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Expert Tips: Factors to Consider While Integrating Payment Gateway into Your Mobile App

JoshHolding a Bachelor’s degree in Technology and 2 years of work experience in a mobile app development company Appinventiv, Bhupinder is focused on making technology digestible to all. Being someone who stays updated with the latest tech trends, she’s always armed to write and spread the knowledge. When not found writing, you will find her answering on Quora while sipping coffee.

From paying for an Uber ride to ordering groceries from Instacart, buying products from Amazon and booking a movie ticket from BookMyShow, we all use mobile apps for doing payment one way or the other. But, have you ever wondered how do these apps provide this functionality? How these apps let e-commerce brands accept payment via debit/credit card or third-party sites?

The one-word answer is—Payment Gateway. A Payment gateway, in layman’s language, is a service provided by e-commerce app service providers that empowers processing of credit cards or payments via third-party portals for faster and seamless payment experience.

Sounds exciting? Eager to integrate a payment gateway into your mobile app? Before you look forward to fusing a payment gateway into your existing or new mobile app, it is necessary that you know the different factors that can influence your decision. Taking the same idea forward, here I’m sharing the factors you should consider before integrating a payment gateway into your mobile app:

Seller Account Type

A seller account (also called merchant account) is an online account that holds the payment until the payment gateway processes it successfully. There are basically two types of seller accounts used in the market, namely Dedicated and Aggregated. The type of merchant account you create leaves a significant impact on how your payment integration process will work. So, choose wisely.

Wondering how? Well, dedicated accounts (as in the case of Authorize.Net) provide you with a higher range of control over operations and funds. But, it charges a processing fee for every individual transaction and demands long investments. Whereas, the aggregate accounts let you keep your assets along with other merchants (as in the case of PayPal and Braintree) and so, ask for lesser details and offer faster access.

Product Type

Again, the system you opt for executing P2P payments also depends on the type of product you sell via your mobile app, i.e., content or material. While you have numerous integration options when you are selling a physical product, there are limited options for selling a digital commodity since the App Store and Play Store do not authorize using third-party e-commerce services for an app holding their storage. So, the integration option you pick when your app is published on the Play Store and App Store also matters.

PCI DSS Compliance

To legally store and manage user banking details, you need to follow PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) compliance. This is because this compliance comprises of security standards that are primarily to ensure a safer and secure employment of card information during and after a transaction occurs.

Now, how to ensure that your mobile app payment process abides this compliance? While there are various ways, the most popular practices adopted by the e-commerce businesses are:

  • Building a secure network through firewall configuration setup on your app.
  • Invest in encryption and tokenization for safeguarding user bank details processed via the payment gateway.
  • Execute well-established control measures like rendering a unique ID to each individual.
  • Examine the test security systems religiously.

SDK Integration

Every payment gateway provider renders SDKs that abide by the PCI compliance and let you access and employ all the libraries required for integration. But, how easily your hired mobile app development company accesses and uses these SDKs for simplifying the integration process also plays a pivotal role in the process of fusing a payment gateway into your mobile app development process.

Dispute Management

Another factor that you need to consider is how you tackle with the disputes. Many times, it happens that you, an e-commerce brand, have processed the refund amount but the users do not receive it. In such a scenario, the dispute management system you have and the way you handle the situation also affects the success rate of your payment integration process. So, think about it.


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Head of Content Marketing at CS-Cart | Website

Yan Anderson is the Head of Content Marketing at CS-Cart with over 10 years of experience in the eCommerce industry. He's passionate about explaining complicated things in simple terms. Yan has expertise in building, running and growing eCommerce marketplaces. He loves to educate people about best practices, new technologies, and trends in the global eCommerce industry.