Over the last five years, online e-commerce payment transactions have increased by more than 15%. Yet, many custom e-commerce websites face recurring issues, such as payment page loading errors, slow loading, automatic redirects to sponsor sites, and interrupted page loads after entering payment details.
Your product and service pages might be alright. However, customers will not trust your e-commerce brand until you establish a flawless and professional payment gateway.
Popular ecommerce websites typically offer 3 to 4 payment gateway options to help all customers process payments more easily.
If you are also planning to build a no-nonsense custom website for your new ecommerce brand, these hands-on approaches would be pivotal.
Why Do eCommerce Sites Need Integrated Payment Gateways?
The integrated payment gateways allow you to loop incoming payments through the same blockchain. The result is easier, faster, and safer payment exchange.
Avoiding the exchange of payment source data with third parties allows you to keep sensitive customer data, such as bank details, debit or credit card PINs, or NFT IDs, secure.
Meanwhile, this secured process also filters any unauthorized access. Today, malware threats facing ecommerce websites are a major concern. In 2025, around 90,000 malware attacks occur every second.
Around 90% of them are phishing or social scams with the objective of siphoning customers’ sensitive data, such as bank passwords or brands’ user databases.
The integrated payment gateways significantly reduce malware threats by filtering out cyberattacks.
Integrating Payment Gateways In A Custom eCommerce Website
While integrating a payment gateway option, you can’t rely on any random IT SaaS company. If you don’t incorporate the API and such other tools seamlessly, failure and error rates would increase incessantly.
Below, there are some fundamental components crucial for a successful payment integration in a website.
(i) APIs And Webhooks
These tools are instrumental in integrating payment gateways into any custom sales website. APIs play the primary role, enabling various software systems to process payments on your ecommerce platform.
This software helps you connect your website or app to payment processors. It also handles customer data during payments, controls transactions, and maintains security.
Webhooks, on the other hand, track every detail regarding each payment transaction. Simultaneously, it sends real-time notifications about the payment process:
Source: Tatvasoft
Check the flow diagram above. At each juncture, the webhook will capture data and send it to the relevant parties via push notifications.
For example, when the payment reaches the card network from the card-issuing bank, the webhook sends messages to both the bank and the user simultaneously.
Similarly, all concerned parties are kept in the loop.
How to use API and Webhooks Optimally?
A small regional ecommerce website makes hundreds of transactions daily. The number increases to a staggering level when the eCommerce platform transacts globally. However, payment gateways operate regionally.
Yet, the volume of transactions is much higher compared to a product site. At this point, what are the key steps in API and webhook installation to make an online payment gateway more agile and secure?
Handling API
| Handling Webhooks
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(ii) Integrate Payment Gateway SDKs
What are SDKs? The payment gateway SDKs are software development kits that simplify the integration process. The SDK kits include resources like multiple libraries, tools, and documentation strategies.
These tools enable designers to integrate multiple payment options into an application seamlessly:
- The libraries provide real-time data from linked sources to improve the payment processes
- The additional tools ensure the payment cache data and blockchain interactions are recorded for future reference. From there, your app generates the payment transaction ID.
- Lastly, the documentation kit can be used to record, send, or use any data during the transaction in real time.
Real-Time Improvements Introduced by SDKs
SDKs can reduce the time taken to generate a payment window after you initiate the process from your end, as a customer. Once a customer initiates payment, the server bank and merchant banks must simultaneously open a payment receiving window.
However, the SDK ensures that these development times are reduced with pre-built functions to handle repetitive transactions one after the other. SDKs not only reduce development time but also make the process error-free.
Lastly, SDKs are compatible with all or most programming languages. Therefore, you can easily use SDKs with the technology stack on which your platform runs.
Step-by-Step Integration of Your eCommerce Payment Gateway
There are some key steps in the final stage of payment gateway integration. Follow these steps accurately:
(i) Setting up Your Merchant Account
This step requires you to create a merchant account with your vendor bank. You will process payments and receive funds with this account.
Pro Tip: Don’t forget to include important documents for verifying your business identity. |
In case of any discrepancy, you can use the same to authenticate yourself and retrieve any stuck amount.
After that, you must provide your business authentication documents, such as a tax ID number, registration certificate, and other relevant details (if you're an international brand).
After submitting everything, you will receive your merchant ID within 24 to 48 hours (depending on the aggregator's processing time for your request).
(ii) Configuring Your Payment Methods
This is the most vital step to the final stage. Here, you have to configure all the payment gateways you want on your e-commerce website. Usually, merchants accept patents from these four gateways:
- Credit cards
- Debit Cards
- Digital Wallets
- NFT tags
In this case, it is better to consider the preferences of your target customers.
Source: Statista
The above snippet is from a Statista survey that asked people of three age groups whether they always use digital wallets for ecommerce payments. In return, the 18- to 29-year-old age group was the only one to accept using wallets for all online transactions.
Another Statista report states that by 2025, people aged 25 to 34 will be the largest community of ecommerce shoppers. Comparing the two statistics, it is worthwhile to note that your primary focus should be on integrating digital wallets.
After that, you can focus on the other payment options.
Steps For Payment Gateway Integration:
- Log in to your payment gateway vendor (Amazon uses Stripe, a popular payment gateway integration vendor).
- Select the payment options you want to enable.
- Integrate the chosen payment methods with your ecommerce website.
Here are the elaborate details to implement the last steps:
Testing Your Payment Gateways
Don’t leave this step without a live test of your payment gateway integration. You must use the test mode that any average payment gateway vendor would provide.
Using this mode, you can simulate transactions without making actual monetary transactions. For optimal testing, test your payment gateway thoroughly by running it through multiple tests using various payment options and unique scenarios.
For instance, you should test how your gateway performs in declined transactions without fail.
Make Your User Experience Simpler and Engaging!
You must create a simple UX for your patent gateway. Focus on making your checkout process delightful and intuitive. This will help users easily spot handling errors. In 2025, another crucial step in optimizing payment gateway integration is to make it mobile-friendly.
To design a functional, simple, and unique check-out page, you can:
- Incorporate progress bars that show users which step they are currently on and what steps are remaining.
- Divide your processes into manageable segments, such as “billing desk data” and “product shipping information.”
- Ensure all details fit into a single screen seamlessly.
- Enable the “Guest Checkout” option for one-time users who don't want to register or sign up.
- Use “Secure Payment” logos, which act as trust symbols.
- Your payment pages should be “mobile optimized”. Responsive layouts, visible buttons, and less scrolling should be enabled.
Troubleshooting Common Problems
Often, connectivity issues, frequent transaction failures, and multiple currency transactions can affect payment gateway integration. Let’s learn about the problems in detail:
(i) Connectivity Problems
Frequent network issues can disconnect your bank and payment gateway, resulting in payment failures. In such cases, you must check your internet connection first and then your equipment. If both are okay, restart your modem and router.
If your IT services vendor offers round-the-clock support, it is best to notify them about the problem as soon as possible. Helpful vendors send frequent maintenance alerts that increase the speed and efficiency of service.
(ii) Transaction Failures
If users enter incorrect card details or wallet pins, it will result in transaction failures. If this becomes a persistent problem, you can recognize it by reviewing the error codes.
But can it be a major issue? If you have a clumsy UI, users may make mistakes while entering personal payment details. But what happens when you enter the right information and the problem persists?
In this situation, you should clear your cookies and browser cache. If the problem still exists, contact the vendor for assistance.
Scrutinize Payment Gateways Carefully
Without proper payment gateway integration, running your custom ecommerce stores would be tough. There are many gateway opinions. However, wallets should be your top priority.
Build a well-integrated gateway and a seamless payment interface to avoid interim issues. However, if problems persist, bring them to the vendor's attention promptly. Request weekly tests and inspections.
The bottom line is that choosing a seasoned vendor is paramount. Choose someone with years of experience serving the ecommerce sector and handling local clients.
