Creating online businesses today is undoubtedly a lucrative business. If done correctly, you can grow a little online store into a fashion empire. The thing is, what good is the hustle if your business does not have the right tools to receive the cash. Lucky for you, there are dozens of ways to accept money online today.
The overall winner when it comes to receiving and paying money online is in fact PayPal. PayPal has always been at the forefront of handling cash transactions for new and established businesses. However, PayPal has had their fair share of issues.
Most of PayPal’s woes are the usual issues that arise when growing your business to the size of PayPal. Others issues are with their way of handling disputes and not being compatible with some large services, which are usually their competitors. So the list below is compiled with PayPal alternatives, as well as other great innovative ways of receiving payment online.
Apple Pay is perfect for merchants that have physical stores. Apple Pay makes use of its Touch ID confirmation to authenticate payments. Customers will need to verify their fingerprint on their device to finalize payment in your store. It is possible to even make payments with an Apple Watch.
Apple Pay is growing, and the infrastructure behind receiving payments through their service is increasing as well. Apple Pay is now available for online stores. This means that Apple users can purchase items online through Apple pay while authorizing the payment with their device’s fingerprint scanner.
Now is the right time to implement Apple Pay into your business, especially if you have an online store. The iPhone is regarded as the highest selling smartphone in the world which means that there will always be more people being exposed to Apple Pay because of the convenience the service offers.
Due is an amazing all-in-one payment hub for freelancers and small businesses. They offer Credit and Debit Card processing solutions for your business with transaction rates as low as 2.8%. Due also allows you to accept global payments which will take about two working days to process.
One of the most attractive aspects of Due is their free resources and tools. Due offers a free online invoicing system. This is perfect if you are a small business or freelancer who needs a professional looking invoice to receive payment from a client.
More great services from Due are their free time tracking tools and their online bank feature. With Due, you will be able to successfully be able to track the time taken to complete a job, generate an invoice, then receive payment. You can then move the funds over to PayPal, or even store it in Due’s online bank/wallet. You can also transfer the funds from there to another person.
Payoneer has been around for a very long time and is seen as one of the main alternatives to PayPal. Receiving payments through Payoneer is free, which makes the service ideal for freelancers. In fact, many freelancers prefer Payoneer over Paypal.
One of the reasons behind opting for Payoneer instead of PayPal is that PayPal has additional monthly fees. An even bigger reason is PayPal’s strange policies towards reversing payments. Payoneer seems to be fairer in regards to handling disputes.
Stripe is another alternative to Due (listed above). It features reasonable rates with no monthly or hidden fees. Setup is simple and fully customizable. If you are looking for a great looking payment interface that can be customized to suit your website, then Stripe is for you.
Stripe also offers additional billing preferences for companies that have a subscription-based business model. They also provide an invoicing service that will assist your business in creating fantastic, modern invoices. These invoice templates can be further customized to suit your brand's design.
One of Stripe’s most impressive features is their flexible API. This allows you to tailor a robust platform that will suit your needs. You can be an expert in coding or a novice who wishes to integrate Stripe payments to your website seamlessly. Stripe also accepts Apple Pay (listed above).
Probably the most defining factor of anyone's decision to buy goods online is trust. Do customers trust your store enough to hand over their credit card details? Your business can be perfectly legit and trustworthy, but anything can happen when money is involved. That's what most customers think.
You can boost your trust with customers by accepting payments via Amazon. This means that your customers will pay Amazon for your goods. Then Amazon will send the money your way. Everyone benefits from this scenario.
How it works is you integrate Amazon Payments checkout process into your online store. The customer will check out the same way they would if they were shopping in Amazon. This means that your store can use Amazon’s popularity and credentials to create a convenient and trustworthy checkout process.
Google and Apple are in such great competition with each other that they end up producing similar products. How Apple has Apple Pay, Google also has their payment system called Google Wallet.
Google Wallet is a payment service that allows you to make payments online easily. It can be seen as an iOS Apple Pay alternative for those with Android smartphones. With Google Wallet, you will be able to send money transfers and payments from your smartphone.
Because Google has software integrated into so many different platforms, you can even make use of Google Wallet within the Chrome Browser and Gmail. Google Wallet can link to your credit and debit card, gift card, and loyalty card.
The system that you use is mostly up to you and should best suit your company’s business model. It is essential that your payment system is as efficient and straightforward as possible. The aim is to shorten the time that it takes to receive the cash into your bank account.