Online merchants are companies that sell goods and services through the Internet. The people who buy them are called customers. When customers purchase something from merchants, they pay online through a platform.
The agents who make these payments successful are known as payment providers. They are third parties that empower merchants to accept payment methods like debit cards, credit cards, online banking, cash cards, and e-wallets.
However, payment providers often face various challenges in their functioning. These include enabling hassle-free integration, card fraud, protecting PII data, multichannel payments, and providing a satisfactory user experience.
Finding the best payments as a platform for online payment helps overcome the challenges mentioned above and get an exceptional merchant experience. Platform as a service (PaaS) companies provide a wide range of software and hardware solutions to acquirers and payment processors.
Hiring a white-label technology company helps payment providers in plenty of ways, including receiving solutions for multichannel payment needs, value-added services, customer success and support, modern merchant dashboard, and real-time support monitoring.
But what other solutions are offered by such companies, and why is POS integration vital? Read on to find these answers below.
Why is a PaaS platform necessary?
A bank-grade PaaS platform with scalable cloud-based technology offers an exceptional experience to merchants and payment providers. It holds PII data for acquirers and providers.
Personal Identifiable Information (PII) refers to any data concerning an individual, including their credit card number, digital username and password, login credentials, screen name, and related information.
Since a platform holds data for providers, it takes full responsibility for its safety and security while ensuring total compliance.
What does a platform with bank-grade qualities mean?
A technical platform with bank-grade qualities ensures:
- availability
- security
- scalability
- performance
- observability
- data integrity
- portability
- modularity
All of them are vital in improving the payment process.
For example, the platform should be available to payment facilitators at all times, under various conditions. It must have a decoupling sub-system so that even if one system fails, it does not impact others.
Another example is portability, which allows the platform to be accessed by providers in different countries with varying compliance requirements and preferred cloud vendors.
Types of solutions provided
A payment platform enables acquirers and payment providers to complete transactions quickly without facing any disruptions. However, before choosing one, providers should ensure it has been engineered using cross-cloud container orchestration technology. Here are some solutions provided by a payment platform.
Multichannel payments:
- In-store
It integrates a payment terminal into a point-of-sale (POS) system in a short time. Industry-tailored features enable the integration of over 70 POS systems.
- Kiosk
It supports mobile-form-factor terminals that allow integration into a point-of-sale (POS) practice management software system on devices like tablets and smartphones.
Virtual terminal:
A payment terminal is a device that accepts payment cards to facilitate fund transfers. A virtual terminal enables merchants (through their providers) to accept payments through cards without requiring the presence of the cardholder.
However, security is a significant issue with these terminals. Therefore, it is necessary to accept payment quickly through your merchant dashboard. It should also allow you to keep track of payments when they occur and process refunds through the merchant dashboard.
Sales and support:
A PaaS provider helps with sales and support by building new sales and referral channels and monitoring the performance of your terminals (a merchant terminal is a device used by merchants to allow customers to buy goods from other merchants using a credit or debit card).
Acquirers and payment facilitators should choose the best payment as a platform for online transactions to enable quicker payments, safely and securely. From accepting payments on a virtual terminal to holding PII data, payment platforms enhance the merchant experience significantly.
