Hence, acquiring APIs is more significant now than ever. On that note, let’s move on to our next chapter on Core Banking APIs.
