On a rental platform, be it a single-vendor store or a multi-vendor marketplace, the workflows aren’t as simple as sales workflows. Rental workflows include various processes such as collecting, holding, and refunding security deposits and sanctioning rental terms and conditions. Similarly, rental invoicing is also quite complex and involves many variables like daily, weekly, or monthly rental charges, rental duration, security deposit, applicable taxes, and applied discounts. To generate accurate invoices and collect payments, online rental businesses need to carefully select their payment gateways.
Today, there are thousands of payment gateways available in the market. Considering the vast options and the difficulty that newly launched rental businesses and aspiring entrepreneurs face in selecting the appropriate payment gateways, we have prepared this comprehensive guide that will share some insights and proper selection criteria for payment gateways. Additionally, we have also shortlisted some gateways that you can integrate into your rental platform.
Rental Checkout Process | Earnings Withdrawal Process |
– Customers enter rental dates. – Select add-ons. – Submit a rental security deposit. – Pay at checkout. | – Vendors reach withdrawal threshold. – Complete minimum withdrawal period. – Send a withdrawal request. – Withdraw earnings. |
While the target audience of a rental website depends on the business model and preferences, it is wiser to accommodate your website with payment gateways to support a diverse audience. This may include but is not limited to:
As discussed above, the workflows of a rental website are different from sales website. Due to this, the payment processing on rental websites is a bit different. For a better understanding, we have an exemplary payment processing workflow:
Step 1: The rental website redirects the customer to the payment gateway on checkout.
Step 2: The payment gateway levies its transaction charge on the total checkout amount, which is either a small percentage of the amount or flat rate charges. Meaning, that for a $100 transaction and a 1% transaction fee, the amount that a rental business will be getting in its account is $99, whereas the remaining $1 would be taken by the payment gateway as a processing fee.
Step 3: The payment gateway authorizes a security deposit on the customer’s credit card, which is to be released after a set date or in case of any defaults or reimbursements.
Step 4: The entire amount is then split into multiple stakeholders’ accounts as per their respective charges. Some of these stakeholders are:
Step 5: The payment gateways hold the security deposit till the defined period or unless the admin authorizes any payment early because of any defaults.
Step 6: The authorized security deposit hold is released and the remaining balance is returned to the customer.
The global payments industry has been at the forefront of all digital businesses, acting as a strong resilient facilitator for complex payment processing and enabling business growth. Considering the massive scale of the eCommerce industry, it would also be correct to say that the entire eCommerce ecosystem currently relies on safe and secure payment gateways.
However, all the complexities in regard to sales-based business models and rental-based business models are also true, making it a necessity to carefully evaluate payment gateway options. Well-thought payment gateways will not only help you facilitate rental payments and satisfy customers but also in business expansion and growth.
Here are some key characteristics entrepreneurs should consider while selecting payment gateways:
Different payment gateways have different transaction fee structures. While some charge a small percentage of the overall transaction amount as transaction fees, others have defined flat-rate transaction fees. The same can vary depending on the size of the transaction and the monthly sales volume. For example, the transaction fees will be lower on high monthly volume sales and vice versa. Thus, it is recommended to overview such conditions and select payment gateways with genuine transaction fees.
New entrants often misunderstand payment gateways as payment methods on the marketplace. While payment methods refer to ways a customer can pay for a transaction, payment gateways are the facilitators who process those payments. Thus, inside a payment gateway, you can find multiple supported payment methods. Go for the ones that include your audience’s most preferred payment methods. These can include debit cards, credit cards, bank transfers, regional eWallets, and other local payment methods.
The split payment option with a rental security hold is very important on rental websites. The hold is usually kept for 7-14 days and ensures timely payments and refunds to both parties (product owner and customer) on the marketplace. The admin can also make deductions from the hold to reimburse any damages. Once the holding time is over, the payment is automatically returned to the customer’s bank account.
The recurring payment option places a standing order on the debit card, credit card, or bank transfer. On reaching the stipulated dates, the payment gateway automatically executes the order and deducts the payment from the customer’s account. This type of payment option is highly required in rental businesses with monthly subscriptions.
Also check out: How maximizing eCommerce Revenue with Rental Operations
Ensuring payment security is of utmost importance in a payment gateway. To ensure this, the payment gateway should follow strict payment security standards and protocols. Some of these are:
Additionally, some payment gateways also have in-built fraud detection and prevention solutions.
In terms of hosting, payment gateways can be of two types, hosted and non-hosted. Hosted payment gateways redirect customers from your site to their own site. These are highly secure and reliable and offer excellent uptime. On the other hand, non-hosted gateways complete transactions on your very own site and provide more flexibility in customization, ensuring a better interface. If you can manage a non-hosted payment gateway and ensure good uptime, only then you should opt for non-hosted payment gateways. Otherwise, hosted payment gateways are a more reliable option.
The payment gateway that you select should support the currency of your target regions. It is even better to select a payment gateway with multi-currency support. Additionally, integrate payment gateways that are well-recognized by the target audience. This will help establish trust and mitigate the risk aversion mindset of consumers.
Your selected payment gateways should also be easy to integrate with your website. In this regard, hosted payment gateways are better as they only require basic configuration. However, if you do have a design team, you can opt for non-hosted payment gateways as well.
Name | Security | Hold and Recurring Payments | Integration | Countries | Currency |
Stripe | PCI-DSS, EMVco, SOC compliance and more | Supports payment hold, security deposits, and recurring payments | Both hosted and non-hosted | 195+ | 135+ currencies |
Amazon Payment Services (PayFort) | PCI-DSS, 3D secure, Anti-fraud and more | Supports both payment hold and recurring payments | Both hosted and non-hosted | UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt Qatar, Kuwait, Jordan, Lebanon, Oman, Bahrain | All MENA region currencies supported |
PayU Money | PCI-DSS, 3D secure, fraud prevention, tokenization and in-house security tools | Supports both payment hold and recurring payments | Both hosted and non-hosted | Available in 27 countries | 80+ currencies |
CCAvenue | PC-DSS, SSL, and fraud prevention tools | Supports both payment hold and recurring payments | Both hosted and non-hosted (Comes with a customizable page on the hosted server as well) | India | 27 currencies |
Khipu | TLS, SLS, and more | Supports recurring payments | Hosted | Bolivia, Chile | Chile Peso |
PayPal | PCI-DSS, SLS and in-house security tools | Supports both payment hold and recurring payments | Both hosted and non-hosted | Available in 200+ countries | 25 currencies |
Razorpay | PCI-DSS, 3D secure, and in-house security tools | Supports both payment hold (via escrow) and recurring payments | Both hosted and non-hosted | India | Indian Rupees |
Verifone (2Checkout) | PCI-DSS, tokenization, fraud detection | Supports both payment hold and recurring payments | Both hosted and non-hosted | Available in 200+ countries | 101 currencies |
Opn Payments (Omise) | PCI-DSS, 3D secure, fraud detection, NIST, TLS, and more | Supports both payment hold and recurring payments | Both hosted and non-hosted | Thailand, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia | 13 currencies |
Braintree | PCI-DSS, 3D secure, fraud detection, and more | Supports recurring payments | Both hosted and non-hosted | 45 countries | 130 currencies |
M-Pesa | PCI-DSS, in-built fraud prevention tools | Supports both payment hold and recurring payments | Hosted | 16 countries in South Africa, Central America and the Middle East combined | Congolese Franc and US Dollars |
Elavon | PCI-DSS, encryption, and tokenization | Supports recurring payments | Hosted | 36 countries | 100+ currencies |
Note: The information in the table has been compiled from various sources and is accurate to the best of our knowledge. However, due to the heterogeneity of data sources, there still remains scope for slight discrepancies.
Safe and secure payments are the backbone of all rental businesses. To facilitate them, there are a number of payment gateways that are available in the market. For rental marketplaces, these payment gateways play a few essential roles, such as collecting and storing rental security deposits and enabling recurring payments. To fulfill these requirements or match your desired business model, you can look forward to integrating the aforementioned payment gateways. A better way to integrate multiple payment gateways is to opt for readymade rental software. YoRent is a leading rental software with multi-currency and multilingual support. It comes with 25+ pre-integrated payment gateways to help simplify rental payments.