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How to accept payments on your website: choosing a payment gateway for your online store

· 10 min read · Payments

Short answer: To accept payments on your website, you sign up with a payment provider (such as PayPal or Square, or a bank merchant account with a separate gateway), connect it to your store's checkout, and let the provider's secure page or form collect the card details so they never touch your server. Then you add the payment methods your customers expect, run a few test orders, and check how refunds, disputes and payouts work before you launch. The quickest route is a store platform with payments already wired into checkout; if you compare platforms, look for an e-commerce platform that takes no transaction fees on your sales, because platform fees stack on top of processing fees.

Payment gateway, processor, merchant account: who does what

Three roles sit between your customer's card and your bank account:

  • Payment gateway: the technology that securely takes the card details at checkout and passes them on. It's the part your website talks to.
  • Payment processor: moves the transaction between the card networks, the customer's bank and your bank, and tells the gateway whether the payment was approved or declined.
  • Merchant account: the account where card money lands before it's paid out to your business bank account.

Most small stores never deal with these separately. Payment service providers such as PayPal, Square and Stripe bundle all three: you open one account, get a gateway and processing, and receive payouts to your bank. A traditional merchant account from a bank or acquirer, paired with a separate gateway, usually makes sense later, when your volume is large enough to negotiate rates.

Step 1: Choose an all-in-one provider or a merchant account

  • Sign-up — All-in-one provider: Online application; Merchant account + gateway: Application and review by the bank or acquirer
  • Pricing — All-in-one provider: Published percentage plus a fixed fee per transaction; Merchant account + gateway: Negotiated with the bank or acquirer
  • Setup — All-in-one provider: Plugs into most store platforms; Merchant account + gateway: Gateway has to be connected separately
  • Best for — All-in-one provider: New and small stores; Merchant account + gateway: High volume, negotiated rates

If you're starting out, an all-in-one provider is the simpler choice. You can accept payments online without a merchant account of your own, and switch later if the numbers justify it.

Step 2: Compare the real cost per order

The headline percentage is only part of the price. Read each provider's fee page and check the fixed fee per transaction, international card surcharges, currency conversion, chargeback fees and any monthly plan fee. Here's what two providers' US fee pages listed when we checked (24 October 2026):

  • Card payments online — PayPal: Standard card payments 2.99% + $0.49; PayPal Checkout 3.49% + $0.49; Square: Free plan: online 3.3% + 30¢ (Online API 2.9% + 30¢); Plus plan: 2.9% + 30¢
  • Cards from other countries — PayPal: +1.50% on international commercial transactions; Square: +1.5% for cards issued outside your account's country
  • Chargebacks — PayPal: $20.00 per chargeback; Square: No fee for chargebacks and dispute management

Example (assumption): a $50 order paid by a US card. With PayPal standard card payments, the fee would be about $1.99 (2.99% of $50 plus $0.49). On Square's Free plan through an online checkout, about $1.95 (3.3% plus 30¢). The difference per order is small; what moves your margin is the fixed fee on small orders, international cards and chargebacks. Put payment fees into your profit per order rather than looking at them in isolation.

If you sell abroad, check which currencies the provider can charge and settle in, and how it converts them. We cover currency, duties and payment options for foreign customers in how to sell online internationally.

Step 3: Offer the payment methods your customers expect

Cards are the baseline, but checkout is where trust and choice decide the sale. In Baymard Institute's research on why shoppers abandon checkout (excluding those just browsing), 19% didn't trust the site with their credit card information, 10% had their card declined and 9% said there weren't enough payment methods.

  • Accept the major cards, plus at least one wallet your customers already use (PayPal, Apple Pay or Google Pay, depending on your provider).
  • Show the accepted methods early, on product pages or in the cart, not only on the last step.
  • Make it obvious that payment is handled by a known provider on a secure page.
  • When a card is declined, show a clear message and let the customer try another method without re-entering everything.

Checkout friction is one of the recurring checks in how to manage an online store: look at where people drop off every month.

Step 4: Keep card data off your server

The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) applies to anyone who stores, processes or transmits card data. Stripe's integration guide puts the stakes plainly: if your business handles raw card data directly, you might need to meet more than 300 PCI DSS security controls. If you use a low-risk integration instead, where a hosted payment page or embedded form sends card details straight to the provider, card data never passes through your server and your obligations shrink. Compliance is still shared: Stripe, for example, asks businesses to attest to their PCI compliance every year.

In practice:

  • Use the provider's hosted checkout or embedded payment fields, not a form you built yourself.
  • Store only what's outside PCI scope, such as card type, the last four digits and the expiry date.
  • Serve your whole site over HTTPS with a current TLS certificate.
  • Never ask customers to send card numbers by email, chat or phone message.

Step 5: Connect, test and plan for refunds and disputes

  1. Connect the provider to your store platform with the credentials or API keys it gives you.
  2. Use test mode first. Place test orders for a successful payment, a declined card and a refund.
  3. Run one real order with your own card and refund it, so you see the full cycle and the payout in your bank.
  4. Learn the dispute process. When a customer disputes a charge with their bank, the provider takes the disputed amount (and with some providers a fee) from your balance and asks for evidence. Keep order records, tracking numbers and customer messages so you can respond quickly.
  5. Check payout timing. Know when sales arrive in your bank and whether the provider can hold funds on a new account, so cash flow doesn't surprise you.

How Favenda helps

In Favenda, each sales region gets its own currency, payment methods and shipping rates, so customers in each market see the options that fit them. Each order shows the real profit after shipping and payment costs, which makes it easy to see what your payment provider actually costs you. There are no transaction fees on your sales, so the only percentage you pay is your provider's. The Store plan is $69 a month excluding tax, with two months free when you pay annually.

See Favenda →

FAQ

Can I accept payments online without a merchant account?
Yes. Payment service providers such as PayPal and Square let you accept card payments under their own account structure, so you don't need to apply for a separate merchant account with a bank. You sign up online and receive payouts to your business bank account.

What's the difference between a payment gateway and a payment processor?
The gateway is the part of checkout that securely collects card details and sends them on; the processor moves the transaction through the card networks and banks and returns approval or decline. All-in-one providers give you both in one account.

How much does it cost to accept credit card payments on a website?
For small US stores using an all-in-one provider, expect a percentage of roughly 3% plus a fixed fee per transaction, with extra charges for international cards and, at some providers, chargebacks. Check the provider's current fee page, because rates and plans change.

Sources: PayPal, "PayPal Business Fees" (US, last updated October 1, 2026); Square Support Center, "What are Square's fees?"; Stripe Docs, "Integration security guide" and "How disputes work"; Baymard Institute, "Cart Abandonment Rate Statistics". All read on 24 October 2026. Fees and plans change often; check each provider's current pricing before you choose.