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Most retailers waste time chasing “the best” payment gateway. What matters is finding one that actually works for your platform, your customers, and your business model.

This quiz strips it down to the essentials. Four quick questions. A short list of what to prioritize, what to look for, and what to avoid. Then it’s on you to test and negotiate.

If you need a quick refresher on payment infrastructure, start with ecommerce payment methods and the breakdown of payment processors.

How The Quiz Works

Pick your ecommerce platform, tell us where your customers are, decide what matters most, and call out your biggest pain point. You’ll get a simple, no-fluff brief in three columns: priorities, must-haves, and deal-breakers. It’s a filter you can run any vendor pitch through in seconds.

Reading Your Result

If your customers are everywhere, you’ll need more than a domestic processor with a few “international” options bolted on.

  • Multi-currency pricing and local payment methods are non-negotiable.
  • Strong cross-border routing and competitive FX rates are what separate good from bad.
  • Gaps in coverage or hidden markups will eat your margins.

If subscriptions keep the lights on, reliability beats fancy dashboards.

  • Look for solid dunning, account updater support, and webhooks that don’t flake.
  • Make sure you can take your tokens with you if you switch.

If you’re running a custom or headless build, integrations matter more than marketing claims.

  • Mature APIs, idempotency, and clear PCI scope should be the baseline.
  • If their docs are thin or they can’t match sandbox to production, keep looking.

If your focus is domestic but mobile-heavy, fast checkout wins the cart.

  • Apple Pay, Google Pay, and accelerated checkout should be standard.
  • Demand low latency and high approval rates, especially for wallets.

Price It Before You Sign

Don’t guess. Run the numbers in our payment processing fee calculator. Model domestic vs. cross-border, refunds, disputes, and currency conversion.

Then push for written terms on every fee.

Ready To Pick Your Gateway?

  1. Take the quiz.
  2. Cross-check results with our best payment gateway providers and, if you sell globally, best international payment gateways.
  3. Test the top two or three in a sandbox. Run through real transactions—auth, capture, refund, dispute.
  4. Compare actual costs. Negotiate with data, not hope.

Bottom line: Take the quiz, use the brief to cut through the noise, and put gateways through their paces before you commit. If you want to go deeper, our guides on payment gateway integrations and how to integrate a payment gateway will keep your rollout tight.

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Sean Flannigan

Sean is the Senior Editor for The Retail Exec. He's spent years getting acquainted with the retail space, from warehouse management and international shipping to web development and ecommerce marketing. A writer at heart (and in actuality), he brings a deep passion for great writing and storytelling to retail topics big and small.