When it comes to taking payments, there are two main integration options. Businesses can integrate into their payment provider via API or Hosted Payment Page (HPP). Whilst it’s necessary for some to integrate via API, for those who don’t, using an HPP helps to streamline the process. They cut down your integration time as well as reduce your compliance requirements… and who doesn’t want that? If this sounds as great to you as it does to me, keep reading. I’m going to share the top reasons to use an HPP, and what sets ours apart from the pack.
But first of all, what exactly is a Hosted Payment Page? An HPP is a payment page (or window, if you’re integrating via an iFrame) that your customers get redirected to, hosted by your payment provider. They provide a template for the page and, depending on the provider, will offer varying degrees of customisation. As the page is hosted by the payment provider, they are the ones capturing any sensitive information. Due to this, they take on the compliance and security requirements involved with handling the data.
Compliance Requirements
When accepting payments, compliance requirements can be one of the most challenging and time-consuming aspects. In order to set up their own payment page via an API, a business must pass their PCI DSS – SAQ D level compliance. PCI DSS is a set of security standards that ensure card details are protected. SAQ D level entails a rigorous self-assessment questionnaire (in other words: lots of work). However, when using an HPP, your payment provider takes on this responsibility. We do the work to ensure that your payments are 100% secure. By using our HPP, you effectively let us do the heavy lifting.
The Acquired.com HPP is also 100% Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) ready. After your speedy integration into our platform, you’ll be ready to take on all things payments. This is especially important if you’re planning on taking payments in the EU. However, even if you’re operating solely within the UK, it’s still great to stay ahead of the game.
Integration
As the HPP is already built for you, integration times are dramatically reduced. However, even though the integration is much simpler, with our HPP you won’t miss out on the features that you’d need or expect from a custom-built checkout solution. Alongside the perks of the HPP being pre-built, ours also comes with lots of handy tools to save you time and money.
Unlike other providers, one of our aims is to help our process transactions in the most effective way – we actually help our customers to reduce the amount of transactions they process. So, in line with this, our HPP comes with a Bank Identification Number (BIN) filter feature, which finds errors before payments are attempted. Customers are unable to submit payments if we detect incorrect or blocked payment information. Instead, they receive an error message prompting them to check their details or provide a different payment method. This ensures that your customer is prompted in real time for the correct information and dramatically reduces the potential for the customer to drop out of the buying process. And, you will not submit a transaction that is guaranteed to fail.
Other features include logging all HPP requests, payment link generation and card tokenisation (which allows you to offer a one-click checkout, and update billing details). No junk data is captured by our system, and our infrastructure is scalable on demand. As we don’t have a throughput limit, we are able to grow with you. Our system won’t throw a fit if you have lots of transactions to process in a short space of time.
Customisation
One reservation that businesses occasionally have about HPPs is the worry about interrupted branding when customers get redirected for payment. Luckily, with the Acquired.com HPP, there’s no limit to the amount of customisation you can make to the pages. This way, you will not be limited to a payment provider’s unattractive HPP that sacrifices the seamless experience you need. We don’t believe that anyone should have to choose between customer experience and saving time.
With custom HTML, CSS and JavaScript, you’re able to customise the look and feel to match the rest of the website. Customers often find themselves suspicious of payment pages that divert from the appearance of the main website. Editing the HPP template to be consistent with the rest of the branding will reduce this type of drop-off. Furthermore, if you’ve created a beautiful brand experience, you shouldn’t have to lose it at the payment page. Handy tools like customisable error messaging mean that even the tone of voice you’ve worked so hard to perfect won’t be sacrificed.
We never want to hold you back. If you have different products or packages, your HPP templates should be able to reflect this. Our customers are able to have multiple templates active at the same time. We also enable custom data to be captured. This allows you to associate customer information to the transactions, capture additional details, and present this data on the payment page for your customers to see.
So, if you’re looking for reduced integration and compliance requirements, but don’t want to hinder the functionality or look of your payment page, the Acquired.com HPP could be the right choice for your business. Integrating via HPP means you’ll have more time to dedicate towards vital operations within your business. And who doesn’t want that?
