Whether you are collecting entrance fees for a charity golf tournament, selling tickets to a black tie gala, or registering runners in a mini-marathon, accepting payments online does not have to be difficult. In fact, it can be quite simple. Still, there are some important questions to consider before you begin. We know venturing into the world of collecting payments online can seem a bit tricky at first. To ease you into it, this post will answer some of the most common concerns we hear from users.
What’s Formstack’s cut when my customer makes a payment?
First and foremost, Formstack does not take a cut. There are no added fees or hidden costs for using our forms to collect payments. Period. Since Formstack does not process payments, you will need to integrate your form with a payment processor, such as PayPal. We recommend doing some research to find the payment processor that fits your needs. Some payment processors charge for the service, while some are free. Every payment processor we integrate with is Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliant, which means no matter what service you choose, your data (and your customers’ information) is secure.
Which payment processor should I use?
PayPal’s Payment Standard is the easiest to integrate and is also totally free. It allows the individual making the purchase to use their PayPal account or a credit card to make the payment. One thing to note is that PayPal is not at on-form payment processor, so once a consumer enters their information, they are redirected to the PayPal site to process the transaction. Some Formstack users like this process because it removes them from the payment process altogether, and they are not responsible for collecting or storing any billing information; however, sometimes this results in a higher abandonment rate by those submitting the form because they get confused by the redirection and don’t realize they have one more step left—payment!If you want to avoid redirecting your customer to another website, you should opt for an on-form payment processor,— such as Authorize.Net. This allows your customer to directly enter their credit card information into the form for immediate processing. With on-form payment processors, you will need to ensure you have the proper security settings in place, which are explained here.
If you need more help deciding which payment processor to use, check out our payment gateway comparison page.
How do I integrate payment processing into my form?
Once you decide on which payment processor to use, our user-friendly Integration Hub allows you to find the payment processor tool of choice easily and add it to your form. After you click add, you will need to fill out and map the required information in the integration settings. You don’t have to use code or be a developer to set up an integration; it just requires mapping to the proper fields from your form.
Want to try our easy payment processing system? Try it here in our free 14-trial.
