Stripe
Stripe
What are Stripe Payments
& How Does Stripe Work?
The new
payments stack
Generating revenue data is at the heart of business operations at Stripe which combines a payments platform with applications that are designed to achieve just that objective.
Applications - Sitting atop our payment’s platform are applications to manage revenue, prevent fraud, and expand internationally.
Payment Platforms - At our core is a powerful payments engine that makes moving money easy.
Infrastructure - Our cloud-based infrastructure provides reliability, scalability, and security.
4 Benefits to Using Stripe’s
Online Payment System
Stripe’s solutions still provide unique solutions that differentiate it from those of its competitors in many ways. Among the many advantages of using Stripe’s payment system, consider the following 4 discerning features:
A very quick, user-friendly onboarding process: As a payment service provider (PSP), Stripe does away with a complicated underwriting process to approve a full-service merchant account. You can sign up online and be approved very quickly.
A wide assortment of customization options: If you are bored by a limited set of customization options, you will appreciate Stripe’s extensive collections of developer tools and APIs — all of which come with thorough documentation. You may however need coding skills or services of a developer to take full advantage of these features.
An integrated payments processing system: Stripe offers a single, integrated system that fully supports both retail and eCommerce sales channels. Both, credit card payments processing service and a payment gateway are part of its service.
A Complete Set of Security Features: While no provider can offer you truly bulletproof payment security 100% of the time, Stripe comes as close as possible to this ideal. Most of Stripe’s fundamental security features, such as TLS (SSL) and encryption, are included with every account at no charge. More advanced features, such as the Stripe Radar anti-fraud service, will cost you a little extra.
4 Ways to Use Stripe Payments
Tools for Online Businesses
It is a general norm that to process online transactions, you need both a payment gateway and payment processor. The job of the gateway is to securely transmit the customer’s credit card payment information to the processor that processes the transaction. Funds from the customer’s bank are temporarily routed to a merchant account (in the case of a PSP such as Stripe, it is an aggregated account) where credit card-related fees are deducted from the sum. Stripe combines this gateway functionality and payment processing into a single product, making it a convenient way to handle eCommerce.
Here is an overview of how Stripe can be deployed to process either online or in-person transactions:
Stripe
Checkout
Designed with non-programmers in mind, Stripe Checkout lets you build a customized hosted payment page without writing any code. If you know your way around your site’s content management system (CMS), you can set everything up by cutting and pasting the appropriate code snippets and then selecting from several pre-installed customization options.
While those options might be a bit basic, Stripe Checkout has features that include support for email receipts, coupons and promo codes, automatic tax collection, foreign language support, and chargeback protection. Stripe Checkout is a great out-of-the-box solution for new eCommerce merchants, but eventually, you will outgrow its limited and predefined features and options as a beginner. When that happens, you will want to consider moving up to a more customizable solution, such as the Stripe Developer Tools.
Stripe
Developer Tools
Stripe’s potential can be fully unlocked, only if you are proficient at writing code or have access to a developer who can do it for you. If you are not fortunate enough to have a trusty developer available, Stripe can help you find one. This service is not free, of course, but it can be a great investment in helping your business reach new heights.
Stripe offers a truly extensive library of online developer resources, including documentation and pre-formatted code snippets for every feature and option you might want to include on your site. All this information is publicly available on the Stripe website, so you can get an idea of the work involved before you begin. You will, however, need the appropriate API keys that come with your Stripe account before you can go live.
Stripe
Terminal
If you also need to accept in-person sales, Stripe Terminal allows you to integrate physical processing hardware into your payment stack. The emphasis here is on mobile systems, with support currently available for the Stripe Reader M2 and the BBPOS Chipper 2X BT, both of which connect via Bluetooth and support magstripe, EMV, and NFC-based payment methods. Support for the BBPOS Wise POSE, a “smart” countertop terminal with a color touch screen and support for Wi-Fi and Ethernet connectivity, is coming soon.
These terminals are available directly from Stripe and are reasonably priced. With Stripe Terminal, you will be able to have all payment data from online and in-person sales available from your Stripe Dashboard.
Stripe Billing
& Invoicing
If you are a freelancer or an independent contractor who relies on invoices to get paid, Stripe is an excellent option. You can generate and send online invoices right from the Stripe Dashboard, complete with customized business logos, line-item breakdowns, automatic tax collection, and most importantly a payment link for convenient and secure payment. Stripe claims that most of its invoices are paid within three days.
Want to set up your
Stripe account?
Although the coding work required to take advantage of Stripe’s developer tools can be extensive, setting up a basic Stripe account is actually very simple. Here is what you will need to do:
Click on any of the conveniently placed ‘Start Now’ Button after going to the Stripe website
You will land on a ‘Create Your Stripe Account’ page, where you will be prompted to provide your email address, full name, and country. Here you will also set a password.
Stripe will send you an email link where you will verify your email address
Stripe account will be activated once the required information is provided. This will include details about the nature of your business, fulfillment details, your business banking account information, and a recent credit card statement. You can also set up two-step authentication (which we highly recommend) at this time.
You will receive an email verifying that your account has been approved. Verification requires 24 hours, or possibly longer. Note that Stripe uses an expedited process to get your account approved quickly, so it is critically important to be completely honest about your business — especially what products and services you are selling.
Okay, that was the easy part. You still need to set up Stripe to work with your eCommerce website. Here is a brief overview of how to do it:
You will need two pairs of keys to use Stripe’s REST API: one for testing, the other for when you go live. You can find them in your Stripe Dashboard under Developers —> API Keys. You can toggle between Live and Test keys once your account is activated.
Stripe plays nicely with popular server-side languages/frameworks, with particular care given to Ruby, Python, PHP, Java, Node.js, Go, and . NET. The minimal setup for Stripe is simple. In case you are using a prebuilt option such as Stripe Checkout, it can usually be done by simply copying and pasting the appropriate lines of code to your site.
For a customized option that requires actual coding, you will first need to install the language-appropriate Stripe library. You can do this with package managers, such as npm for Node.js, pip for Python, etc. From there, it is just a matter of setting your API keys and creating an object containing your payment intent with properties for amount, currency, payment method, and the email address the receipt will be sent to. If you are successful, Stripe will return an object containing transaction details.