What Is Stripe?
Stripe is a secure payment gateway that vendors can use to ensure smooth and safe payments on their website.
Just like PayPal, the vendor never sees the buyer’s card details, meaning that you don’t have to be compliant with all the rules and regulations that storing card details on your website brings with it.
Another similarity to PayPal is the on-page checkout process, meaning that buyers do not have to leave your site and be redirected to an external checkout page, which causes friction and leads to lost sales.
The biggest difference between the two payment platforms is the benefit of not having to have an account on Stripe, whereas on PayPal you need to have a registered account to make payments.
With Stripe, customers complete the checkout process on the vendor’s page by entering their card details which are verified in real-time and the payment is processed instantly.
Why Use Stripe Website Integration?
Stripe has quickly become one of the most popular online payment platforms, and for good reason.
There are a number of things that Stripe offers that online vendors love, including:
- All major debit and credit cards are accepted
- Accept Apple Pay and Google Pay
- Instantly capture authorisations and process refunds
- Recurring payments and subscriptions available
- Detect and prevent fraudulent payments with Stripe Radar and 3D Secure
- All countries available
- 135+ currencies
- Fully optimised for mobile
- Instant payouts available
- Access to free updates
- Free to setup, no monthly fees and no hidden fees
- Stripe charges around 3% of every sale on your site
The Stripe Payment Process
When a customer processes a payment with Stripe, it looks something like this:
- The customer reaches the checkout page and is met with the possible payment options
- These include Apple Pay, Google pay or a credit card form
- They enter their card details into the form or make the payment via Apple Pay or Google Pay
- When they tap ‘Pay,’ Stripe encrypts their data in the background and pushes it to the Stripe server
- If the card clears the basic verification, it moves onto the Stripe Radar System
- If enabled, the Stripe Radar system with check the card and other details for signs of fraud
- If it passes all these checks, the payment is taken and the order is placed
- All of the happens in the background and the customer never leaves the checkout page
For many people, this can be much more advantageous than other processors like PayPal for example.
If they have Apple Pay or Google Pay enabled, the checkout process is literally 2 clicks, and takes half the time that PayPal takes.
PayPal is still one of the most popular online payment options, but integrated mobile payment options are quickly catching up.
Secure Payments with Stripe
Security is the most important aspect of any online payment processor.
You are dealing with sensitive information, such as people’s card details, address and personal data, so you need a system that is completely bulletproof.
We should mention that in order to integrate any payment gateway, including Stripe, you need to have an active SSL certificate on your site.
This means that all data entered by visitors to your site is secure and encrypted so that no one can steal this information.
A secure connection means that you will have the https prefix on your URL, and Stripe will not work unless this is in place.
We can handle all aspects of making a site secure, including SSL set up, brute force protection, data encryption and more.
Frequently asked questions
Yes, setting up a Stripe account is easy and free.
Yes, we can integrate the Stripe payment gateway onto your website so you can accept Apple Pay and Google Pay.
Stripe pays out automatically to your bank account, usually every week.
Stripe charges a small fee of around 3% for its service.
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