Payment providers across the globe are finding new ways to keep their users/customers glued because of the industry’s heavy competition. Let’s face it; it’s been a long time since we’ve witnessed an industry grow so much. The attention the mobile money/digital wallet/payment solution industry has garnered in the past few years has been immense. This has shown in its growth as many have turned to it for quality payment solutions. A quality payment gateway API is no longer a contest if you want to survive in the business.
The mobile money industry is presently worth about $1.2 trillion. In a few years, this figure could double to about $2 trillion, according to reports by GSMA. This industry is attracting not just the big players but also startups working hard to tap into this market. These startups are creating innovative and disruptive technologies that give the big players a run for their money.
A recent study shows that by 2022, the mobile money industry will reach a total value of $3.6 trillion. Juniper Research conducted this study. Their report, which is titled “Mobile Money: Revenue Opportunities & Market Forecasts 2018-2022”, projects a compound annual growth rate of 26%. It’s also important to note that this $3.6 trillion excludes transactions that are conducted in cash.
The world’s largest payment solution provider, PayPal, announced in mid-2019 that it would partner with various global financial institutions to offer direct deposits for its users in the US. The solution provider is also looking to leverage the partnership to offer other services like debit cards, credit cards, and even checking accounts. These new additions will definitely give PayPal an edge over its competitors as it will widen the offerings of its users. This is one of the many ways that PayPal tries to keep its over 267 million users glued to its service.
If you’re an IntaSend user or just a developer looking to adoptIntaSend’s API services, this article aims to provide an overview on how it works, the best way to integrate them, and how they can help improve your business. Before we get into that, let’s take a quick look at some of the benefits of payment APIs.
Benefits of Payment Gateway APIs
They improve user experience
Payment APIs can improve user experience on your platform and make them more likely to spend time on your site. This means that you can improve the customer experience and increase revenue. Additionally, by integrating payment gateway APIs, you can create a more seamless user experience and reduce the chances of fraud.
Payment APIs can improve user experience in a few ways. First, they can make it easier for users to make purchases. Second, they can make it easier for users to keep track of their spending. Third, they can make it easier for users to find the products they want to purchase.
Payment APIs can improve user experience by reducing the time it takes to make a purchase. For example, customers who buy a product on your site may have to input their billing, shipping, and payment information. This can be time-consuming and frustrating for the customer. However, if you have a payment API, the customer can input their information once, which will be stored securely.
It makes the payment process easier
Another benefit of payment APIs, from payment requests to authorization, receipt to confirmation, is that they make every payment process easier. Simplifying the payment process is perhaps the most significant benefit of using payment gateway APIs. In general, it can be difficult to make a payment. Multiple steps are often involved, including authorization, confirmation, and receipt. Payment APIs make it easier to complete all of these steps.
And this is extremely important, given that most people will have to go through the payment process dozens of times before they complete a single transaction. APIs provide a simple way to streamline all of these interactions, making it easier for everyone involved. This is especially true regarding mobile payments, which are becoming increasingly common. With so many different ways to pay for things, it can be difficult to track them.
Payment APIs simplify the payment process by providing a single, integrated solution. By consolidating all of the steps involved in a payment - from payment requests to authorization, receipt to confirmation - into a single solution, payment APIs make it easy for businesses to streamline their payment processes.
Multiple transaction types
Depending on the provider, payment gateway API often offer multiple transaction types, from card payments to mobile money to Bitcoin. For example, IntaSend offers card payments, ACH transfers, Crypto, and mobile money transactions. Each provider's full list of transaction types varies, but all providers offer card payments. The choice of payment types included in an API affects who can use the API - not all payment types are available in all countries.
Payment APIs that offer more payment types reach more potential customers. Card payments are available in every country and are, therefore, the most common type of payment used with payment APIs. However, mobile money is popular in many countries where credit cards are not common, so a provider that offers mobile money transactions may be able to reach new markets. Bitcoin is less common than card payments or mobile money but is growing in popularity.
Greater security
Perhaps the biggest benefit of payment APIs is that they offer greater security that strongly secures users’ data and personal details. Payment gateway API offer greater security through several features. The first is data encryption. This means that all the information being sent back and forth between the customer and the merchant is turned into a code that can only be read by the customer’s browser and the merchant’s server. This makes it impossible for anyone in between to read or intercept the data.
Payment Gateway APIs are equipped with top-notch security features that help minimize the risks of fraudulent activities that are common in digital transactions. The security features of payment APIs include data encryption, fraud detection, user authentication, etc. These features work together to ensure that users’ data and personal details are strongly secured. As a result, users can make digital transactions without having to worry about the risks of fraud.
Option to customize
Payment APIs allow you to get creative with the integration such that everything will appear as you want rather than sticking to the basic payment API integration. This allows you to integrate payment processing into your website in various ways, making it easy for your users to pay for what they need. This opens up many possibilities for you as a business, giving you more control over how your users interact with your site.
Payment APIs provide you with a lot of flexibility when it comes to integrating payment processing into your website. This means you can customize how your users interact with your site, giving you much control over how they use it. This provides more opportunities for your business to succeed by being able to customize the experience to match your own specific needs.
IntaSend’s Payment API Services
Card API
Card payments are the most common type of payment in the world. While many other options have been invented, card payments are still the most common way customers can pay for products and services online. Hence, as a business owner, having the card API integrated into your website is a necessity. The IntaSend card API allows you to accept card payments from your customers via a secure check-out tool to make payment collection easier.
The payment collection process is super easy. It starts by capturing customers’ contact details for payment purposes. These details are stored securely and are only used when the customers are checking out. After the customer fills in the details, the next thing is authorization. Authorization is one of the most important parts of any card payment process because it helps reduce the risk of fraud and chargebacks that might affect your business. Thankfully, card payments are protected by 3D security, which makes it difficult for anyone to steal your customers' card information. The authorization ensures only the card owner can approve the payment using an OTP sent by the issuing bank.
The last part of the process is the payment capture. This is when the money is moved from the card issuing bank to IntaSend settlement accounts. Card payments usually take up to 3 days to reflect in your IntaSend settlement account. However, you don’t have to wait till the payments reflect before you release the goods/service to them. You can release the goods/service to the customers immediately after their cards have been charged, stating on the page that it is successful.
Wallet as a service API
IntaSend’s wallet as a service is undoubtedly the best in East Africa, thanks to its many benefits. It is best to extend IntaSend’s capability and automate your payment workflows. Some of the uses cases you can build using the IntaSend wallet API include mobile banking and micro-lending applications, charges tracking and reconciliation solution, e-commerce vendor payments and collection systems, wallet solutions for gaming and e-sports, and a crowdfunding solution where each campaign is tied to a single wallet for easy reconciliation and reports.
Thankfully, the wallet API integration is very seamless. All you have to do to get started is to have an account, integrate the API codes, test, and go live in minutes. Find out more about IntaSend wallet as a service in this article.
Bill payment API
IntaSend supports B2B payments and allows you to send bulk and single payments to your employees and contractors anywhere in Kenya. This is good news for business owners who have been looking for payment solutions for bulk payments. IntaSend is the best way to settle B2B invoices and payments, and the process is pretty much straightforward. From your dashboard, you can initiate payments to several people and pay utility bills using M-Pesa Paybill and till numbers.
This B2B payment API is very easy to integrate. It allows you to automate and build a working system for your business within your app or CRM. This means the amount of manual work that goes into bill payments is drastically reduced. With this system, you don’t need a lot of people handling the company’s financial ins and outs. Some of the features you can expect from IntaSend’s bill payment API include bulk payment, safety and security, multiple network support, managed payments, and 24/7 customer support, among many others. Learn more about the IntaSend business payment API in this article.
KYC API
Our KYC API allows merchants and business owners to verify their customers’ information seamlessly. This can be done by creating links and sending them directly to your customers to provide their personal details. These details include government IDs and phone numbers. This is a great way to leverage the IntaSend KYC module for your business.
Mobile disbursement API
IntaSend supports the disbursement of mobile payments through its API. This integration allows you to send mobile payments, collect funds, and pay your bills in minutes. The M-Pesa API can be easily integrated into your workflow to initiate transactions and track statuses, thanks to our simple M-Pesa API SDKs that include PHP SDK, Python SDK, Javascript Inline SDK, and REST API, among many others.
These tools allow you to send single and bulk payments from your IntaSend wallet to people’s mobile accounts in Kenya. You can send up to a batch of 5000 payments in a single request, which is huge if you compare how big it is to what other mobile payment providers offer. Here is a comprehensive article detailing all the information you need about IntaSend’s mobile disbursement API.
Bank disbursement API
The IntaSend bank disbursement API works similarly to its mobile disbursement counterpart; only that instead of mobile accounts, it allows you to send payments to bank accounts. The bank disbursement API also allows you to send payments to multiple bank accounts in a single request. This way, you can pay your employees and contractors without breaking a sweat.
IPN and Webhooks
Our Instant Payment Notification (IPN) and Webhooks allow you to capture real-time events and never miss out on anything important. You can send these notifications to your backend for further processing. Webhooks can be sent up as endpoints/URLs on your IntaSend dashboard to activate receiving real-time POST notifications on some major changes on your account. These changes include new transactions, state changes, refund activities, and sending money states.
To activate webhooks, you need a valid URL/endpoint that can accept POST requests. The endpoint must also use a secure transport protocol for webhooks to work properly.
Final Thoughts
Having a good payment provider to trust with your business should be a priority if you want to take your online business to the next level. You want to provide your customers with a quality user experience, and one of the best ways to ensure that is to make payments very easy for them. IntaSend is a great platform to get started. IntaSend offers several payment services that put your business ahead of the competition. In this article, we’ve discussed the breakdown of IntaSend’s API payment services. To access all these amazing payment APIs that will help you take your business to the next level, you can get started by creating an account with IntaSend.
Link to documentation: API Documentation
Sandbox: Test enviroment
Cover Photo by Nubelson Fernandes on Unsplash
