 Welcome to the journey. Today we're going to help you understand digital payment options for your website. Thanks for your growth in e-commerce sites. Paying with a credit card on a website has become so easy and thankfully, because I never carry cash. And there's no denying when it comes to accepting and receiving payments, PayPal is kind of the reigning champion. In fact, it's this standard online payment solution for online customers, freelancers, and business owners. And we'll help people tend to love PayPal for a variety of different reasons. Technology has really opened up the door to have other companies step up to bat by offering either cheaper fees, faster transactions, and even enhanced security. Now, which provider you choose depends on your needs and we're gonna go through a list of them now. Hold on Emma, before we really jump into that, there's a couple of terms that we need to just get out of the way before we jump into the actual companies themselves. So let's get some definitions going. So a merchant account is a bank account that allows a customer to receive payments through credit cards or debit cards. Many processors act as both the merchant account as well as the payment gateway, which leads me to payment gateway. It's a third-party service that evaluates and processes payments and transactions. The payment gateway is kind of the middleman between the merchant, which is you and the sponsoring bank. And that takes us to payment processors. So payment processor is the company that the merchant actually uses to handle the credit card payments, which this is super helpful because then you can make sure that you're taking anti-fraud measures to ensure that both the front end and the merchant are protected. And we've talked about this before on videos for the journey, but PCI compliance. Now this is when a merchant or a payment gateway sets their payment environment to meet the PCI DSS. Let's break that down. So that's payment card industry, data security standard. The PCI DSS standard was actually created by the payment card industry security standards council to increase security of the cardholder data to reduce fraud. Let's jump into why these online payment services are actually necessary. So when a member, customer or supporters are ready to sign up, register for an event or even make a donation, they wanna do it quickly and easily. In fact, websites that don't support online payments can be seen as being out of step and into the dark ages. The whole process from submitting on online payment to updating your bank account can take a matter of seconds. The end result is improved cash flow for your organization and almost immediate confirmation of transactions. Plus automated payments save you the trouble of depositing the check and recording the payment manually. Now, once you set up online payments for your websites, the really cool part is that they are automatically processed. So in other words, think about this way, like you don't have to handle or store any credit card information. Any updates to member accounts, records, they're happening automatically. It'd be great if customers would just drop off bundles of cash at your doorstep. I know I would personally love it, but your best bet is to choose a payment solution that's most convenient for them. And even though online payment providers will take a small cut of your profit, increase convenience and securities make them well worth it for you. We're gonna break down some of the most popular providers and give you a rundown of whether it's right for you. Let's start off with point. Point's great because it's jam packed with features that are all going to fit our 21st century needs and you can use it on mobile device, website, even in the app. And because it offers that broad spectrum of different forms of payment, you guys, it's a great choice. Next up, we have Stripe. It's probably one of the more flexible payment processors on the market, whether you're a large nonprofit with different donation streams or a small club or association, Stripe's API will easily link into your payments anywhere you kind of need it. And you can even transfer from LLC to corporate status if you have that in your business plan. So for online payments, Apple Pay is definitely the most seamless. I do have yet to hop on board with Apple Pay. I will, nearly as price shaking as head. But basically what users can do is they can instantly pay using their existing Apple wallet. And you can do it with just a touch of a button or your fingerprint. Now it's important to note that they are not a payment provider. And so you'll need to be set up through one of the others in this list if you want to accept other kinds of payments. Next up, we have Diwala. I hope I'm saying that right, but they have a wide variety of integration and it's pretty flexible too. And if you require multiple payment structures like installment payments, multiple stage interests and varying recurring charges, Diwala can handle it all. And best of all, their structure of their fees and payments is very competitive too. PayPal, definitely heard of that, right? It's the most widely used payment provider. That's definitely their biggest edge. And with that in mind, being the most widely used, think about it this way. Chances are most of your potential supporters and customers probably already have accounts. So that's just gonna add ease to the payments in the future. And it's also important to note that PayPal takes all security concerns on themselves. So what does that mean for you? It means you don't have to be storing any credit card information like most other payment processors. And let's not forget about Square. Square was the first in the game to introduce a credit card swiper that could be attached to a cell phone. Now going down to the farmer's market, there was always the vendors with the little Square app paired with that app and then they processed the transactions there. Their technology has only improved the advanced tap features as well as fully inclusive software to safely and securely process your transactions. And you cannot leave out authorized.net. They've actually been around since 1996. I won't tell you how old I was. And you could pretty much do anything you'll ever need payment processing wise with it. With authorized.net, you'll never have an unsupported payment type since they stay up to date with trending payments that are going on out there and they even won an award for their outstanding API integrations. So, I mean, you can lose out on sales if your customers can't easily find what they're looking for, can't use their preferred payment methods or just have difficulty checking out. Don't let online payments be the issue. Choose a solution that works for their needs, then turn your focus to marketing and optimizing for conversions. All right, that's our app. If you just learned about digital payment options for your website, be sure to like this video and hey, comment below. Which of those payment options have you used in the past that helped out your business transactions or which ones do you plan on using in the future? I look forward to seeing your comments, but while you're there, make sure you subscribe to this channel and ring that bell so you get these episodes first. This is The Journey and we'll see you next time.