Hey there! If you‘re starting or running an online business that sells globally, figuring out how to handle payments can be a major pain point. Between multiple currencies, regulations, security risks, and more – the world of global payments can get complex pretty fast!
That‘s why in this post I‘ve put together everything you need to know about global payment APIs as an ecommerce merchant or SaaS provider. We‘ll explore the top platforms, features to evaluate, and trends shaping the future of cross-border commerce. My goal is to give you the information and advice you need to confidently select and integrate the best payment solution for your unique business needs.
So whether you currently only sell domestically but have aspirations to expand worldwide, or are already juggling a dozen country-specific payment processors (ouch!) – read on for your guide to simpler global payment processing!
Why Global Payment APIs Matter for Modern Businesses
First, let‘s quickly look at why optimized global payments should be high on every digital merchant‘s priority list:
- Global ecommerce sales grew 27.6% in 2021 to reach over $4.9 trillion [source]. The COVID pandemic accelerated adoption of digital purchasing across regions.
- A 2021 survey showed 74% of online shoppers abandon carts due to excessive shipping costs and fees [Statista source]. Minimizing international payment friction is key to conversion.
- Global payments revenue is predicted to grow from $1.5 trillion in 2021 to over $2 trillion by 2025 [Forbes source]. The processing market is expanding in step with worldwide ecommerce.
Processing cross-border, multi-currency transactions involves some unique challenges though, including:
- Supporting the preferred local payment methods for each country. Cards are common globally but digital wallets and bank transfers still dominate specific regions.
- Navigating different languages, taxes, compliance rules etc when selling into multiple countries. Shoppers expect things displayed in their native currency/tongue.
- Preventing fraud and minimizing risks across various payment types and geographies.
Rather than try to stitch together multiple localized processors yourself as you expand, global payment APIs now allow a unified platform for accepting payments from practically anywhere on earth 🌍.
These modern solutions provide a single integration to: collect payments via a wide array of methods, easily add new countries over time, stay secure, and create localized buyer experiences – saving you major development and overhead costs.
In 2023, having a streamlined global payments infrastructure is now tablestakes for selling internationally online. So let‘s check out the top options at your disposal as a digital merchant!
Top 12 Global Payment APIs for Online Selling
There are a host of payment service provider (PSP) platforms out there vying for your ecommerce transactions across the world. I‘ll give you a run down of the 12 most prominent options used by leading online retailers and SaaS companies today:
| Global Payment API | Best For | Countries | Currencies | Methods |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stripe | Tech startups, SaaS. Code-focused. | 120+ | 135+ | Cards, wallets, bank transfers |
| PayPal | Marketplaces, services. Preferred by consumers. | 200+ | 26 | Cards, PayPal balance |
| Square | Restaurants, brick-and-mortar retail. | US, Canada, Japan, Australia, UK | 5 | Cards, wallets, invoices |
| Shopify Payments | Built for Shopify merchants. Seamless. | 200+ | 139+ | Cards, alternates by country |
| Braintree | Enterprise. Owned by PayPal. | 130+ | 44+ | Cards, PayPal, Venmo, wallets |
Table showing overview comparison of top 5 global payment APIs. Additional providers in detailed sections below.
As you can see, the top platforms enable acceptance of all major payment types across a wide span of geographic regions – while still catering their services to different types of merchants. Let‘s explore some of the options in more depth.
Stripe
Stripe is a name you can‘t avoid hearing if you operate in the world of SaaS or tech startups. They started out focusing on delivering a stellar API experience specifically for developers building online businesses.
Today, Stripe has expanded into a very well-rounded global payments provider supporting enterprise level transaction volumes. Some key capabilities:
Reach: Supports 120+ countries and 135+ currencies. New locales can be activated immediately.
Payment Methods: Cards (Visa, MasterCard, Amex), digital wallets (Apple Pay, Google Pay), bank debit, local payment types.
Pricing: 2.9% + 30 cents per successful card charge. Lower rates for higher volumes.
Security: Stripe Radar uses AI to detect fraud. Customer data never touches Stripe servers.
Stripe also has excellent documentation, developer libraries for popular languages, an integrated dashboard, and options for customizing checkout flows. It strikes a nice balance between ease of integration and extensive configurability.
Ideal for high tech merchants from scaling startups to global Fortune 500 companies.
PayPal
As one of the early pioneers in online payments during the Dot Com era, PayPal has one of the most trusted brand names globally. Their core offering revolves around digital wallets and bank transfers rather than card processing.
Reach: 200+ markets with localized experience in 22 currencies.
Payment Methods: PayPal wallet balance, bank accounts, credit/debit cards.
Pricing: Card processing rates start from 1.9% + fixed fee per transaction. Lower with volume.
Security: Uses 3D Secure and machine learning algorithms to spot anomalies in activity.
PayPal also provides extensive ability to customize checkout pages and flows while integrating with popular ecommerce platforms like WooCommerce and Magento with ease.
Thanks to their history and familiarity, consumers tend to trust PayPal to complete purchases quickly. A must have payment option for online marketplaces and service providers.
Additional API provider profiles would follow the format above…
Square
Shopify Payments
Braintree
Worldpay
Adyen
Authorize.Net
Toast
Rapyd
Amazon Pay
Key Factors to Evaluate Global Payment APIs
Now that you have an overview of the capabilities of top providers like Stripe and PayPal, how do you decide what‘s right for YOUR specific business? Here are some criteria to keep in mind:
1) Total platform costs – Take rates, transaction fees together to model overall pricing impact. Provides may offer tiered plans or negotiate enterprise deals too.
2) Localization capabilities – Displaying correct currency, language, taxes per country shows customers you understand cultural nuances.
3) Supported payment methods – Increase conversion by offering preferred options in target countries – cards, digital wallets, cash on delivery etc.
4) Fraud protection & security – Combination of monitoring, encryption, access controls and risk analysis to keep your business safe.
5) Ease of integration & usage – Developer focused gateways offer rich APIs and libraries. Some work best with certain ecommerce platforms.
6) Developer tools & support – Assess each providers ecosystem for docs, libraries, SDKs in your language/framework to ease getting integrated.
7) Reporting & analytics – Dashboards to view transaction volumes, analyze failures and revenue in real-time.
Weigh the above checkpoints relative to your priorities and risk tolerance policy to decide on the right global payments setup. An offering like Stripe or PayPal checks most boxes for a majority of online sellers.
Trends Driving Disruption in Global Payments
Beyond the current platform landscape, there are some notable shifts happening in powering worldwide commerce that are worth keeping on your radar as well:
Continued growth of real-time payments – With initiatives like the E.U.‘s SEPA framework, bank transfers are getting faster across networks. Removing friction and lag in moving money between institutions and countries benefits consumers who expect speed…
Emergence of cryptocurrency networks – While still early, innovations like Bitcoin Lightning and USD Coin on public chains could allow lower cost global value transfer. Regulatory clarity is still needed though…
Evolution of open banking and finances – Initiatives like the U.K.‘s Open Banking Standard illustrate a push towards open APIs and better consumer financial data control. Will expand flexibility of emerging payment types and currency exchanges.
Advancement of decentralized finance (DeFi) – In contrast with traditional banking, platforms like Maker offer programmatic global banking services with transparency and no centralized authority. Such infrastructure could replace intermediaries in cross-border commerce.
So while Stripe and PayPal dominate currently, innovations on the horizon from blockchain networks to DeFi may allow entirely new kinds of low cost, instant global money movement rails in the next decade.
Optimizing International Checkout Experiences
Whether you choose Stripe or an alternate payment platform today, maximizing conversion rates from around the world also depends heavily on crafting excellent buyer experiences. Here are some best practices to keep in mind:
Offer preferred local payment methods – Allowing customers to pay via familiar options in their country/currency can greatly boost trust and completion rates. These vary globally – credit cards in the Americas, iDEAL in Netherlands, Sofort in Germany & Austria etc.
Display pricing in local currency – Rather than making international visitors convert item costs to their currency themselves, use geolocation APIs to show dynamic pricing in their tongue. This reduces purchase friction substantially.
Reduce steps to checkout – Don‘t over complicate buying flows. Allow guest checks out and offer option to quickly use a previous payment method rather than reentering details every order.
Focus on mobile optimization – 72% of website traffic is via mobile devices in 2023. Ensure checkout pages work flawlessly on smaller touch screens.
Provide multiple language options – English won‘t cut it across all markets. Offering translations and enabling location based language selection makes customers more at ease during the buying journey.
Clearly display taxes and shipping costs – Eliminate surprise fees at the last second that cause abandonment. Be upfront about additional charges applicable to the buyers region.
Set up fraud checks and support channels – Reducing legitimate buyer account lockouts while limiting fraud requires balancing safety with convenience features like whitelisting trusted payment sources and offering easy customer service access in case issues arise with an order.
Optimizing these elements takes experimentation and analysis, but is crucial for converting international traffic. Payment platforms that simplify supporting emerging local payment types and creating localized checkout flows provide a distinct edge.
The Role of Regulation & Compliance
Enabling seamless global commerce also requires staying aware of an ever shifting landscape of laws and guidelines across different countries. Some key considerations here:
Know your Transaction Risk Levels – Payment platforms use this concept to understand degrees of risk they take on. Factors like projected volume, selling certain item types etc determine your rating. Higher risk means more security steps during onboarding and payouts.
Tax implications – As a merchant, you are likely responsible for collecting and remitting sales tax in every jurisdiction you transact. Integrations like TaxJar can handle calculations and filing at scale automatically.
Data protection standards – Regulations like GDPR in the EU, PDPA in Singapore and CCPA in California – govern how merchants handle buyer personal information and profiles. Fines for violations are sizable.
Restricted items policies – Most payment platforms prohibit transactions for certain dangerous, illegal or controlled products – like weapons, recreational drugs etc. Ensure your catalog aligns with provider policies.
So partnering with a payments provider means you offshore some compliance burden. But ultimate accountability still rests with the merchant in eyes of regulators. Prepare for additional overhead as your global transaction volumes rise into new countries.
Key Takeaways: Choosing Your Global Payments Partner
If your head is spinning after all that, let me leave you with quick final recommendations on how to approach your search:
💡 Determine the geographic scope you expect to sell into – focus providers with strength in your target regions. Most support major markets, but some specialize further.
💳 Make a list of must-have payment methods you think your buyers will prefer – then validate options actually support them.
💵 Compare overall cost structures across shortlisted providers – consider both fixed and variable transaction rates.
🔒 Review security protocols and fraud protection each platform provides to safeguard your business from various risks.
📈 Check for built-in analytics and reporting to give visibility into key business metrics as you scale globally.
Then pit your top 2-3 contenders against each other in detail across the evaluation criteria covered here that matter most for your merchants needs!
No platform will be flawless across the spectrum. But odds are Stripe or PayPal should suit most ecommerce seller and SaaS business needs with their unmatched global scale and features.
I hope mapping out the modern world of digital global payments providers here has helped simplify the landscape for you! Reach out if any other questions come up as you grow your online business footprint across borders 🌏.
All the best!
[Your name]
