Every step of the customer journey is crucial to a brand’s success, right down to the way guests make payments. As technology continues to evolve and become extremely advanced, so too are the ways hackers attempt to steal valuable customer payment information.
The last thing consumers want to worry about during their shopping journey is if their payment information is secure when completing transactions. And the same goes for operators. Fraudulent activity can be a pain for both consumers and merchants as it causes brands to experience a lot of chargebacks resulting in lost revenue. To combat and alleviate the fear of fraud risks, brands can implement payment gateways, like PAR Pay, into their operations to make transactions quick, safe, and reliable. These high-tech payment solutions protect customers’ payment data from fraudulent activity and data breaches as well as ensure all transactions are properly fulfilled.
Payment gateways are great solutions brands can implement into operations to make transactions secure and painless, but what exactly are they and how do they work?
What is a Payment Gateway
Payment gateways, like PAR Pay, have changed the payment game by making transactions extremely fast, secure, and convenient. These solutions not only allow merchants to accept credit and debit cards, both physical and contactless, but also act as a middleman between the customer and the brand by capturing and tokenizing payment data when completing payments.
Key Benefits of Payment Gateways
When it comes to finalizing transactions, payment gateways have proven to be beneficial to both consumers and merchants as they provide each with a variety of features to combat fraud risks and enhance experiences.
Since payment gateways are the key user-facing interface that collects payment information, merchants must treat security measures with the utmost importance. First and foremost, payment gateways, like PAR Pay, must comply with the latest PCI PTS security standards. These are a set of security standards that require merchants that accept credit and debit card payments to securely store, process, and transmit customer payment information. Additionally, these sets of security standards help prepare brands to detect and prevent both physical and network-based attacks to reduce the risk of data breaches and intensify the protection of customer data. Payment software vendors must also comply with PCI SSF security standards requiring them to integrate security throughout the lifecycle of the software. Complying with these sets of security standards protects the integrity and confidentiality of customer data and ensures all transactions are safely completed.
Furthermore, payment gateways are extremely flexible solutions. Since gateway solutions tokenize customers’ payment information, they can securely process transactions offline in the event of a power outage. This helps brands minimize downtimes they may experience and maintain an operationally sound payment strategy.
Most importantly, payment gateways facilitate new payment options like NFC (Near Field Communication), Venmo, PayPal, and more. As customer demand constantly changes, so do their preferred payment methods making it crucial for brands to implement solutions that will support new payment types.
Payment Gateways and PAR Pay
For brands looking to enhance payment strategies by implementing a high-tech payment gateway into operations, PAR Pay is a unified Brink POS native payment gateway solution that provides a secure and flexible open platform for EMV credit, EMV debit, and gift cards. PAR Pay’s open platform allows brands to choose the payment device, payment processor, and gift card processor that works best for them and their business requirements, however, the Brink POS software is required to create a secure end-to-end payment processing solution.
This payment solution empowers brands to have a unified view of transactions by providing them with crucial payment reports, data insights, and analytics for payment processing. Brands can access reports on transactions, statistics, settlements, reconciliations, and more to gain a complete and thorough understanding of payments volume and enable them to optimize their payment strategies.
PAR Pay also treats security measures with the utmost importance by not only complying with the latest PCI PTS and PCI SSF security standards but also by using P2PE (point-to-point encryption) at the point of swipe or dip. P2PE ensures customer payment information is sent as encrypted and is not decrypted until it has reached and is processed by the brand’s chosen payment processor.
Moreover, PAR Pay is redefining the payment experience to create meaningful interactions between the guest and the brand. Recent trends show consumers continue to prefer convenient payment methods, like mobile wallets, as their top-of-the-wallet payment option, making it crucial for brands to implement solutions that support and securely process them. With PAR Pay, brands can provide exceptional contactless payment experiences for their customers as it seamlessly pairs with mobile wallets like Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Samsung Pay.
It is essential for brands to implement secure and up-to-date solutions from a single vendor that facilitates safe payment strategies like payment gateways. Receiving products and services from a single vendor not only ensures seamless implementation of new technologies and rapid servicing from a single point of support but also removes the hassle of juggling multiple vendors. Payment gateways, like PAR Pay, are remarkable solutions that provide brands with optimal security against fraud and data breaches as well as help create exceptional payment strategies that work every time. These solutions have revolutionized payment strategies and have paved the foundation for brands to create the payment experience their customers crave.
Interested in learning more about PAR Pay’s secure payment gateway? Visit us at PARTech.com or request a demo today!
