Best Ecommerce Payment Gateway in South Africa

With the rising prominence of payment gateways in South Africa, the eCommerce sector is witnessing rapid growth as businesses increasingly pivot towards online sales. Fueled in part by the global pandemic, online sales in South Africa increased by 66% in 2020 alone.

As the industry continues to expand, businesses require reliable and secure payment gateways to facilitate online transactions in South Africa and tap into African markets.

The importance of payment gateways for e-commerce businesses, especially those that operate on the subscription business model, becomes twofold. Retailers need to satisfy customers so that they may renew subscriptions.

Payment gateway providers enable them to offer customers the best payment experience so as to retain the customer base. There are many international payment gateway service providers to choose from.

In this blog post, we’ll tackle the question of:

What is the best eCommerce payment gateway in South Africa?

Though digitalism is a trend, the speed of the spread of this trend varies from region to region. In the African region, digital evolution can be considered slow in comparison to the first-world countries. However, people are now getting awareness. They have started opting for automated tools and payment gateways that can connect them to the progressing world.

In addition to PayFast and Peach payments, we found Paystack to be one of the best international payment providers for e-commerce stores in South Africa. Keep reading to find out why!

The Role of eCommerce Payment Gateways

By acting as a secure digital corridor connecting an eCommerce website to the financial institutions that process payments, payment gateway technology enables merchants to securely process and accept electronic payments from customers over the Internet.

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There are many different payment gateway service providers with their own specific features and limitations. The one-size-fits-all strategy doesn’t work here because of different business needs.

Finding a payment gateway that can fulfil your business needs is not easy. Also, sometimes customers prefer a certain specific payment gateway. However, in regions like Africa, the options can be limited. So, there are many e-commerce retailers who look for Stripe alternatives in South Africa. Before you choose any payment gateway for your business, it is important to know some prerequisites.

Also Read: Make The Most of Your Tech Stack by Paystack SubscriptionFlow Integration

The Best Fit of Payment Gateway for Your eCommerce Business

E-commerce companies have their own specific needs when it comes to selecting a payment gateway for their online store.

Finding the best can sometimes be difficult. That also leads to opting for multiple payment gateway integrations. When multiple payment gateways are integrated for e-commerce businesses, it is a lot easier to process payments and ensure security. “Furthermore, offering multiple payment gateways improves customer choice, which can lead to a lower checkout abandonment rate.

However, some questions to assess whether a payment gateway is right for your eCommerce business may include:

• What payment methods are available?
• What level of security does it offer?
• Does it integrate seamlessly into your eCommerce platform and any other SaaS tools you may be utilizing such as subscription management, marketing, and accounting software?
• What are the fees associated with transactions?
• What are the additional fees for chargebacks, international transactions etc.?
• Does it provide multi-currency support?
• Does it provide reliable customer service?
• How many regions and countries does it cover, and does it have a good reputation in your focus market?

Some payment industry giants, such as PayPal, provide payment services almost anywhere around the globe, but come with their own limitations such as heavy international transaction fees. If you are an eCommerce business looking to tap into the South African market, Paystack is a great choice of payment gateway.

Unlocking the Power of PayFast: A Brief Insight

PayFast is known to be one of the best payment gateway options for payments in South Africa. The main reason for this is that PayFast offers extensive payment options catered specifically to this region. These include your typical credit and debit cards, as well as, instant EFTs with most of the prominent South African banks.

PayFast also integrates with mobile payment providers like Zapper, Scode, and SnapScan, as well as, a host of other payment options such as Mobicred, allowing customers to pay in installments, and digital wallets such as Masterpass, etc. These are particularly lucrative options in African markets. In this way, PayFast makes a lot of payment options available through one single supplier and caters to the preferences of the South African region particularly well.

PayFast is also easy to set up, comes highly recommended, and has no monthly recurring fee, but there is a fee associated with each payout to your bank and the transaction charge is not the cheapest available.

A Quick Word on Peach Payments

Peach Payments is another popular payment gateway in South Africa that allows your eCommerce store to accept both local and international cards, EFT, Masterpass, and Mobicred. Enterprises can also set up PayPal and multi-currency payments.

There are no monthly fees associated with their growth plan for start-ups and SMEs. However, there is a monthly recurring fee for enterprises making transactions of upwards of R300,000 per month. Peach Payments does have a focus on large businesses and enterprises so it may not be the best option for start-ups and SMEs.

A Longer Word on Paystack

Paystack is a leading payment gateway in Africa, providing reliable and secure payment processing solutions for eCommerce businesses of all sizes. The following are some of the reasons why Paystack is one of the best eCommerce payment gateways in South Africa:

1. Supports a Wide Range of Payment Methods

Paystack offers your customers a wide range of payment options, including debit and credit cards, bank transfers, mobile banking, and USSD payments, allowing them to make payments in whichever way they most prefer. Customers may pay using Visa, Mastercard, or Verve cards, and they can also make payments through mobile money services like MTN Mobile Money, Vodacom M-Pesa, and Airtel Money.

Offering multiple payment methods options to your customers is not just an add-on rather it is important for the success of an e-commerce business. Today, not all customers are comfortable paying with one payment gateway. Some of them still prefer bank cards while others go for the most modern payment methods like e-wallets and cryptocurrencies etc.

In order to cater to all these targeted customers, you need to opt for supporting multiple payment methods. With the ability to choose their chosen payment method, customers are more likely to complete transactions, which improves the whole shopping experience and lowers cart abandonment rates.

Furthermore, in an international marketplace, having support for a range of payment options helps companies enter new markets and serve clients from diverse geographic areas that have different payment preferences, which eventually spurs expansion and boosts income.

This flexibility in payment options is particularly important in South Africa, where payment preferences may vary considerably from those in American or European markets. A payment solution tailored to South African needs will be sure to not neglect this important consideration.

Also Read: Using Paystack for Shopify Merchants To Empower Your E-Commerce Business

2. No Compromise on Security

When it comes to payment processing for e-commerce businesses, the most important thing is to keep customer data secure. Customers would never want to make a purchase with you if you fail to offer the best payment experience.

Today, payment processing is a complete experience. In the case of subscriptions for your e-commerce products and services, you need to make sure every time the customer comes, he gets the best payment processing experience so that you will be able to maintain your customer base.

Among South African payment gateways, Paystack is one of the best. It ensures that your payments are processed seamlessly and customers stay retained.

Paystack is PCI DSS Level 1 certified, which means that it meets the highest standards for payment security. It also uses HTTPS encryption to protect customer data during transactions, ensuring that customer payment data is handled securely. It provides businesses with end-to-end encryption and advanced fraud detection to safeguard payment data.

Paystack uses 256-bit SSL encryption to secure payment data in transit and encrypts sensitive data at rest using AES-256 encryption. This level of security is crucial in South Africa, where online fraud including identity theft is a growing concern.

3. Fraud Protection

For e-commerce businesses, it is important to understand that as technology has progressed, so have the types of fraud being committed. In order to deal with increasing fraud threats, it is important that you have the best tech stack. Paystack when integrated with your core e-commerce subscription management system offers you the best tech stack to process payments and manage other business processes as well.

Paystack has several built-in fraud prevention measures, including real-time fraud monitoring and a sophisticated fraud detection engine. The platform also supports 3D Secure authentication, which adds an extra layer of security to card payments.

4. Seamless Integrations Available

E-commerce businesses not only need a payment gateway but there are other software and applications that they need for seamless business processing. Paystack is one of the payment gateways that does not disturb the flexibility of the core system to integrate with other software and applications.

Even if Paystack is integrated with your e-commerce subscription management system, you can still integrate other applications and software with the system.

Paystack is easy to integrate with a wide range of e-commerce platforms, including WooCommerce, Shopify, Magento, and more. This allows businesses to easily set up their online store and start processing payments without any coding hassle. This seamless integration also ensures a smooth checkout process for customers, resulting in higher conversion rates and suppressed cart abandonment.

5. Customizable Checkout Page

Personalization and customization are primary requirements of an e-commerce business. E-commerce businesses need software and applications that can easily be customized and personalized and portray their business. The software that e-commerce retailers opt for must be easy to customize and personalize.

Paystack allows businesses to customize their checkout page with their logo and brand colours, creating a more personalized shopping experience for customers. Branding is important everywhere but particularly important in South Africa, where brand loyalty and recognition are highly valued.

6. Affordable Pricing

Next, we will discuss the most important factor for any business—the money. Every business has a set budget that can be spent on its tech stack. Given their budget constraints, many businesses need to look for Stripe alternatives in South Africa. Paystack offers the most affordable rates to take your e-commerce offerings to market in the South African region. Therefore, many businesses in this region make Paystack part of their tech stack.

Paystack offers affordable pricing plans with no setup or monthly fees, making it an ideal choice for small and medium-sized businesses in South Africa. The pricing structure is transparent, with no hidden costs or charges, allowing businesses to accurately forecast their payment processing expenses.

7. Excellent Customer Support

At times, your customers may need to contact your support team because payment gateways can face complex technical problems that they cannot solve on their own. For instance, sometimes payment gateways can be down because of server issues. In that case, payments do not get processed and customers come with such issues to the support personnel.

Paystack has a dedicated customer support team that is available 24/7 to help South African eCommerce businesses with any payment-related issues or queries. Paystack also has a knowledge base that contains detailed documentation and resources to help developers integrate Paystack into their eCommerce platforms.

In conclusion, Paystack is the best payment gateway choice for e-commerce businesses targeting the South African market due to its wide range of payment options, secure transactions, seamless integration, customizable checkout page, affordable pricing, and excellent customer support. By integrating Paystack with their online store, eCommerce businesses can ensure their customers have a seamless and secure shopping experience, resulting in higher conversion rates and revenue growth.

Also, if you need to have a complete tech stack that can help you manage subscriptions, e-commerce core business processes, and payments as well, then SubscriptionFlow can help you. SubscriptionFlow integrates not only with Paystack but also with e-commerce platforms like Shopify and WooCommerce etc. When you get such a tech stack, it becomes easier to manage everything seamlessly. You can contact team SubscriptionFlow or book a demo and get the best tech stack for your e-commerce setup in South Africa.