Enhance Your Checkout: The Power of Hosted Checkout Pages

The way you facilitate the checkout process greatly impacts how customers view your business. A streamlined and user-friendly experience that requires minimal effort is the best way to reduce cart abandonment and encourage customers to return. 

Hosted checkout service offers an affordable and easy way to provide a smooth and efficient shopping experience.

With hosted checkout, businesses can also benefit from increased security, reduced compliance burden, and access to advanced features and functionalities without the need for extensive technical knowledge or resources. 

This approach not only streamlines the checkout process but also improves customer satisfaction and loyalty in the long run.

What Is a Hosted Checkout Page?

Online payments have become extremely common. In 2023, there were 2.65 billion online shoppers worldwide, translating to 33.3% of the population. 

A hosted checkout page is a web form allowing the processing of online payments. It’s a third-party checkout service managing electronic transactions for a small transaction fee. It handles the complete transaction process, including:

• collecting customer information
• processing payments
• creating payment confirmations or receipts

When you collect a digital payment via a hosted checkout page, your customers will leave your website or app. They will enter their card details on another webpage - the hosted checkout page - before being redirected to your site. 

The hosted checkout provider reduces your compliance burden by managing all the data and storing nothing on your local services. Also, hosting the checkout process outside your website can be practical if you’re just starting out. Hosted solutions are easy to set up and integrate into e-commerce stores and are available from many providers that customers already trust. 

Here's an example to help you get a clearer picture of what these pages look like:

This is an example of a hosted checkout page by DepositFix. It provides a smooth and hassle-free experience, ensuring customers can conveniently and safely complete their transactions. With transparent pricing options, a user-friendly interface, and fast payment processing, it is an excellent choice for businesses that want to simplify their checkout process.

How Does a Hosted Checkout Page Work?

The first step in implementing a hosted checkout for your online store is integrating it into your website. After this setup, you can select payment options and customize the platform to match your brand. With a reliable payment partner, this process is quick.

For customers, the checkout process is straightforward:

1. They add items to their cart.
2. Clicking "checkout" redirects them to the hosted page.
3. They enter payment and shipping details.
4. Review the order.
5. Complete the purchase.
6. Return to your site.

This entire process can take just minutes, especially with familiar third-party solutions.

Hosted vs. Onsite Checkout

Hosted checkout redirects customers to a third-party payment page. There, they can securely enter their payment information. This option is simpler to integrate and provides greater security for the merchant, as payment processing occurs outside their website. 

On the other hand, onsite checkout keeps the entire transaction process within the merchant's website, offering a more customized and seamless experience. However, this approach requires more integration work and may raise security concerns for some customers.

When deciding between hosted and onsite checkout, businesses must consider various factors, such as their security needs, customization preferences, and the level of control they desire over the checkout process. While hosted checkout offers simplicity and security, onsite checkout provides more power and customization options. Ultimately, the choice depends on each merchant's specific requirements and priorities.

Why Is Hosted Checkout Page Important?

Whether businesses offer services, sell products, or accept donations, hosted checkout pages can be extremely beneficial. The solutions are hosted on secure third-party servers. They eliminate concerns about handling sensitive customer data for merchants. 

These pages allow for a quick implementation, reduced PCI compliance requirements and costs, improved data security, and an enhanced checkout experience. Also, merchants can re-focus on driving growth initiatives forward and redlining business strategies.

Who Should Use a Hosted Checkout Page?

Hosted checkout pages are an excellent solution for many businesses, particularly those operating online or accepting payments electronically. Let's see who can benefit most from using one.

• E-commerce businesses: Online retailers selling services or products benefit from increased sales and higher conversion rates while customers enjoy a secure and streamlined payment process. 
• Nonprofit organizations: They rely heavily on donations to support their causes. Hosted checkout pages allow donors to make secure and easy contributions, streamlining nonprofits' fundraising efforts.
• Service providers: Whether a business offers digital products, consulting services, or subscriptions, hosted checkout pages can simplify the clients’ payment process. It enables fast and secure payment collection, enhancing the overall customer experience.
• Startups: Hosted checkout pages provide a fast and easy solution for startups trying to establish an online presence and start accepting payments. Startups can concentrate on product development while payment processing is taken care of.
• Global businesses: Since hosted checkout pages support multiple payment methods and currencies, they are ideal for internationally operating companies, offering convenience and flexibility. 
• Small businesses: Smaller businesses can benefit from hosted checkout pages if they lack the resources to build and maintain their payment infrastructure. These solutions offer a cost-effective method of accepting payments online with no need for extensive technical expertise. 
• Freelancers and consultants: Professionals who work independently and offer web design services, copywriting, or coaching can simplify their payment process by using hosted checkout pages. This secure method allows them to invoice clients and receive payments without manual invoicing and following up for payments.
• Event organizers: Organizing and collecting payments from attendees for events such as conferences, concerts, or workshops can be quite daunting. However, hosted checkout pages can simplify the registration and ticketing process, making it easier to manage the event finances.
• Subscription-based businesses: Subscription-based services, such as streaming platforms or SaaS providers, can use hosted checkout pages for efficient recurring payments, creating a seamless experience for subscribers and reducing churn.

In summary, businesses of all sizes and industries can benefit from using hosted checkout pages to streamline payment processes, improve security, and enhance the customer experience. Whether you're selling products or services or accepting donations, leveraging a hosted checkout page can simplify your operations and drive business growth.

Things to Look for in a Hosted Checkout Provider

If you want to use a hosted checkout page, check if it has the key features and functionalities you seek. The best hosted checkout pages typically offer the following key aspects:

• Customization with your logo and brand messaging to keep a constant brand identity through the checkout process.
• Option to use domestic and international currencies to cater to a broader customer base.
• Knowledgeable and accessible technical support to assist with issues and ensure smooth operation.
• Easy integration into the shopping process with no flow interruption to provide a seamless user experience. 
• Option to use the most popular payment methods to accommodate diverse customer preferences.
• Recurring payment option for subscription services to streamline subscription management and automate billing cycles.
• Synchronization with other business systems to provide seamless data flow and operational efficiency. 
• Mimicking your site’s look and behavior to promote trust and reliability with your brand during checkout.

If a hosted checkout is part of POS solutions or complete payment processing, it can have some extra features, like:

• Mobile payments
• Online storefronts
• Business management tools

Evaluate the factors to ensure a smooth customer checkout and optimize your processes. Then, choose a hosted checkout provider that fits your business.

Advantages of a Hosted Checkout Page

Here’s why using a hosted checkout page is smart:

• Your business builds trust through third-party solutions. Customers will trust your brand, leading to increased loyalty and credibility. 
• The setup is easy. Hosted checkout pages are some of the fastest ways to begin accepting online payments. 
• The process is simple. Statistics show that card abandonment is very common, with 70% of online shopping cards being abandoned last year. One of the most common reasons for this is the checkout process being too complicated. Hosted checkout solutions are designed to offer a simple, mobile-friendly interface. They also offer various payment options. These features make it easier for potential customers to finish their transactions without hassle, reducing the chances of cart abandonment.
• You don’t need any extensive technical knowledge. Setting up these pages also eliminates the need for coding knowledge. So you can easily get your checkout system up and running smoothly. 

Disadvantages of a Hosted Checkout Page

However, there are some drawbacks to using hosted checkout pages, so let’s take a look:

• Not all hosted checkout pages provide a seamless experience. Some might lack specific features or customization options. So, check several hosted checkout pages to find one that meets your needs. 
• You lack control over the checkout process. Since a third party controls this process, you don’t have as much control over the user experience. 
• You cannot cross-promote other offers. This limitation can prevent businesses from taking advantage of upsell or cross-sell opportunities, leading to missed chances to increase sales volume.
• Customers may have trust concerns. Some customers may hesitate to enter payment information on a page unrelated to the merchant's website.
• There is a risk of reliance on third-party providers. Merchants who rely on third-party providers may have disruptions to the checkout process. This can hurt customer satisfaction.

Hosted Checkout Page Alternatives

If you don’t want to use a hosted checkout page, you can consider some other options. 

Full API Integration

You can develop your own full API integration to send payment requests through your server. Doing so requires lots of engineering resources. It needs a dedicated team of payments tech experts and data compliance managers. They ensure that we handle customers' card data responsibly. 

Integrating via API gives you full control over the payment gateway, including its design, function, and data transmission. This gives you unmatched options for checkout customization.

However, this method requires additional engineering resources for integration and ongoing maintenance, particularly when implementing updates such as new payment methods. Also, it entails heightened PCI compliance responsibilities, which mandate submission of PCI SAQ D instead of SAQ A.

Payment Components

The Payment Component is a pre-built payment interface that can be directly embedded into your website. It allows you to handle the entire payment process. 

It supports customizable, modular payment integration to create smooth and enjoyable checkout experiences. It also meets industry regulations. It boosts conversion rates with built-in validation, error messages, and dynamic payment display.

The Payment Component can help you expand your market reach. It lets you scale your payment methods through a single integration. This gives your customers the best experience.

The Payment Component allows merchants to add many payment methods easily. They can do this through a single integration in their existing checkout process. It is optimized to increase checkout conversion rates by dynamically organizing and filtering payment options based on shopper-specific details such as location, currency, and device.

The Payment Component makes it easy to scale payment method acceptance. Merchants can activate new payment methods through it. This reduces the need for continuous engineering work to introduce new payment methods. It is also a future-proof solution that reduces regulatory and compliance burdens, such as PCI and region-specific regulations.

The Payment Component is easy to integrate and start, allowing you to accept payments within hours instead of weeks.