Before we begin – some assumptions:
- You are using Wordpress & Woocommerce as your ecommerce solution.
- You’ve done the maths and have realised that it is much cheaper to use a third party payment gateway rather than use your bank. True in Australia anyway – here’s a price comparison of merchant fees for Australian banks.
- You are already using PayPal as a payment option but realise not everyone has a PayPal account.
- You realise people prefer to stay on your site to pay rather then leave, pay, return
- People with PayPal accounts will keep using it as a payment option since it is more convenient than filling out credit card details
- You will most likely make more money by offering credit card payment as an option
The plan is very simple: use Stripe!
You can probably go off on your own now and get it done but if not then no worries, here’s a step by step guide:
Step 1 – Buy an SSL Certificate and make the appropriate changes
In order to be eligible to use Stripe you need an SSL Certificate and need to ensure it working correctly on your website.
Ideally it’s best to buy your SSL Certificate from your website host to minimise any hassle.
Enable the ‘Force secure checkout’ setting in WooCommerce > Settings > Checkout
WooCommerce has a great resource on SSL here
Tell Google your new domain preference is https not http – use the Google Search Console to do this
Step 2 – Sign up with Stripe
Add in all your details and verify your account
Step 3 – Install, configure and test the Stripe plugin
Stripe for WooCommerce is free! plus it’s made by the WooCommerce developers themselves so you know it’s coded to a high standard and is well supported.
Stripe offers a test purchase option but I like to ensure it’s all working for real so I prefer to do a real purchase with Visa.
Thats it, all done! Just be sure to resolve any http / https issue that may arise and enjoy a boost in orders 🙂
