Globalization is upon us, but the payment landscape still varies significantly from country to country. Although payment giants like Stripe and PayPal are almost universally available, they don’t always meet the needs of bigger retailers.
Consumers want brands to adapt to their payment preferences, not vice versa. Up to 17% of German and 15% of Swiss shoppers abandoned a shopping cart because the retailer didn’t offer a preferred ecommerce payment method.
So, whether you already use (or plan to adopt) BigCommerce, you are rightfully wondering about the available payment getaways and integrations.
BigCommerce Payment Integrations Overview
When it comes to payments, BigCommerce offers three options:
- Use BigCommerce pre-made payment integrations
- Customize supported payment integrations (to a certain degree)
- Integrate a third-party payment method that BigCommerce doesn’t support
Here are the core operational differences between pre-made integration usage, payment processing customization, and entirely custom payment integrations.
BigCommerce has a good selection of native payment integrations. The platform integrates well with PayPal, Stripe, and other popular payment providers, which will satisfy most American and European customers.
As a multi-national, however, you may be more constrained in local markets. For instance, 41% of shoppers in South Korea pay with a Shinhan Card and 41% with KakaoPay. BigCommerce does not support these solutions, so you’ll require custom integration.
“The choice between a pre-integrated payment getaway and a custom integration depends on your business’ specific context, budget, and development resources.”
Let’s look at all three options.
1. BigCommerce Supported Payment Gateways
Out-of-the-box, BigCommerce supports 65 payment gateway integrations available out-of-the-box. Amongst the types of payment gateways are:
- online banking
- direct debit/ACH
- digital wallets
- bank transfers
- mobile payments
- delayed payment and installments
In addition to being mobile-friendly and PCI-compliant, BigCommerce pre-integrated payment getaways do not incur any extra charges (e.g., unlike the 2% charge Shopify makes if retailers use a third-party method).
You can set up as many payment methods as you like. Yet, BigCommerce recommends limiting your use to two or three digital options plus another payment processor for offline transactions if you have a brick-and-mortar store.
Popular BigCommerce payment gateways examples:
Many BigCommerce-supported payment gateways come with competitive features such as
- Capture — authorizes transactions without removing funds from the customer’s account until approval.
- Refunds — enables processing refunds directly from your BigCommerce control panel.
- 3D Secure — provides an extra security layer that prevents unauthorized transactions.
- Multi-currency — handles transactions in multiple currencies.
- Stored Credit Cards — securely stores shoppers’ credit card information for easy checkouts.
- Embedded Checkout — provides checkout capabilities for headless retail.
Some types of payment gateways, however, lack these features and may require additional customization.
Source: BigCommerce
Using BigCommerce pre-made integrations has several benefits:
- Easy setup. You can activate a payment gateway straight from your account, enter your credentials – and you are ready to use it.
- Payment Gateway Security. BigCommerce ensures PCI compliance when adding new payment methods to its platform.
- Automatic updates. As soon as BigCommerce releases a new payment integration, all platform users can access it.
- Access to BigCommerce support. When there is a technical issue with your gateway type, you can contact the BigCommerce team for help.
However, there are also some limitations:
- Some countries are less represented: For instance, more than 25 payment providers are available in the USA. And in Singapore – less than 10.
- Not all currencies are available equally: Some payment methods don’t support multi-currency transactions or only keep a limited number of currencies.
- Not all features are available for all payments. If you want to have extra payment functions, BigCommerce provides a Payment API. But you’ll need extra development help to configure everything correctly.
Using a BigCommerce pre-integrated payment provider is a simple decision if your preferred option is supported. But if you need an unconventional approach, Edvantis can help you integrate an alternative payment processor or securely customize the proposed payment flows. We are a BigCommerce-certified development platform and have extensive experience with payment software development and API programming.
2. Customization of Available Payment Gateways
To set up a payment integration, you’ll need to configure APIs between the two platforms (e.g., BigCommerce + Klarna).
There are simple use cases where you can do that yourself:
- Intuitively, with just a few clicks directly from account settings
- By following suggestions from your payment provider (like Klarma’s instruction)
While smaller e-tailers may be satisfied with BigCommerce-supplied options, larger retailers may need a more on-brand payment experience. Therefore, payment integration might be more complex and require custom development. Why is this so?
Because payment experiences don’t end with the checkout page. You may need to set up extra customization to:
- Securely store customer payment information to automatically save credit card details for future purchases.
- Run payment analytics to make cash flow projections across channels.
- Reconcile your finance data from different media — online, in-person, mobile app, etc. — in one data lake.
- Configure policies — set up a return and a legal policy per different countries’ requirements.
- Have an extra layer of payment gateway security because the 3D Secure feature is unavailable for all payment methods.
The above cases require an in-depth understanding of BigCommerce Payments API documentation and extra knowledge of payment processing and API programming.
That said, payment flow customization alone may not be enough if a selected payment processor doesn’t support a regional market (i.e., your target audience cannot use it, or you can’t register an account as a merchant).
Or perhaps the payment provider does not support local payment methods (i.e., customers cannot pay with a French Carte Bleue or a Dutch Maestro card). In that case, you might have to rely on the custom integration of a third-party solution.
3. Custom Integration of Ecommerce Payment Gateways
There’s a good chance that your target audience uses payment methods other than those covered by BigCommerce. Despite PayPal’s dominance in many countries, there are other payment methods local audiences may use (which are not covered by BigCommerce):
- 57% of consumers from the Netherlands pay with Tikkie
- 61% of consumers from Australia pay with BPAY
- 75% of consumers from South Korea pay with Naver Pay
If you want to integrate a custom payment processor with BigCommerce, you should seek the assistance of a technology partner.
BigCommerce allows the creation of custom payment integrations, but there are several caveats:
- BigCommerce restricts access to its core platform. Therefore, you must create a separate integration running on your server, custom-coded, and then added to your storefront.
- You and your tech partner will be responsible for the security of payment gateway integration. Hence, you need to find a BigCommerce-certified company experienced in making payment integrations PCI-compliant.
Integration can take two forms:
- Payment page hosted off-site. After processing the payment, this page will return the order to BigCommerce via API. As a result, it adds another step to the payment process for your customers.
- Payment method added to a fully custom checkout flow. Developers can use Checkout SDK and BigCommerce Order APIs to create a fully custom checkout experience with your selection of supported payment methods.
Yes, custom integration requires additional work and financial investments. But consumers get upset when local payment methods aren’t available. According to Podium State of Payments 2021, a quarter of customers will abandon the transaction if the brand fails to provide their preferred payment method.
“Having a variety of payment methods that suits your customers’ needs will increase your conversion rates and, ultimately — revenue.”
What Are the Criteria For Selecting a BigCommerce Payment Gateway?
Once you figure out your payment processing requirements, you’ll have an easier time deciding whether to use BigCommerce’s pre-integrated payment processor or go with a custom integration.
Here are the top questions to discuss with your team when choosing a payment gateway:
Final Thoughts
BigCommerce pre-integrated payment gateways covered the US and most of Europe. But to deliver a stellar customer experience to your global audiences, you may need to also adopt local payment processors.
Limiting yourself to BigCommerce-supported payment gateways might not be the best strategy if:
- Available online getaways don’t match your standard workflows (i.e., you have trouble with consolidating transnational data, have too high card processing fees, or lack essential features)
- Available online getaways don’t work for your customers (i.e., don’t support foreign debit/credit cards, don’t cover refunds to the given area, or otherwise hinder customer payment experience)
At least 56% of consumers only shop at online stores where they can use their preferred payment method. So, the right payment methods bring customer satisfaction and loyalty, which increases revenue.
Get in touch with Edvantis to further discuss various payment processing options on BigCommerce.
