What is Stripe?
One of the most important elements of the development of any business selling its services or goods via the Internet is the choice and implementation of an online payment system.
Stripe is one of the largest and most frequently used payment processors in the world due to the fact that it is a powerful tool for businesses. Stripe offers its customers a full-stack payment process – it serves as both a third-party payment processor and a payment gateway. Stripe takes over all routine payment processes, is quickly implemented in startups, e-commerce, mobile commerce, SaaS, marketplaces, platform businesses, and so on. Despite the wide range of services and products, in accordance with the specifics of its work, Stripe is mainly focused on e-commerce.
Stripe products and features
Stripe offers its customers various products, the purpose of which is to help businesses to cope with pain points in the areas of payment acceptance, fraud control, billing management, sales reporting and connecting third-party sellers. All products are updated regularly, and Stripe reports all changes and new features on its blog.
- Stripe Checkout
Stripe offers a fully customizable payment page that a business can embed into its existing website, allowing customers to pay for services or products quickly, easily and securely without going to another page. Checkout is a premade form, for embedding which you just need to copy and paste a few lines of JavaScript.
- Stripe Elements
This is a product that requires programming skills. Stripe offers a library of pre-built components, taking care of the heavy back-end coding and allowing businesses to create their own checkout pages on mobile or desktop.
- Stripe Sigmа
Sigma is an analytical tool using of prebuilt criteria options that allows a business to track and systematize payment data, which helps it monitor progress and improve work with accounts receivable. To delve into the data, a Structured Query Language is proposed. Stripe allows you to send simple SQL queries to obtain the recent statistics of your business and export it to a CSV file. Stripe also provides Data Portability, meaning data won’t be lost if you switch to another service.
- Stripe Radar
Radar is automated machine learning fraud system, wihich checks cards against a global fraud database and provides a dashboard for setting rules и control over the violation of the rules by buyers on the site. Radar will allow businesses to identify users and process payments with detailed information about them. In addition to Radar, Stripe also uses tokenization technology and various other fraud prevention tools, such as CVV and AVS checking.
- Stripe Billing
Billing is designed to streamline and scale recurring revenue. This API allows business to create a customized subscription options with no limit on the type of plans and frequency of billing customers, offer discounts and trial periods and so on. Stripe securely stores payment information about customers, provides business with cash flow information.
- Stripe Atlas
The Atlas program is designed to help entrepreneurs, start-ups and small business owners get a bank account in the US and incorporate in Delaware. This facilitates the procedure of opening and conducting a new business, as the newly established legal entity has all the necessary documentation to begin operations, an account in a US bank, tax and legal guidance.
- Stripe Relay
The purpose of Relay is to create a self-contained app for downloading goods from the website and receiving payments. This product combines mobile app commerce with online store, saving customer data in the app and speeding up the payment process in the future. Both iOS and Android versions are available.
- Stripe Connect
This platform connects the business with the online marketplace, allows to receive funds from third-party sellers. Connect performs such functions as onboarding users, managing payments, currencies conversion, handling compliance issues, tax reporting and more.
- Stripe Capital
Capital provides businesses with the opportunity to get short-term loans and merchant cash advances through the dashboard with Stripe. The difference from typical loan is the absence of interest rates, the business returns the amount with a fixed fee. To access this product, Stripe considers the business’s eligibility.
The above products and features are just some of the most popular of all offered by the Stripe. There are many more narrow-profile products, for example, offering coupons and free trials, Payouts, Issuing, Corporate cards, Hardware, Carbon Removal and more.
The core functionality of Stripe
- International reach
Stripe is currently available in 47 countries around the world and by default supports universal and local payment methods from anywhere in the world, and also works in 135 different currencies. This allows you to eliminate conversion charges и discrepancy between the displayed price and charged price on your site.
- Universal and local payment methods
All universal payment types are available in Stripe, such as Alipay, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Microsoft Pay, Amex Express, Mastercard, Visa and so on.
Local payment types are available by default in the regions where the account is registered. It’s also possible to add support for foreign regions with additional coding and transaction costs. In the regions of North and Latin America, Stripe supports Interac, OXXO, Affirm, Boleto, ACH Debit, Pre-authorized debits, ACH Credit Transfer. In the European region: Cartes Bancaires, Bancontact, EPS, giropay, iDEAL, Multibanco, P24, SOFORT, SEPA Direct Debit, Bacs Direct Debit. In Asia- Pacific Region Stripe allows to accept payments via China UnionPay, JCB, WeChat Pay, FPX, GrabPay, BECS Direct Debit.
- Developer-Centric approach
Stripe allows you to customize the processing system and scale it up as the business grows. Businesses can use ready-made Stripe solutions with intuitive logic of actions, simple implementation and compatibility with many CMS systems. Stripe also provides access to the API, which enables developers to integrate Stripe into unique websites, use programming languages to adjust how the processor works and looks and so on.
- Integrations
The easiest way to use Stripe is to connect through a business app that allows you to quickly start accepting payments, connect an account and automatically synchronize data. Plugins for third-party services are also available.
- Security, PCI Compliance
Stripe uses multiple security protocols to ensure data security. In addition, it is a PCI Service Provider Level 1, the highest certification available. In turn, the business also is required to comply with PCI data security standards and complete a self-assessment questionnaire each year.
- Customer support
In case of any questions or problems with the use of Stripe, the business can email the company or use its online resources, which include searchable documentation, reference guides, articles, tutorials and FAQs.
- The prohibited businesses list
Stripe has a list of businesses, business activities or business practices for which it’s prohibited to accept payment through the payment processor. These industries that are considered “high risk” and include: Financial and professional services; IP (Intellectual Property) infringement; Regulated or illegal products and services; Unfair, predatory, or deceptive practices; Products or services that are otherwise prohibited by Stripe’s financial partners.
Is Stripe Right for Your Business?
Stripe is a reliable, secure, multifunctional payment processing platform with relatively low transaction fees. It is these qualities that made Stripe one of the heavy-hitters in the online payment processing sector. The problems that businesses face are not the functionality of the platform, but the complexity of use.
Stripe is an aggregator that does not provide every business with individual merchant account, but aggregates businesses under one umbrella account.
Despite the initial impression of Stripe as an intuitive platform, a business may have difficulties in self-integrating the products and features it needs. Often, business owners are forced to turn to third-party developers, which is not always reliable and can be quite expensive.
Difficulties arise with the connection of Stripe. Stripe takes a very conservative approach to the verification of its users, the platform has a set of checks and requirements. Even if the business is included in the list of available for connection, Stripe checks it for the level of risk, which is calculated depending on the industry, as well as the reputation or business history. Quite often businesses get rejected.
As a merchant aggregator, Stripe strives to protect itself from any risks to a greater extent than full-service processors. At any slightest deviation from normal activity, for example, abnormally high sales of your services or goods, Stripe may hold your funds or close your account. Until the issue is resolved, depending on the severity of the problem, your account may be blocked for receiving payments and withdrawing funds.
Stripe does not provide its customers with inbound phone support. If problems arise, you can contact the consultant only by email, which can take much longer than a phone call, and thus entail costs for the business.
We can help
Stripe works best as an integration into the billing system, this is a new step in the development of the payment process.
Rainex is a billing and subscription management platform that offers a wide range of functionality for your business, starting with flexible configuration of pricing plans, ending with detailed analytics and reports.
Using Rainex, you can integrate with several payment gateways at the same time, including Stripe. By connecting Rainex, you get all the functionality of the Stripe, supplemented by a personal account, developers who customize the system specifically for you, round-the-clock customer support.
With Rainex you will be able to get all the advantages of working with a Stripe and avoid its disadvantages.
To learn more, sign up for a product demonstration. We will be happy to tell you about us and answer any questions.
