Since its inception in 2010 in California, Stripe merchant account provider has gained a lot of momentum to become one of the most established online payment providers. If you too wish to indulge in its features and benefits to make your businesses profitable, here is your complete guide to Stripe- what it does and how you can utilise it.
What is Stripe Payments?
Stripe Payments is a payment processing platform that allows you to transfer money from your customer’s account to your business account. It supports payments by credit card, debit card and multiple other payment options. It focuses on eCommerce transactions and has included support for POS systems, credit card terminals, mobile processing solutions, etc.
Stripe is not a merchant account provider, but a third-party payment processor.
Benefits of Stripe
Stripe is an easy-to-use platform for credit card and ACH payment processing for small businesses. It is highly beneficial for businesses that receive low-volume transactions. While its products and features are not unique, its user interface is what makes it preferable. Some benefits of using Stripe are mentioned below.
- Quick and Easy Onboarding- Stripe does not demand an extensive underwriting process and thus your merchant account can be instantly approved once you sign up online.
- Integrated Payments Processing- With Stripe, businesses can take up credit card and ACH payment processing and a payment gateway together in a single integrated system.
- Customising Options- Stripe has an extensive collection of developer tools and APIs which help you customise your site based on your requisites.
- Robust Security Features- Stripe comes with security features such as TLS (SSL) and encryption, Stripe Radar, anti-fraud services, etc.
How to Begin With Stripe?
The steps to accept your first credit card payment through Stripe are mentioned below-
- Sign up- Enter your details, verify your email and create an account on Stripe.
- Integrate your eCommerce website to Stripe- With the help of a developer, integrate your eCommerce website and all its data and plugins into Stripe. It supports multiple languages such as Ruby, Python, Java, PHP, etc.
- Try a test transaction- In the Stripe dashboard, you can switch to the test account and there, you can make a test transaction to ensure everything is running smoothly.
- Begin Processing- With Stripe, you can check your balance, incoming and outgoing funds, and other information in the “Balances” section. Stripe can be used for numerous functions such as invoicing, ACH payments, in-person transactions and international payments.
Final Words
Looking for an intuitive and secure payment gateway and merchant account provider for your business? Try Stripe today with the easy steps mentioned above and enjoy its benefits!