What is Stripe and what are its advantages?
Stripe is a payment gateway that helps you accept payments with bank cards, send transfers, and manage your business activities online.
It’s the most efficient and easy-to-use software for online payments because it includes both a payment processing platform and a credit card payment gateway, which are necessary for every successful online transaction.
Founded in 2011 by John and Patrick Collison, the idea for Stripe came after they experienced firsthand how difficult it was to start a new online business.
“We were starting an online business, and we realized that accepting credit card payments was a difficult task. We needed to build our own payment system, integrate it with our website, and deal with all the potential issues that could arise. The last thing we wanted was to worry about money” John Collison said in an interview with Wired.
For this reason, John and Patrick Collison set out to create software that gave them exactly what they needed.
How Does It Work?
Stripe allows customers to pay with a credit or debit card without needing to register on the platform.
Here’s how it works:
The customer visits your website.
They choose the payment method.
They enter the required information and click "Pay."
Stripe processes the payment and sends you an email with the purchase details (customer’s name, address, and transaction details).
The payment is integrated into the sales platform, maintaining the style and structure of your online store. There’s no need to access another URL to enter data, which helps prevent customers from abandoning the purchase process.
All of this happens without your website having to handle payment processing or store bank card information.
What Are the Advantages of Using Stripe?
There are many advantages to using Stripe on your website:
Ease of Use and Implementation
It has a simple and intuitive graphical interface.
This service can be very useful for your online store as it eliminates a lot of unnecessary work. To implement it, you just need to add its code to your website, and it will be ready to start working.
In addition to being an easy and secure way to process transactions, Stripe is intuitive and incorporates advanced encryption to protect its customers from information theft.
Premium Services
It offers premium services such as automatic top-ups, integrations with marketing tools, and analytics tools to help you get the most out of your payments.
It also offers a range of free tools to assist with payment processing, such as an online version of checkout (a payment gateway) and an API connector that easily integrates with your website.
Security and Speed
By using Stripe, you ensure that your online store and customer data are secure. Additionally, the system is very fast, and all payments are received within minutes.
If a payment fails due to an error in the payment process (e.g., insufficient funds in the buyer’s account), Stripe will reject the transaction and notify the consumer to use a different payment method.
It also monitors for fraudulent transactions and immediately blocks any transaction that seems unusual.
No Membership Fees or Long-Term Contracts
This makes it ideal for small businesses. Additionally, you can start using the service immediately after creating an account.
Accepts Payments from Different Parts of the World and in Various Currencies
Stripe is available in 34 countries worldwide and supports 135 currencies, making it a great option for international businesses. You can accept international payments without additional costs.
24/7 Technical Support
It guarantees technical support 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This service is fast and efficient, resolving issues within minutes.
Compatibility
It works with almost all popular eCommerce tools, from WordPress to Magento.
What Are the Disadvantages of Using Stripe?
Although Stripe is an excellent option for your online store, not everything is perfect:
Not Available in All Countries
Despite expanding to different parts of the world, Stripe still doesn’t offer services for customers in some countries, which can limit payment options for your customers.
Payment Limitations
Stripe has some restrictions on payment methods, such as not allowing purchases with prepaid cards or automatic order cancellations.
It also doesn’t accept payments in Bitcoin, which could be a problem for some businesses starting to use this cryptocurrency.
No Refunds
Although payment processing is simple and fast, Stripe doesn’t offer services for processing returns or refunds. Therefore, if a product is damaged or defective, you must handle the return manually.
Should I Adopt It as a Payment Processor?
Overall, Stripe is a great payment processing service, easy to use, and has a variety of features that can be useful for any business that needs to process payments online.
This service offers several advantages, such as easy implementation and not having to store financial information, making the process safer. It not only offers payment processing services but also provides a wide range of features to help businesses grow.
The disadvantages are few but could be an issue for some businesses: limited geographic coverage and the absence of return services are two examples.
In conclusion, Stripe is a simple, secure, and excellent option. It can be very useful for your online store, especially if you’re just starting and don’t want to worry about the sensitive task of managing your customers’ banking information.
In the future, Stripe plans to offer services for managing payment collection, which could help businesses reduce the time spent on this process. It’s also exploring the possibility of implementing smartphone payments, which will be a significant advancement for online businesses.
The best part is that you can try it out without any commitment and decide if it’s right for you.
