Content
How the payment aggregator works
How to connect payment for goods or services on the site? You can go the hard way and set up the work of an online store with each payment system separately. But this is due to a number of limitations, not so much software or technical, but organizational.
Using payment aggregators allows you to:
That is why it is important to have a universal template for analyzing existing payment systems for websites. To do this, we will first list and describe the main indicators of payment aggregators, and then we will try to outline a general selection strategy depending on the required parameters.
The mechanism for accepting payments on the site
The scheme of operation of most operators can be described in general terms as follows:
For example, if the debiting is made from a bank card (acquiring), then the bank of the client (buyer, cardholder) will be called the issuing bank, and the integrator's bank - the acquiring bank. The account to which funds will be received immediately after payment is a merchant account (merchant account).
Payment processing (processing) will be carried out in the processing center of the acquiring bank. The processing center itself can be physically located in another country and even belong to another company, the main thing is that the acquiring bank and the processing center have an agreement to service operations.
The Visa and MasterCard payment card system also takes part in the process of debiting funds. At the stage of a request from the acquiring bank to the issuing bank, the Visa or MasterCard system may prohibit the operation. A ban may be imposed due to suspicion of card fraud (for example, a purchase in Russia, and payment is made from the IP address of another country), after a large purchase, a temporary block may be imposed on the withdrawal of funds, etc.
In the case of accepting payments on the site in other ways, technical terms and nuances change, but the basic principle remains the same - the funds from the buyer's account (wallet) must go to the aggregator's account, which, in turn, will later transfer them to the seller.
Analysis of the main characteristics of payment aggregators
Any payment system for an online store can be characterized by a number of parameters that make it possible to most correctly form an assessment of the payment aggregator's work. We will list and analyze the main parameters that should be paid attention to when choosing a comprehensive solution for paying for goods and services.
Payment Instruments
There are a lot of ways to pay for goods and services via the Internet, and it is for this reason that payment aggregators have emerged.
It is worth listing the most popular means used in Russia and CIS:
What is it for. The more payment methods there are, the higher the probability of a purchase. After all, if the buyer does not have funds in the form in which you can accept them, then the purchase will not take place.
Here it is important to choose not the payment method that is beneficial to you as a business owner, but the one that is convenient for the end user, that is, the client.
However, chasing all possible payment methods is also not worth it, because the commission for certain types of means of payment can negate the profit from the sale of a particular product. In addition, the payment methods that your customers will most often use will depend heavily on the geographic location of the store, the range of products, and other factors.
Commission
Commission here means a percentage or a fixed amount withheld in the process of making a payment. The scheme of deduction of the commission can be different: from each purchase, from the turnover of the store, the cancellation can occur both from the seller and from the client. The commission also depends on the payment method used.
Most aggregators offer special tariff scales, where commissions for transactions for each type of payment means are indicated separately. Sometimes this information can only be obtained from the aggregator upon request.
What is it for. Commission is the main source of income for the aggregator. Banks, on the basis of which certain online payments are made, also receive their interest, even if you work with them directly without aggregators. The size of the commission can be reduced only by choosing an aggregator, which has a lower fee. But here, too, not everything is so simple. In order to correctly calculate the most profitable option, you need to know what operations and in what volume will be carried out in order to get a total for the entire amount of funds received and the entire amount of the expected commission. It is difficult to do this in practice without sales statistics. You can bet on the most popular types of payments: bank cards, Yandex.Money, WebMoney, Qiwi, etc. Or you can work out statistics with one aggregator, and choose the cheapest one based on the results (if this savings is justified).
Integration
Each payment aggregator creates detailed technical documentation for integrating their payment forms into customer sites. Most often, ready-made modules are offered for installation as a plug-in (add-on) to the most popular content management systems (CMS), such as:
Such solutions significantly save time and money for shop owners or online services who accept or, conversely, pay money through payment aggregators.
However, if the store engine code was written from scratch for the specific needs of the project, then you will not find ready-made solutions. For this, the sites are provided with an API (an English abbreviation of the words Application Programming Interface or "programming interface"), with detailed accompanying documentation and examples of implementation in different programming languages. This is done so that the programmer can easily integrate payment forms on the site of any project of any complexity.
If there is no opportunity to develop and connect payment via the API, then aggregators offer ready-made simple forms for individual pages through which you can make a deposit in a convenient way (without transferring user data).
Payment forms can be used both on store pages and on pages hosted on the aggregator's servers.
Sometimes aggregators offer ready-made engines for online stores that require minimal configuration to launch and receive payment through the aggregator service. On the one hand, this is convenient for potential store owners, on the other hand, it is new commission for aggregators. Everything is in the black.
What is it for. Everything is simple here - integration is needed for the technical implementation of payment acceptance or, conversely, for massive payments.
Multicurrency
Multicurrency - in this case, it is the ability of the aggregator to accept payments in different currencies. This moment is extremely important when a customer pays for purchases from another country or has funds available in a currency different from that accepted on the store's website.
What is it for. You will not lose a single client. Currency conversion will take place automatically at the aggregator's rate. No additional steps and translations are required from the client for conversion, which will significantly reduce the purchase time. First of all, this property is important for stores operating not only locally (in one city or country), but also outside the country of actual location.
Recurring payments (auto payments)
This is the ability to write off funds from the client on a regular basis. Technically, it is implemented only on sites with a personal account of clients; to confirm recurring payments, you need to connect a bank card and make the first payment.
What is it for. Recurring payments are not relevant for online stores, but for sites that provide any services on an ongoing basis. This option will come in handy, for example, for telecom operators - for automatic replenishment of clients' accounts.
Saving the card (recarring)
This is the ability to save the data of the card from which the first payment was made, in order to speed up and greatly simplify the payment procedure in the future. The holder's data is not stored on the store's website, they are obtained by the aggregator from the information entered at the first payment.
What is it for. Recarring (saving the card in the system) is simply necessary for the sites of stores aimed at regular customers. The simpler and faster the buying process, the higher the likelihood of completing the next transaction with the client.
Holding
This is the freezing of part of the funds on the payer's card. The cardholder's bank blocks the amount of money in the owner's account until the seller's (aggregator's) bank confirms the purchase. And then the amount will be written off completely. The period for freezing funds, if the final withdrawal does not occur, can last from 9 to 30 days, depending on the security requirements of the issuing bank.
Holding is also applied when converting exchange rates (if this service is provided by the issuing bank). Residual amounts after currency conversion can be debited or, conversely, credited to the account later, after the rate is calculated in accordance with the current one at the time of purchase.
What is it for. First of all, holding is necessary for secure transactions in exchange between the banks of the card holder (etient) and the merchant's bank (acquirer), in this case, the payment aggregator. Until the seller's bank confirms the sale, the money will not be debited. This means that it will be easier to cancel such a procedure. Both the client and the seller win, since there is no need to write any applications for a refund if the client changed his mind about making a deal right during the purchase process, or the goods were not in stock. Of course, a refund to the client's card can always be done with the voluntary consent of the seller (Refund), but he, in turn, for objective reasons, may refuse such a procedure and then only contacting the issuing bank (chargeback) or the court will help.
Mass payments
This payment aggregator service is in demand by Internet services that make payments to their users. For the aggregator itself, this is a difficult process, because it is working with a large number of clients at once, each of which needs to transfer funds correctly. Payments can be requested on an individual basis (at the request of the client from the personal account), or all at once (with a certain frequency, for example, once a month). For this reason, few companies offer such a service, relying mainly on aggregating payments for e-commerce only.
What is it for. For example, an exchange for the sale of texts resorts to the services of freelance copywriters, who for their work credits money to an account in their personal account. Such an exchange will not only accept money into its account from customers, but also pay them to a large number of text authors. Other situations of using massive payments are also possible: microfinance organizations, marketing agencies, online games with payments to players (casinos, etc.), and others.
Mobile acquiring (mPOS)
Mobile acquiring (mPOS - short for mobile Point Of Sale, translated into Russian as “mobile point of sale”) practically does not differ from standard Internet acquiring (payment for services or goods using bank cards via the Internet) with the only difference that payment is received via a mobile terminal. A mobile payment terminal is a combination of a card reader and an acquiring bank (payment aggregator bank) application installed on the merchant's smartphone. In some cases, you can even do without a reader, then the card information is entered into the application manually. In all other respects, the payment scheme does not change.
What is it for. mPOS is a very convenient and, most importantly, inexpensive method of accepting payments, because the bank application can be installed on a seller's smartphone that meets the bank's technical requirements. And the reader (if used) easily connects to the smartphone interfaces (via Bluetooth, via a connector for charging MicroUSB or headphones - 3.5 mm mini-jack). It is convenient to work with such a payment terminal on the road, for example, to accept payment after delivery of the goods at the place of receipt. This technical solution is also interesting for owners of small stores with a low sales volume.
Invoicing via Emai / SMS
Email invoicing (invoicing customers through email messages) is a convenient way to receive funds, even for those who do not have their own website. In this case, no integration with the payment aggregator is required. You create an invoice for payment and send an email to the customer. SMS invoicing works in a similar way, only payment data is sent as an SMS message. The seller generates sms and email messages for payment through a personal account on the aggregator's website.
What is it for. Email and sms invoicing will be convenient for the owners of online stores, in which there is no way to connect payment forms on their website. This payment method is also interesting for owners of Internet games, microfinance organizations, service providers, or those who do not have a website.
QR Invoicing
This is a complete analogue of Email and SMS invoicing, with the only exception that the short link is written in the form of a QR code (a graphical way of recording information for reading from smartphones or special scanners).
What is it for. Like other invoicing (billing) methods, QR invoicing aims to simplify the payment process using technical means, in this case smartphones.
WS integration
Web Service integration (WS-integration) is working with payment forms of the aggregator on the merchant's website (without redirecting to the payment service website). Technically, such an implementation is potentially unsafe for the payment aggregator, since the code on the website of the online store can be hacked, and then the data of the payers can be compromised. For this reason, WS-Integration is only offered to verified aggregator partners. And in order to strengthen security measures, the store owner must obtain a PCI DSS certificate (an abbreviation for Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard - translated into Russian as "data security standard of the payment card industry").
What is it for. Most often, WS-integration is offered only to large and proven clients of the aggregator. This approach to the formation of payment forms stimulates an increase in sales, since in the payment process there are no transitions to third-party sites, payment forms are designed in the same style as the site of the store or service. And this, in turn, favors the growth of customer confidence. However, such integration will require a lot of effort and money.
Payment page personalization
At the same time, if the store does not have the ability to connect WS-integration, the aggregators offer to customize the page (change, personalize, modify), that is, add design elements that would emphasize the membership of the payment form to the store (service) site from which the redirection occurs.
Opportunities to modify the page in accordance with the form of payment may not be available. It all depends on the technical capabilities of the payment aggregator service. Someone offers to change only the logo, someone allows you to change the background and colors of the interface, and someone provides a much deeper change to the page with the payment form.
Iframe integration
An interesting and fast solution for embedding the payment form code on the store page. Its essence is that, in fact, the input of customer data and payment occurs on the aggregator page, but the form itself is displayed and works on the store page. This happens by embedding the page of one site into the page code of another, this is the Iframe technology.
What is it for. Displaying the payment acceptance form on the site in a frame (special block) allows you to achieve the effect of WS-integration without using the API (without writing code for integration), but for this the aggregator must provide sufficient opportunities for customizing payment forms so that the built-in block fits organically into the store page.
Loans and installments
In this case, it is an opportunity for buyers to obtain a loan online, without visiting banks and long consideration of applications. The service is provided by aggregators through intermediary services.
What is it for. If a client does not have enough funds to buy a product or service, but he is ready to contribute the amount in installments, then a loan or installment plan offered by the payment aggregator will help you keep the buyer. Loans are especially relevant for stores with expensive goods (furniture, digital equipment, etc.). The lending service will also be interesting for microfinance services.
Work with non-residents
Non-residents are individuals or legal entities that are registered in the territory of other countries, but carry out their activities (in this case, economic) in the territory of Russia. Few aggregators are willing to work with foreign companies and clients or pay money to non-residents. Therefore, before starting cooperation with an aggregator, it is imperative to clarify with what types of clients it can work and in which regions and countries it is represented. So, for example, many aggregators are ready to cooperate with companies and entrepreneurs from the CIS countries, this is due to the current economic agreements between the countries of the Commonwealth. Working with other countries is associated with a number of difficulties, from language barriers to current economic and political agreements.
What is it for. The ability of the aggregator to work with non-residents expands the presence of foreign companies and entrepreneurs in the Russian market, as it allows doing business in our country with the greatest comfort (payments in a convenient currency, recalculation of the cost of goods in Russian rubles, the sales market for the seller extends to those countries in which the aggregator can run).
Scoring
Scoring is a system for assessing the client's solvency. The assessment process can rely on various data about the payer with the sole purpose of finding out whether he can pay for the ordered service or product. Technically, this can be generalized data on customer purchases stored by the payment aggregator, data on the availability of funds on the balance sheet (if the e-wallet is opened by the aggregator), contact information, etc.
What is it for. Most often, scoring is used to assess customers of credit services. For example, microfinance organizations, before issuing a loan, must be sure that the client will be able to pay for the services.
Frequency of transfers to the account of the store
Most of the mutual settlements between legal entities are carried out through settlement accounts. Calculations with aggregators are no exception. However, the timing of withdrawing funds to the account of the owner of an online store or service can vary greatly. These can be periodic payments (once a month, once a week, etc.) or a transfer upon request with different deadlines. The processing times for the withdrawal request differ due to the technological procedures of the aggregator itself and the aggregator bank. Conditions can be determined individually for each individual client of the aggregator.
What is it for. In order to understand how and when you will receive payments from the aggregator, it is important to clarify the terms and conditions of the withdrawal of funds.
Clarifications
In addition to the above characteristics of payment aggregators, a number of other points should be taken into account:
Choosing the optimal payment service
I would like to start with the fact that there is no perfect solution to the problem of integrating payments into the site. On the one hand, this creates the problem of choosing the most optimal solution, but on the other hand, this is good, because competition in the online payment market gives rise to new technologies and services, new players appear on the market. And the selected aggregator will be most focused on a certain type of customers.
So how do you go about choosing the best payment aggregator?
Let's look at examples
If you plan to open an online store selling clothes throughout Russia, your company is registered here, prices are in rubles, then you will no longer need to work with non-residents from the payment aggregator. Multicurrency, recurring payments, and mass payments will not be useful to you either. Loans, installments, billing (if they are not provided for by your business model) are likely to not be in demand either. It is best to cover the means of payment to the fullest extent, as far as it is justified with your payment scheme (here it is important to understand that if the clients are overwhelmingly housewives, then payments using the Bitcoin cryptocurrency are unlikely to be useful to you). Do not forget about the percentage of the aggregator, if the commission for certain types of payments will significantly hit the profitability,
An interesting service for a store with clothes will be the recarring service (very convenient for regular customers), holding (the actual debiting of funds will be carried out, for example, after receiving the goods, this approach will reduce the risks of returning the goods and money for it if it does not suit something buyer).
If you want to launch a microfinance service, then you should pay special attention to aggregators that provide scoring services, recurring payments, recarring, bulk payments, as well as lending and installments.
If you need a quick launch of a project with minimal costs, choose simple integration with ready-made modules for CMS or Iframe integration. The last solution looks organically on the pages of the site and does not cause fear among customers due to redirection to the page of a third-party service for payment.
But if you need a professional implementation of the payment functionality that really fits into the code of the online store, then you should focus only on WS-integration (using the aggregator API).
When calculating the cost of services for the aggregation of payments, you should not chase only the minimum margin. You need to take a comprehensive approach to the question: it is worth choosing a lower price only if all the rest of the functionality suits you completely. The technical part of the question should always come first, because ultimately it is thanks to the stability, simplicity and speed of the service for paying for goods / services that a complete impression of the store will be formed. And the higher the score, the higher the likelihood of new purchases and new customers.
TOP 20 - Rating of payment aggregators 2021
1. Юkassa
Bank cards 2.8 - 7%
Webmoney 5 - 7%
ЮMoney 3 - 7%
QIWI 5 - 7%
Internet banking 3.5 - 7%
2. Robokassa
Bank cards 1.5 - 5%
Webmoney 2.7 - 6.7%
ЮMoney 3.3 - 9%
QIWI 3.7 - 8%
Internet banking 3.3 - 4.7%
3. WalletOne (Checkout)
Bank cards 2.7 - 4%
Webmoney - x
ЮMoney 3.6 - 4.5%
QIWI 3.6 - 4.5%
Internet banking 2.5 - 4.5%
4. Cypix
Bank cards 2.8 - 3%
Webmoney 5 - 6%
QIWI 5.5 - 7.5%
5. Net Pay
Bank cards 0.7 - 2.5%
Webmoney 4.5%
ЮMoney 4.5%
QIWI 4.5%
6. PayMaster
Bank cards 1.4 - 2.95%
Webmoney 3 - 4%
ЮMoney 3.5 - 5.5%
QIWI 4 - 6%
Internet banking 3%
7. PayOnline
Bank cards 0.4 - 2.9%
Webmoney 5 - 7%
ЮMoney 5 - 8%
QIWI 4 - 7%
8. PayKeeper
Bank cards 0.55 - 1.95%
9. Onpay
Bank cards 1.7 - 3%
Webmoney 0.8%
QIWI 7%
Internet banking 3 - 4%
10. Free Kassa
Bank cards 4 - 5%
Webmoney 3.5 - 4%
ЮMoney 6.5 - 7%
QIWI 6.5 - 7%
Internet banking 2.5 - 6%
11. PayAnyWay
Bank cards 1.8 - 2.7%
Webmoney 2.5 - 4.5%
ЮMoney 3 - 8%
QIWI 4 - 7%
Internet banking 2.9%
12. Megakassa
Bank cards 4.9%
Webmoney 0%
ЮMoney 4.9%
QIWI 5-7%
Internet banking 4-5%
13. ArsenalPay
Bank cards 1.4 - 2.6%
Webmoney 5 %
ЮMoney 5 %
QIWI 5 %
14. Platron
Bank cards 2 - 3.1%
Webmoney 2 - 4%
ЮMoney 3.5 - 6%
QIWI 3.3 - 3.5%
Internet banking 2.5 - 3.1%
15. PayU
Bank cards 2.1 - 3%
Webmoney 3 - 5%
QIWI 4 - 7%
Internet banking 3.5%
16. RBKMoney
Bank cards 2.5 - 3.9%
Internet banking 2.5 - 3.9%
17. ChronoPay
Bank cards 2.8 - 3%
Webmoney 3.4%
ЮMoney 4.2%
QIWI 5.2%
18. MoneyOnline
Bank cards 2.5 - 3.5%
Webmoney 3.5%
ЮMoney 6%
QIWI 5 - 5.5%
19. Payler
Bank cards 2.5 - 4.5%
Webmoney 3%
ЮMoney 3%
QIWI 3%
Internet banking 2.5%
20. QIWI Checkout
Bank cards 0.6 - 2.9%
QIWI 0.5 - 5%
- How the payment aggregator works
- Using payment aggregators
- The mechanism for accepting payments on the site
- Analysis of the main characteristics of payment aggregators
- Payment Instruments
- Commission
- Integration
- Multicurrency
- Recurring payments (auto payments)
- Save the card
- Holding
- Mass payments
- Mobile acquiring
- Invoice by Email / SMS
- QR code invoice
- WS integration
- Payment page personalization
- Inframe integration
- Lending
- Work with non-residents
- Assessment of the client's solvency
- Frequency of transfers to a merchant account
- Choosing the best payment service: checklist
- Examples of
- Rating of payment aggregators 2021
How the payment aggregator works
How to connect payment for goods or services on the site? You can go the hard way and set up the work of an online store with each payment system separately. But this is due to a number of limitations, not so much software or technical, but organizational.
- Yes, theoretically, due to direct connection to a particular payment system, you can achieve a low commission on payments, but in fact, you can achieve a low commission percentage only with serious turnover. For example, many banks also set a lower turnover limit for Internet acquiring; it is not profitable for them to work with small clients.
- You will need to conclude an agreement with each payment acceptance system that you plan to use on the site, as well as fulfill the technical requirements for connecting these systems. The signing and approval of each contract can take weeks or even months.
- Connecting payment forms may require hiring programmers to integrate the solution into your online store.
Using payment aggregators allows you to:
- minimize the terms of signing cooperation agreements (in this case, you sign an agreement only with an aggregator);
- significantly reduce the work of integrating payment services with the site. The vast majority of aggregators offer ready-made integration modules for popular site management systems (CMS) or very detailed connection documentation. Most often, it is enough to redirect the client with the payment form to the aggregator's servers, which will not only facilitate integration, but also unload your computing power. Or the payment form will be displayed on the website of your online store, but the processing process will in fact be performed on the equipment of the aggregator.
That is why it is important to have a universal template for analyzing existing payment systems for websites. To do this, we will first list and describe the main indicators of payment aggregators, and then we will try to outline a general selection strategy depending on the required parameters.
The mechanism for accepting payments on the site
The scheme of operation of most operators can be described in general terms as follows:
- The customer from the store's website is redirected to a special form for accepting payments. The form can be located both on the website of the store itself and on the website of the payment aggregator. In the latter case, the technical implementation of the interaction between the client and the aggregator is simpler, since no advanced configuration and work with the store site code are required. The integrator works only with its own software, taking the most necessary data from the store's website.
- In the payment form, a convenient payment method is selected for the client. The payment method will determine the size of the commission charged on the operation, and with which accounts the processing system will work.
- After confirmation by the user, a request is sent from the aggregator's bank to the client's bank to write off the required amount.
- If there are enough funds, then they are debited from the client's account (card, mobile phone account, simple bank account, etc.) to the account of the aggregator's bank. The aggregator here can be either the bank itself or the bank with which the aggregator company has a service agreement, it can be several banks (depending on the payment methods).
- At a predetermined frequency, the aggregator's bank transfers funds from its account to the seller's account.
For example, if the debiting is made from a bank card (acquiring), then the bank of the client (buyer, cardholder) will be called the issuing bank, and the integrator's bank - the acquiring bank. The account to which funds will be received immediately after payment is a merchant account (merchant account).
Payment processing (processing) will be carried out in the processing center of the acquiring bank. The processing center itself can be physically located in another country and even belong to another company, the main thing is that the acquiring bank and the processing center have an agreement to service operations.
The Visa and MasterCard payment card system also takes part in the process of debiting funds. At the stage of a request from the acquiring bank to the issuing bank, the Visa or MasterCard system may prohibit the operation. A ban may be imposed due to suspicion of card fraud (for example, a purchase in Russia, and payment is made from the IP address of another country), after a large purchase, a temporary block may be imposed on the withdrawal of funds, etc.
In the case of accepting payments on the site in other ways, technical terms and nuances change, but the basic principle remains the same - the funds from the buyer's account (wallet) must go to the aggregator's account, which, in turn, will later transfer them to the seller.
Analysis of the main characteristics of payment aggregators
Any payment system for an online store can be characterized by a number of parameters that make it possible to most correctly form an assessment of the payment aggregator's work. We will list and analyze the main parameters that should be paid attention to when choosing a comprehensive solution for paying for goods and services.
Payment Instruments
There are a lot of ways to pay for goods and services via the Internet, and it is for this reason that payment aggregators have emerged.
It is worth listing the most popular means used in Russia and CIS:
- Bank cards (VISA, MasterCard, Smartivi, etc.),
- Online banking (Sberbank-Online, Alfa-Bank, Tinkoff, etc.),
- Bank and postal transfers,
- Online lending and microfinance,
- Electronic money (Yandex.Money, WebMoney, QIWI Wallet, etc.),
- Payment terminals (Euroset, Svyaznoy, etc.),
- Mobile balance (Beeline, Megafon, MTS, TELE2),
- Translation systems (Contact, Unistream, Leader, etc.).
What is it for. The more payment methods there are, the higher the probability of a purchase. After all, if the buyer does not have funds in the form in which you can accept them, then the purchase will not take place.
Here it is important to choose not the payment method that is beneficial to you as a business owner, but the one that is convenient for the end user, that is, the client.
However, chasing all possible payment methods is also not worth it, because the commission for certain types of means of payment can negate the profit from the sale of a particular product. In addition, the payment methods that your customers will most often use will depend heavily on the geographic location of the store, the range of products, and other factors.
Commission
Commission here means a percentage or a fixed amount withheld in the process of making a payment. The scheme of deduction of the commission can be different: from each purchase, from the turnover of the store, the cancellation can occur both from the seller and from the client. The commission also depends on the payment method used.
Most aggregators offer special tariff scales, where commissions for transactions for each type of payment means are indicated separately. Sometimes this information can only be obtained from the aggregator upon request.
What is it for. Commission is the main source of income for the aggregator. Banks, on the basis of which certain online payments are made, also receive their interest, even if you work with them directly without aggregators. The size of the commission can be reduced only by choosing an aggregator, which has a lower fee. But here, too, not everything is so simple. In order to correctly calculate the most profitable option, you need to know what operations and in what volume will be carried out in order to get a total for the entire amount of funds received and the entire amount of the expected commission. It is difficult to do this in practice without sales statistics. You can bet on the most popular types of payments: bank cards, Yandex.Money, WebMoney, Qiwi, etc. Or you can work out statistics with one aggregator, and choose the cheapest one based on the results (if this savings is justified).
Integration
Each payment aggregator creates detailed technical documentation for integrating their payment forms into customer sites. Most often, ready-made modules are offered for installation as a plug-in (add-on) to the most popular content management systems (CMS), such as:
- 1C-Bitrix;
- WordPress;
- HostCMS;
- OpenCart 2;
- UmiCMS;
- AmiroCMS;
- Magento.
Such solutions significantly save time and money for shop owners or online services who accept or, conversely, pay money through payment aggregators.
However, if the store engine code was written from scratch for the specific needs of the project, then you will not find ready-made solutions. For this, the sites are provided with an API (an English abbreviation of the words Application Programming Interface or "programming interface"), with detailed accompanying documentation and examples of implementation in different programming languages. This is done so that the programmer can easily integrate payment forms on the site of any project of any complexity.
If there is no opportunity to develop and connect payment via the API, then aggregators offer ready-made simple forms for individual pages through which you can make a deposit in a convenient way (without transferring user data).
Payment forms can be used both on store pages and on pages hosted on the aggregator's servers.
Sometimes aggregators offer ready-made engines for online stores that require minimal configuration to launch and receive payment through the aggregator service. On the one hand, this is convenient for potential store owners, on the other hand, it is new commission for aggregators. Everything is in the black.
What is it for. Everything is simple here - integration is needed for the technical implementation of payment acceptance or, conversely, for massive payments.
Multicurrency
Multicurrency - in this case, it is the ability of the aggregator to accept payments in different currencies. This moment is extremely important when a customer pays for purchases from another country or has funds available in a currency different from that accepted on the store's website.
What is it for. You will not lose a single client. Currency conversion will take place automatically at the aggregator's rate. No additional steps and translations are required from the client for conversion, which will significantly reduce the purchase time. First of all, this property is important for stores operating not only locally (in one city or country), but also outside the country of actual location.
Recurring payments (auto payments)
This is the ability to write off funds from the client on a regular basis. Technically, it is implemented only on sites with a personal account of clients; to confirm recurring payments, you need to connect a bank card and make the first payment.
What is it for. Recurring payments are not relevant for online stores, but for sites that provide any services on an ongoing basis. This option will come in handy, for example, for telecom operators - for automatic replenishment of clients' accounts.
Saving the card (recarring)
This is the ability to save the data of the card from which the first payment was made, in order to speed up and greatly simplify the payment procedure in the future. The holder's data is not stored on the store's website, they are obtained by the aggregator from the information entered at the first payment.
What is it for. Recarring (saving the card in the system) is simply necessary for the sites of stores aimed at regular customers. The simpler and faster the buying process, the higher the likelihood of completing the next transaction with the client.
Holding
This is the freezing of part of the funds on the payer's card. The cardholder's bank blocks the amount of money in the owner's account until the seller's (aggregator's) bank confirms the purchase. And then the amount will be written off completely. The period for freezing funds, if the final withdrawal does not occur, can last from 9 to 30 days, depending on the security requirements of the issuing bank.
Holding is also applied when converting exchange rates (if this service is provided by the issuing bank). Residual amounts after currency conversion can be debited or, conversely, credited to the account later, after the rate is calculated in accordance with the current one at the time of purchase.
What is it for. First of all, holding is necessary for secure transactions in exchange between the banks of the card holder (etient) and the merchant's bank (acquirer), in this case, the payment aggregator. Until the seller's bank confirms the sale, the money will not be debited. This means that it will be easier to cancel such a procedure. Both the client and the seller win, since there is no need to write any applications for a refund if the client changed his mind about making a deal right during the purchase process, or the goods were not in stock. Of course, a refund to the client's card can always be done with the voluntary consent of the seller (Refund), but he, in turn, for objective reasons, may refuse such a procedure and then only contacting the issuing bank (chargeback) or the court will help.
Mass payments
This payment aggregator service is in demand by Internet services that make payments to their users. For the aggregator itself, this is a difficult process, because it is working with a large number of clients at once, each of which needs to transfer funds correctly. Payments can be requested on an individual basis (at the request of the client from the personal account), or all at once (with a certain frequency, for example, once a month). For this reason, few companies offer such a service, relying mainly on aggregating payments for e-commerce only.
What is it for. For example, an exchange for the sale of texts resorts to the services of freelance copywriters, who for their work credits money to an account in their personal account. Such an exchange will not only accept money into its account from customers, but also pay them to a large number of text authors. Other situations of using massive payments are also possible: microfinance organizations, marketing agencies, online games with payments to players (casinos, etc.), and others.
Mobile acquiring (mPOS)
Mobile acquiring (mPOS - short for mobile Point Of Sale, translated into Russian as “mobile point of sale”) practically does not differ from standard Internet acquiring (payment for services or goods using bank cards via the Internet) with the only difference that payment is received via a mobile terminal. A mobile payment terminal is a combination of a card reader and an acquiring bank (payment aggregator bank) application installed on the merchant's smartphone. In some cases, you can even do without a reader, then the card information is entered into the application manually. In all other respects, the payment scheme does not change.
What is it for. mPOS is a very convenient and, most importantly, inexpensive method of accepting payments, because the bank application can be installed on a seller's smartphone that meets the bank's technical requirements. And the reader (if used) easily connects to the smartphone interfaces (via Bluetooth, via a connector for charging MicroUSB or headphones - 3.5 mm mini-jack). It is convenient to work with such a payment terminal on the road, for example, to accept payment after delivery of the goods at the place of receipt. This technical solution is also interesting for owners of small stores with a low sales volume.
Invoicing via Emai / SMS
Email invoicing (invoicing customers through email messages) is a convenient way to receive funds, even for those who do not have their own website. In this case, no integration with the payment aggregator is required. You create an invoice for payment and send an email to the customer. SMS invoicing works in a similar way, only payment data is sent as an SMS message. The seller generates sms and email messages for payment through a personal account on the aggregator's website.
What is it for. Email and sms invoicing will be convenient for the owners of online stores, in which there is no way to connect payment forms on their website. This payment method is also interesting for owners of Internet games, microfinance organizations, service providers, or those who do not have a website.
QR Invoicing
This is a complete analogue of Email and SMS invoicing, with the only exception that the short link is written in the form of a QR code (a graphical way of recording information for reading from smartphones or special scanners).
What is it for. Like other invoicing (billing) methods, QR invoicing aims to simplify the payment process using technical means, in this case smartphones.
WS integration
Web Service integration (WS-integration) is working with payment forms of the aggregator on the merchant's website (without redirecting to the payment service website). Technically, such an implementation is potentially unsafe for the payment aggregator, since the code on the website of the online store can be hacked, and then the data of the payers can be compromised. For this reason, WS-Integration is only offered to verified aggregator partners. And in order to strengthen security measures, the store owner must obtain a PCI DSS certificate (an abbreviation for Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard - translated into Russian as "data security standard of the payment card industry").
What is it for. Most often, WS-integration is offered only to large and proven clients of the aggregator. This approach to the formation of payment forms stimulates an increase in sales, since in the payment process there are no transitions to third-party sites, payment forms are designed in the same style as the site of the store or service. And this, in turn, favors the growth of customer confidence. However, such integration will require a lot of effort and money.
Payment page personalization
At the same time, if the store does not have the ability to connect WS-integration, the aggregators offer to customize the page (change, personalize, modify), that is, add design elements that would emphasize the membership of the payment form to the store (service) site from which the redirection occurs.
Opportunities to modify the page in accordance with the form of payment may not be available. It all depends on the technical capabilities of the payment aggregator service. Someone offers to change only the logo, someone allows you to change the background and colors of the interface, and someone provides a much deeper change to the page with the payment form.
Iframe integration
An interesting and fast solution for embedding the payment form code on the store page. Its essence is that, in fact, the input of customer data and payment occurs on the aggregator page, but the form itself is displayed and works on the store page. This happens by embedding the page of one site into the page code of another, this is the Iframe technology.
What is it for. Displaying the payment acceptance form on the site in a frame (special block) allows you to achieve the effect of WS-integration without using the API (without writing code for integration), but for this the aggregator must provide sufficient opportunities for customizing payment forms so that the built-in block fits organically into the store page.
Loans and installments
In this case, it is an opportunity for buyers to obtain a loan online, without visiting banks and long consideration of applications. The service is provided by aggregators through intermediary services.
What is it for. If a client does not have enough funds to buy a product or service, but he is ready to contribute the amount in installments, then a loan or installment plan offered by the payment aggregator will help you keep the buyer. Loans are especially relevant for stores with expensive goods (furniture, digital equipment, etc.). The lending service will also be interesting for microfinance services.
Work with non-residents
Non-residents are individuals or legal entities that are registered in the territory of other countries, but carry out their activities (in this case, economic) in the territory of Russia. Few aggregators are willing to work with foreign companies and clients or pay money to non-residents. Therefore, before starting cooperation with an aggregator, it is imperative to clarify with what types of clients it can work and in which regions and countries it is represented. So, for example, many aggregators are ready to cooperate with companies and entrepreneurs from the CIS countries, this is due to the current economic agreements between the countries of the Commonwealth. Working with other countries is associated with a number of difficulties, from language barriers to current economic and political agreements.
What is it for. The ability of the aggregator to work with non-residents expands the presence of foreign companies and entrepreneurs in the Russian market, as it allows doing business in our country with the greatest comfort (payments in a convenient currency, recalculation of the cost of goods in Russian rubles, the sales market for the seller extends to those countries in which the aggregator can run).
Scoring
Scoring is a system for assessing the client's solvency. The assessment process can rely on various data about the payer with the sole purpose of finding out whether he can pay for the ordered service or product. Technically, this can be generalized data on customer purchases stored by the payment aggregator, data on the availability of funds on the balance sheet (if the e-wallet is opened by the aggregator), contact information, etc.
What is it for. Most often, scoring is used to assess customers of credit services. For example, microfinance organizations, before issuing a loan, must be sure that the client will be able to pay for the services.
Frequency of transfers to the account of the store
Most of the mutual settlements between legal entities are carried out through settlement accounts. Calculations with aggregators are no exception. However, the timing of withdrawing funds to the account of the owner of an online store or service can vary greatly. These can be periodic payments (once a month, once a week, etc.) or a transfer upon request with different deadlines. The processing times for the withdrawal request differ due to the technological procedures of the aggregator itself and the aggregator bank. Conditions can be determined individually for each individual client of the aggregator.
What is it for. In order to understand how and when you will receive payments from the aggregator, it is important to clarify the terms and conditions of the withdrawal of funds.
Clarifications
In addition to the above characteristics of payment aggregators, a number of other points should be taken into account:
- Technical support working hours. Any aggregator is interested in increasing the client base, but in order to save the budget, it can provide technical support services to solve problem situations or help with integration on strictly defined days and hours (this is due to the terms of hiring technical specialists), which can significantly complicate both the integration process and and the process of resolving disputes with customers and payment. The best technical support is 24/7 (around the clock and seven days a week), since most of the Internet projects accept payment both day and night.
- Formation of reports in the client's personal account. To better understand the reasons for refusals, to see bottlenecks in the payment process, etc., the owner of a store or service must have comprehensive data for analysis. The more detailed and accessible the information provided by the aggregator, the greater the chances of successfully solving emerging problems.
- Simplicity and clarity of forms of payment. The simpler the form of payment, the faster and easier the payment process will be.
- Notifications. The services of notification of changes in the status of payment or notification of the receipt of funds on the account will be in demand by both buyers and sellers. If the personal account of the aggregator allows you to flexibly configure the methods and frequency of notifications, even better.
- Other aspects. It is important to understand that technical solutions change periodically, new technologies are introduced into the work. Some are really useful (like 3D Secure - a confirmation request via SMS to the cardholder), as they speed up or simplify the payment process, make it safer, and some will turn out to be unclaimed, since they will not find their consumer.
Choosing the optimal payment service
I would like to start with the fact that there is no perfect solution to the problem of integrating payments into the site. On the one hand, this creates the problem of choosing the most optimal solution, but on the other hand, this is good, because competition in the online payment market gives rise to new technologies and services, new players appear on the market. And the selected aggregator will be most focused on a certain type of customers.
So how do you go about choosing the best payment aggregator?
- First of all, it is necessary to describe in the smallest detail the concept of sales: what goods or services are offered, to work in which regions, cities or countries the store / service will be oriented, to describe the portraits of typical customers, etc.
- Secondly, based on payment schemes and preferences of potential customers, you should describe in detail all possible purchase schemes, familiarize yourself with the statistics of similar services, and analyze customer preferences in the regions of presence. And based on this data, generate a complete list of requirements for the payment gateway (aggregator).
- Collect the most complete list of aggregators relevant at the time the store (service) was launched. So that the list does not turn out to be too large and overloaded with information, at the stage of compilation, you can make a preliminary selection according to basic points (it does not work with your type of customers, there is no presence in the region, etc.).
- Supplement the list with comprehensive information on all the aggregator parameters you need (as a basis, you can use the ones listed above). And now you can consistently exclude from the list companies that do not suit you according to one or another criterion (parameters without which you cannot provide services or sell goods the way it was conceived in the concept).
- From those remaining in the list, choose the aggregator who provides the functionality you need with a minimum payment for their services. However, you should not lose sight of the reliability of the service. It is better to overpay a little, but be sure that the aggregator will not let you down at the crucial moment (it will quickly solve the problem situation, restore efficiency, etc.). So you will get only the necessary functionality without unnecessary options at the most reasonable price. Which is the best choice.
Let's look at examples
If you plan to open an online store selling clothes throughout Russia, your company is registered here, prices are in rubles, then you will no longer need to work with non-residents from the payment aggregator. Multicurrency, recurring payments, and mass payments will not be useful to you either. Loans, installments, billing (if they are not provided for by your business model) are likely to not be in demand either. It is best to cover the means of payment to the fullest extent, as far as it is justified with your payment scheme (here it is important to understand that if the clients are overwhelmingly housewives, then payments using the Bitcoin cryptocurrency are unlikely to be useful to you). Do not forget about the percentage of the aggregator, if the commission for certain types of payments will significantly hit the profitability,
An interesting service for a store with clothes will be the recarring service (very convenient for regular customers), holding (the actual debiting of funds will be carried out, for example, after receiving the goods, this approach will reduce the risks of returning the goods and money for it if it does not suit something buyer).
If you want to launch a microfinance service, then you should pay special attention to aggregators that provide scoring services, recurring payments, recarring, bulk payments, as well as lending and installments.
If you need a quick launch of a project with minimal costs, choose simple integration with ready-made modules for CMS or Iframe integration. The last solution looks organically on the pages of the site and does not cause fear among customers due to redirection to the page of a third-party service for payment.
But if you need a professional implementation of the payment functionality that really fits into the code of the online store, then you should focus only on WS-integration (using the aggregator API).
When calculating the cost of services for the aggregation of payments, you should not chase only the minimum margin. You need to take a comprehensive approach to the question: it is worth choosing a lower price only if all the rest of the functionality suits you completely. The technical part of the question should always come first, because ultimately it is thanks to the stability, simplicity and speed of the service for paying for goods / services that a complete impression of the store will be formed. And the higher the score, the higher the likelihood of new purchases and new customers.
TOP 20 - Rating of payment aggregators 2021
1. Юkassa
Bank cards 2.8 - 7%
Webmoney 5 - 7%
ЮMoney 3 - 7%
QIWI 5 - 7%
Internet banking 3.5 - 7%
2. Robokassa
Bank cards 1.5 - 5%
Webmoney 2.7 - 6.7%
ЮMoney 3.3 - 9%
QIWI 3.7 - 8%
Internet banking 3.3 - 4.7%
3. WalletOne (Checkout)
Bank cards 2.7 - 4%
Webmoney - x
ЮMoney 3.6 - 4.5%
QIWI 3.6 - 4.5%
Internet banking 2.5 - 4.5%
4. Cypix
Bank cards 2.8 - 3%
Webmoney 5 - 6%
QIWI 5.5 - 7.5%
5. Net Pay
Bank cards 0.7 - 2.5%
Webmoney 4.5%
ЮMoney 4.5%
QIWI 4.5%
6. PayMaster
Bank cards 1.4 - 2.95%
Webmoney 3 - 4%
ЮMoney 3.5 - 5.5%
QIWI 4 - 6%
Internet banking 3%
7. PayOnline
Bank cards 0.4 - 2.9%
Webmoney 5 - 7%
ЮMoney 5 - 8%
QIWI 4 - 7%
8. PayKeeper
Bank cards 0.55 - 1.95%
9. Onpay
Bank cards 1.7 - 3%
Webmoney 0.8%
QIWI 7%
Internet banking 3 - 4%
10. Free Kassa
Bank cards 4 - 5%
Webmoney 3.5 - 4%
ЮMoney 6.5 - 7%
QIWI 6.5 - 7%
Internet banking 2.5 - 6%
11. PayAnyWay
Bank cards 1.8 - 2.7%
Webmoney 2.5 - 4.5%
ЮMoney 3 - 8%
QIWI 4 - 7%
Internet banking 2.9%
12. Megakassa
Bank cards 4.9%
Webmoney 0%
ЮMoney 4.9%
QIWI 5-7%
Internet banking 4-5%
13. ArsenalPay
Bank cards 1.4 - 2.6%
Webmoney 5 %
ЮMoney 5 %
QIWI 5 %
14. Platron
Bank cards 2 - 3.1%
Webmoney 2 - 4%
ЮMoney 3.5 - 6%
QIWI 3.3 - 3.5%
Internet banking 2.5 - 3.1%
15. PayU
Bank cards 2.1 - 3%
Webmoney 3 - 5%
QIWI 4 - 7%
Internet banking 3.5%
16. RBKMoney
Bank cards 2.5 - 3.9%
Internet banking 2.5 - 3.9%
17. ChronoPay
Bank cards 2.8 - 3%
Webmoney 3.4%
ЮMoney 4.2%
QIWI 5.2%
18. MoneyOnline
Bank cards 2.5 - 3.5%
Webmoney 3.5%
ЮMoney 6%
QIWI 5 - 5.5%
19. Payler
Bank cards 2.5 - 4.5%
Webmoney 3%
ЮMoney 3%
QIWI 3%
Internet banking 2.5%
20. QIWI Checkout
Bank cards 0.6 - 2.9%
QIWI 0.5 - 5%
