Your customers expect a seamless online checkout experience. From the moment they first view a product on your website to the final step of entering credit card information on a checkout page, they need a fast, easy, and secure flow – or they’ll find another place to buy their products.
Your job as a merchant? To ensure seamless data processing throughout the customer journey. For your developers, APIs are the secret sauce that makes this possible.
Payment APIs work behind the scenes to support your customers’ demand for seamless e-commerce payments – as well as your company’s demand for better transaction management. In this article, we will explore the concept of payment APIs and why flexibility is crucial when it comes to developing your online payment integration. We will also discuss the essential features that your developers should consider when selecting an API toolkit.
What Are Payment APIs?
What Are Payment APIs?API stands for Application Programming Interface. This refers to a set of instructions that enable one software program to interact with another program. In simpler terms, an API facilitates the seamless communication and integration between two applications, resulting in a cohesive experience.
Payment APIs enable the integration of a payment solution with your existing business applications. For instance, it allows businesses to connect the checkout process on their website with the payment system they use in their back office. (For instance, that’s how Curbstone customers can capture credit card information online and tie it back to the order entry application they run on their IBM i.)
Unlike hosted checkout pages (another method for processing credit card payments online), payment APIs let businesses accept payments directly on their own websites, using the services of a Payment Service Provider. This embedded approach reduces the risk of customers abandoning their shopping carts, as compared to an option where they are redirected to a third-party page.
What Can Payment APIs Accomplish?
Using payment APIs to integrate your credit card processing software with your back-office applications can help you improve your payments process in a number of ways. For instance, Curbstone’s API toolkit lets you:
- Process both one-time and recurring payments (particularly beneficial for subscription-based or Software-as-a-Service/SaaS businesses!)
- Create and manage stored cards on file
- Accept payments across various devices, better catering to your customers’ preferences
Our APIs don’t just facilitate the typical credit card payment process. They also make it possible to issue refunds and settle your batches. Any time payment information needs to be transmitted from a payment form or application to a service that can accept it, that’s where our APIs come into play.
Why Flexibility is So Important for Payment APIs
Your business is unique – and so is the way you process transactions. You need an API toolkit that can be customized to reflect your established business processes.
At Curbstone, we’ve built our payment processing technologies to support the unique ways you do business. You can use our RPG-native APIs to integrate with any IBM i-based application – whether it’s a commercial software system or a house-built program – and add payments to any existing workflow. As you build your payment integration, you can use our test environment to make sure your data calls and responses work as intended; detailed documentation takes the guesswork out of your programming efforts. As you work through the process, we’ll be there to help you get the outcome you need.
Discover Curbstone’s Payment APIs
Ready to start building your next payment integration? Contact Curbstone to learn more about our seamless technologies, including our online payment APIs.
