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If you’re a SaaS company that sells digital products online, or you run a subscription-based business, minimizing failed transactions is critical. The last thing you want your prospective customers to see is an error message like this:

Payment failed. Please check your credit card information or contact your credit card company. Credit card processor returned error: Credit card payment failed. (Error Code: 91553B)…

Unfortunately, after encountering the first error message, many prospects won’t try again. If your prospects are experiencing failed transactions, chances are good you’re losing customers — and revenue.

Fortunately, there are steps you can take to maximize your payment success rate. Here are three questions you should ask about your ecommerce platform.

Are there multiple payment gateways?

Think of each gateway as a portal to a bank. This portal tells the bank that the payment is authorized, and the bank is permitted to give your business the money requested.

Multiple gateways reduce rejected payments and ensure your customer enjoys a smooth buying experience. It’s best to work with an ecommerce platform that has multiple payment gateways to choose from – domestically and internationally. If your ecommerce platform only offers one gateway, you’re at a distinct disadvantage.

Selling digital products online? International payment gateways offer huge benefits. Transactions that are initiated and completed in the same country have a higher success rate than transactions that have to get routed outside of the originating country.

What happens if one payment gateway fails?

Technical difficulties outside of your control can cause a payment to fail. Failover processing prevents a transaction from failing by rerouting it to the next best payment gateway. Without multiple payment gateways, redundant processing isn’t possible.

This failover process is seamless, meaning that your customer has no need to worry about the machinations going on behind the scenes. Better yet, failover virtually guarantees that the customer’s payment will go through.

Is the payment routing optimized?

To get the most out of your ecommerce platform, intelligent payment routing is a must. A comprehensive platform will instantly route transactions to the payment gateway the belongs to the acquiring bank that’s most likely to succeed. Not only will this guarantee the best payment conversion rates, but the process is faster and more efficient.

Of course, if there’s a service issue with the first gateway, the failover process will kick in, ensuring that the payment is processed. That’s payment success for your customer & peace of mind for you. How intelligent is your payment routing?

Want to increase your payment success rate? Let us show you how our ecommerce platform can help minimize issues and increase your revenue. FastSpring does not require exclusivity, charges no setup or hidden fees, and offers a powerful, extremely intuitive UI.

Ready to see FastSpring in action? Click here to get your demo today.