How to make payments secure enough and convenient for users in mobile shopping

The growing role of the mobile commerce industry is a visible trend in today’s digital landscape. According to the statistics, 82% of American customers have used a mobile phone for shopping. Moreover, 35% of respondents tend to utilize only their mobile phones to buy online. In such a demand, it is crucial to enhance the safety of payments for customers and merchants. Yet, safety is still a pressing issue when it comes to online shopping. So how to protect against online breaches in security? What steps should be taken at the very beginning? 

You’ve probably found yourself worrying about these parts, and it’s time to find the answers. This article will dwell on how a payment gateway works, consider security regulations for merchants, and the safest types of online payments. 

How to improve the safety of payments as a merchant?

Creating a payment gateway is the first tool for security breach prevention and reducing fraud within online stores. Payment gateway, designed for authorizing payments, is a third party for shoppers and merchants. Merchant service aims to take funds from clients and immediately send them to the bank accounts of merchants. And hence technology works just like a physical point-of-sale terminal, encrypting sensitive data and payment details. As a rule, it connects to online banking, e-commerce, or credit card processing networks. Let’s look at how a secure payment gateway usually operates: 

1. A shopper places the order on the cart and submits it. 
2. A merchant, for his part, transfers order data to the payment gateway. 
3. As soon as the shopper chooses the payment option, the system routes to the secure page to request authentication methods. 
4. After the finishing of the authentification process, the bank confirms or turns down the transaction. 
5. The payment gateway sends a notification to the merchant, depending on the money available in the shopper’s account.
6. The bank forwards the money to the payment gateway, and it settles funds to the merchant. 

Now you’ve found out more about how merchant gateway controls the acceptance of payments. So we can move to several tactics for ensuring the security level of payments.

1. Use widely recognized names, such as Mastercard, Maestro, Visa, to make PayPal payments. The trusted brands bring more convenience to customers, and shoppers tend to associate them with security and flexibility of payments. What is more, major payment card brands follow PCI DSS, which contains 12 general data security requirements for identity theft prevention. 
2. Review the orders periodically. That’s the best approach for spotting fraud attempts or suspicious activities.  
3. Take full advantage of an SSL/TLS certificate. It displays the padlock symbol in the address bar, a sure sign of security for clients. 
4. Build a secure payments ecosystem with an Adress Verification system. AVS verifies if the billing address is identical to the one associated with a particular card. However, you should bear in mind that this service is not sufficient to combat the payment process’ vulnerable points. So it’s better to use AVS with other anti-fraud instruments.
5. Implement secure gateways. As we’ve already mentioned, that kind of merchant service also plays a role. You can also select a more advanced 3D option that supports two-factor authentication and protects businesses from various chargebacks. 
6. Find the right payment provider. Indeed, the diversity of security measures may confuse merchants, so they need the support of banks or reliable payment service providers. You can start by considering your current weaknesses. Feel free to share the information with your partners and discuss implementing security tools particularly suitable for your business.   

Although a dedicated team of providers takes a massive part of the responsibility, safety has to remain your critical concern. So spotting risky transactions every now and then is a must. If you faced cyberattacks similar to each other, explore the pattern and learn how to recognize it quickly. Another highlight is educating your shoppers about the importance of VPNs. You can send a monthly newsletter to keep the clients well-informed. 

What do you need to know about secure payments integration?

Have you ever thought about integrating your databases and programs with cutting-edge mobile apps? If yes, let’s dive into exploring API (Application Programming Interface) and why API-based payment services are so beneficial nowadays. 

API assists in continuous interaction between numerous applications. That is why businesses can use multiple cloud-based apps and get broad functionality. Every time you see a Google maps icon build into another website, it’s all achieved through APIs. Well, instead of using a hosted checkout page, you may integrate a payment gateway API. 

In that case, shoppers don’t need to leave your website for payment processing. Payment APIs also bring several advantages to merchants, such as:

• interaction with shoppers in different places. It’s hard to imagine the internet without social networks. Despite your main webpage, add the payment system to your Facebook or Instagram business account and let your customers buy wherever they want. 
• analyzing data for making the right marketing decisions. All you need to review the target audience’s behavior is to use real-time data provided by API. Does it sound like a perfect tool for pushing your company forward?
• clients’ data is secure, and you don’t even worry about it. So here is again a question of choosing the right API partner. You may not know how to develop a payment service. Providers will take charge and create your brands’ unique purchasing experience, but only if the partners understand your business’s essence. Before the development process itself, it’s critical to discuss the current market situation, your short-term and long-term goals. Plus, you should ask what methodologies the team of developers prefers. If your partners utilize Agile, for instance, they are able to re-prioritize tasks, share and evaluate ideas, and quickly respond to changes. At the same time, try to set dates in advance and ensure that the team is in sync with production timelines. And please remember that the API you develop should be flexible enough to work well in m-commerce, and e-commerce platforms. 
• wide range of payment options. Ideally, your company should allow clients to use all kinds of credit cards and alternative payment methods. Also, payment systems of rapidly expanding businesses have to deal with international currencies. Therefore your sales and bonuses will be available worldwide. This bullet point deserves particular attention, as statistics claim that 14% of shoppers refused their carts if there’s no expected payment option. According to Invespcro analytics, more than 11% of respondents do the same because of the сomplexity of the ordering process. Another 12% of customers give up online shopping if too much information is required. 

Dwolla, PayPal, and LevelUp are the most popular payment methods APIs, so that many customers will appreciate their flexibility. But as you can see, utilizing only one option isn’t profitable and convenient for large industrial purchases and retail shops’ mobile banking. Always keep your API simple and easy to figure out. An example of an up-to-date API design is RESTful, and it has become a kind of pattern used in web-based services. 

Besides, to increase the level of safety, you can use SOP (Silent Order Post). If you don’t want to host your payment data on an external server, this solution may appeal to you. The payment form can be embedded on the check-out page with JavaScript. In such a case, it is hosted by the payment gateway. Silent order post methods help isolate sensitive information, as data are getting posted right to a third-party server.

Mobile app development by PNN Soft

PNN Soft is a team of professional programmers, software architects, and project managers who prefer to work with enthusiasm. We are experienced enough to offer our clients high-quality software development. 

Although our company has been creating corporate solutions for 20 years, we are determined continuously to hone our skills. PNN Soft takes full advantage of Scrum and Agile methodologies to ensure constant communication with customers and build a flexible manufacturing process. 

We have created more than 1000 efficient and stable web products for different industries, including mobile applications. We are determined to seek innovative solutions that meet individual companies’ needs. That is why we know which technologies spell success for your business. 

Check out the portfolio for a better understanding of the web products we create. 

If you want to create a mobile shopping app, fill in the form below.