Business owners are increasingly aware of the importance of ecommerce payments. Cash transactions have been left behind, but have not disappeared; credit card payments, e-wallets and various online payment gateways have been added. In addition, most retailers today are omnichannel (online and offline), which further complicates the process of receiving payments easily, quickly and securely.
One of the most interesting platforms for solving this problem is Sage Pay, present in 50,000 European companies, which it helps to process payments in physical and digital environments. In the following lines we will carry out an in-depth analysis of Sage Pay:
What is Sage Pay?
Sage Pay is one of the most popular and used PSP (payment service provider) platforms in Europe. Processing card transactions and other forms of payment securely is Sage Pay’s mission, as well as helping to prevent fraud and security breaches.
Sage Pay has been developed by The Sage Group, an accounting software company. The figures of this software speak of its success: 4 billion payments processed in 12 months, for tens of thousands of European companies, employing 300 employees.
The origins of Sage Pay begin in 2001, with the support of private investors and their desire to help small and medium enterprises in the United Kingdom. Two years later, Sage Pay’s online payment services were endorsed by Lloyds TSB, Bank of Scotland, Barclays Merchant Services, HSBC, American Express and others.
Having clarified what Sage Pay is, it is worth explaining how this platform works.
How the Sage Pay platform works
The operation of Sage Pay uses a server integration method between merchants and customers: when a payment is processed, a transaction log is sent to Sage Pay systems, which redirect customers for recognition. When the platform has verified that the details are correct, it authorizes the merchant and the appropriate card-provider.
After receiving a response to this authorization, Sage Pay indicates the status of the transaction, which can be three:
- Accepted
- Rejected
- Invalid
This is followed by other checks, aimed at preventing fraudulent transactions and security breaches before the payment is completed. The most surprising thing is that Sage Pay performs these procedures quickly, shortening to the maximum the waiting times that stop the cash flow of companies.
These Sage Pay features will satisfy the most demanding ecommerces
Receiving payments from customers has never been easier
The suite of software and devices of this platform is designed to accelerate the cash flow of companies, ensuring fast and secure payments. This is one of the great benefits of Sage Pay and the reason why thousands of ecommerces trust its services. In addition, the implementation of Sage Accounting helps streamline administrative procedures, which helps streamline payment processing. Everything in Sage Pay is designed so that customer money is transferred to the company as quickly, conveniently and securely as possible.
Interesting face-to-face payment feature
This platform allows processing payments through card terminals with a touch screen at points of sale (POS), without having to be in front of the computer. Thanks to face to face payments, companies with physical branches can speed up their collections, which has a positive impact on their cash flow.
Scalable pricing based on ecommerce needs
Another benefit of Sage Pay is its scalable price. The ecommerces interested in its services do not have to make a large initial outlay. Their different plans are adapted to the needs of each company:
- The Flex Plan, £20.90 per month, offers fraud detection tools and 24-hour telephone and email support.
- In the Plus Plan, the price rises to £45 per month, but with additional features such as access to Fast-Pass support, the limit of 500 token purchases per month or a wider variety of local payment methods in Europe.
- The variable cost Corporate Plan allows over 3,000 transactions, advanced fraud detection tools, priority support services, and other unique features.
24/7 customer and developer support
The Sage Pay technical support section (sagepay.co.uk/support) is an excellent source of information for merchants, developers and customers. In addition to accessing the web form (sagepay.co.uk/email-support) for online queries, users can contact Sage Pay’s customer support teams in Great Britain and Ireland via the general telephone number 0845 111 4455 and the partner-specific telephone number 0845 245 0273.
Sage Pay also has a range of FAQs, various resources and developer guides, and a consumer help section.
Security in payments, a great strength of Sage Pay
Previously we answered the question of how Sage Pay works, in order to explain how it ensures security in transactions. Now we’ll find out what the data encryption systems on this platform are. We will also look at the different cybersecurity standards that Sage Pay meets and respects for its customers.
Sage Pay’s payment systems are audited by a Qualified Security Assessor (QSA), which means that your transactions are analyzed by third-party tools aimed at preventing fraud and security breaches.
At Sage Pay, they also take the security of their customers’ transaction data very seriously. That’s why sensitive customer information is encrypted using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificates. In addition, all messages sent to external servers from Sage Pay are signed via MD5 hashing. In this way, Sage Pay prevents any kind of manipulation in the information sent.
On the other hand, Sage Pay has a series of certificates that guarantee the security of your credit card transactions. For example, PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard), one of the highest security standards.
In short, this analysis of Sage Pay has revealed many of the virtues of this payment processing provider, which has nothing to envy Payza, Stripe, SecurionPay and other competitors.
