Can you guess what part is often overlooked in optimizing an eCommerce store? Ironically, it’s the one that’s the most important to make the “commerce” part happen – payments. 

Are you planning one of the following:

  • increase your conversion rates,
  • redesign your store
  • or change your eCommerce platform?

Maybe even all three? Each of those projects will greatly benefit from choosing and correctly implementing the right payment service provider.

Online merchants often choose payment providers based on what is available out-of-the-box in their eCommerce platform, with a set-it-and-forget-it approach. When the time comes to evaluate your store performance, there are a lot of things you can do to optimize your online store for more sales and conversions.

Did you know that 25 out of 100 customers don’t finish their purchase just because the payment method they would like to use wasn’t there?

This problem might be easily resolved with implementing the right PSP in your Sylius-based eCommerce store.

What is a PSP (payment service provider)?


To put it simply, PSP is an aggregator of multiple direct payment methods. It is provided by a single vendor who serves as a technological “gate” that lets you implement and get access to a variety of payment methods at once.

Different payment methods in Sylius-based store using SyliusMolliePlugin

After successful integration, it allows your customers to choose their preferred way to pay for your goods or services. Based on your configuration, all of the enabled payment methods offered by your PSP (and, by extension, in your store) will appear at the checkout process.

Thanks to payment service providers you can accept a wide range of electronic payment methods including direct bank transfers, credit/debit cards, or e-wallets. You can also view a list of payment processors available as Sylius plugins.

But the real question is: why should you bother with implementing something that seems like an additional work for you?

How implementing a PSP may impact your business?

Actually, the time you put into integrating a PSP solution will help you save a lot of time later. It can also increase your revenue immediately upon implementation.

If you want to reduce your customers’ insecurity during the checkout process, you have to make sure that well-known and preferred payment solutions are available at your store. You can save even more time and bring results faster if you choose an experienced developer or agency that can take care of the implementation.

The main advantage of integrating your store with an online payment provider is convenience. You don’t have to go through the tedious process of implementing each and every payment method separately. 

PSP essential features (based on Mollie)

1. Easy and flexible refunds

No matter how great your products are and how well you take care of your customers, there’s one certain thing that will happen – refunds.

Refund requests can be a result of bad purchasing decisions, changing requirements, cash flow and budget issues or even a simple human error.

Even if it is not justified (logically or legally), in most cases it is actually more healthy for your business to make a refund. There’s a chance that negotiating with a dissatisfied customer will become a huge waste of your time.

It also can damage your brand’s reputation since 45% of customers are likely to share their negative experience in the form of a review on social media or dedicated review platforms.

That’s why the ability to make a fast refund is crucial. Mollie plugin for Sylius gives you the additional flexibility of making refunds from both your store admin panel and your Mollie account.

Refunds in Sylius-based store using SyliusMolliePlugin

2. Advanced payment methods configuration

Mollie is offering the most popular and convenient payment methods. It gives you access to newest and conversion-boosting payment methods, like Apple Pay with one button on product page or checkout. What is more, it allows you to make advanced configuration of the payment methods (e.g. changing its name, logo, adding restrictions per country or excluding countries).

Editing payment method in Sylius-based store using SyliusMolliePlugin

3. Flexibility in choosing where the transaction data is handled

You basically have two choices, and both can give you an advantage in certain situations. 

The first solution is gathering all the data needed to process the transaction in your store during checkout. It means adding new fields in your store’s checkout process, where your customers can fill in the required data like credit card number or CCV. It all happening inside your own domain.

Radosław Żurawski - CSO at BitBag
Get free advice on how to choose and implement a PSP in your Sylius project

While this might require some additional development, in the long run, it is the best solution. The only scenario where this might hurt your conversion rates is if your store doesn’t have a lot of credibility and customers might not feel safe enough to share their data on your website. To make the implementation as seamless as possible, Mollie offers a ready-to-use solution for this: Mollie components.

The second one is redirecting your customers to an external website owned by a payment service provider. This is often the fastest way to implement a solution offered by your chosen PSP.

One of the drawbacks is that redirecting your customers back and forth can result in losing customers, who might get distracted during the process or encounter additional technical issues.

This solution also doesn’t let you implement your own analytics to accurately measure your customers’ behavior during checkout.

4. Security handling customer data

With the rising importance of data privacy and legal regulations around the subject, it’s more important than ever to make sure your customers’ data is well protected.

The problem is that storing your customers’ sensitive data connected with payments, brings additional challenges to data maintenance and protection. To protect and process transactional data you might need even more time and budget to develop the proper solution.

Based on Mollie’s example, you don’t have to worry about setting up the whole security solution just to meet the extra requirements. All the sensitive data is processed and stored by Mollie, so you can focus on growing your business instead of worrying about formalities.

5. Recovering (almost) lost transactions with email payment links

Recovering lost transactions and abandoned carts is a very broad area. It’s also a (seemingly) easy way to increase your revenue.

When it comes to implementation though, you often need yet additional software to get started. This also raises the costs and time you need to complete your project.

With Mollie, there is no need to bother with additional solutions. After installation, you get an out-of-the-box solution called payment links.

Payment link e-mail configuration in Sylius-based store using SyliusMolliePlugin

How does it work? When your customers are not able to finish the transaction, an automatic email is sent with a customized payment link to complete the transaction.

Even better, with Mollie plugin for Sylius you can fully customize the email layout with custom HTML, CSS and built-in variables for personalization.

6. Payment error analytics

Mollie provides you with a simple tab in the admin panel called „Logger”.

As the name suggests, thanks to this feature you can get a quick overview of how payments in your store are processed. If there are any errors or you need to investigate a failed transaction, you can see it for yourself without the need to involve a developer.

List of payments’ errors in Sylius-based store using SyliusMolliePlugin

7. Payment method adjustments per country

At first, it might seem that adding as many payment methods as possible is a great idea. After all, your customers will surely find the one they are looking for, right?

Actually no, and let me tell you why. There is a known phenomenon, colloquially called „analysis paralysis”. It means that when presented with a lot of options, our ability to make a choice is significantly reduced. We basically get overwhelmed and give up.

That’s why the Mollie Sylius plugin lets you turn specific payment methods on and off for specific countries.

Excluding countries for chosen payment method in Sylius-based store using SyliusMolliePlugin

Why is this important?

Payment methods popularity may vary heavily depending on what country you operate in. Based on what are the most popular solutions, you should focus on the most important ones not to overwhelm your customers during checkout.

8. Single click checkout

Creating a convenient and fast shopping experience can easily set you apart from your competition. It’s also important to meet the ever-rising expectations of online shoppers.

Single click checkout is a great example of how you can meet those expectations. It can also significantly boost your revenue coming from repeat customers. Combined with lower acquisition cost compared to new customers

How does it work?

After your customers finish their first purchase, their credit card data is securely stored with Mollie. When they come back to your store, all they need to do is choose the next items they would like to buy and confirm the choice with a single click. No need to look for credit card and re-entering the data.

9.  Payment fee management

Some payment methods (like PayPal) come with additional fees, which usually consists of percentage of transaction value and a flat fee. By default merchants are the ones who are charged with payment fees.

It might not appear like an issue, unless your sales volume is high, your margins are low or you are selling high value goods, In such cases, fees may significantly hurt your profitability.

That’s why with Mollie you can easily add the fee to your customer’s final order value. All you have to do is to edit the payment method option in your Sylius admin panel, and set an amount that will be added to orders using the chosen payment method.

Configuring payment fee in Sylius-based store using SyliusMolliePlugin

10. Allow your customers to pay using vouchers

Gift cards or vouchers are one of the most frequently chosen gifts. Buyers may use a specific amount to but exactly what they need. So why not give them the option to use them in your eCommerce? Benefit from this and grow your sales. Good news – the functionality, called meal vouchers is available in Mollie! So, whenever your customer decides to order a meal or buys a product (depends on what your offer), form now he will be able to pay for the goods using a voucher.

Vouchers functionality in Sylius-based store using SyliusMolliePlugin

Currently, purchases are not made only online or only offline, and the purchase is a process in which the brand’s communication channels complement each other. Each purchase decision is preceded by a multi-stage product verification, starting from searching for detailed information (often on a smartphone), compiling opinions on internet forums, by comparing products and their prices on other websites, to dialogue with the brand via social media.

Like everyone, the buyer appreciates the convenience, and thanks to innovative payment methods, he can make the selected purchase just as quickly, anywhere he is and on any device with internet connectivity that he or she uses. By offering a wide range of electronic payment options, we automate sales and increase the convenience for the buyer. It is an issue that needs to be taken care of when running your eCommerce.

If you need advice when choosing a specific payment method or want to implement a specific one in your Sylius-based eCommerce – contact us. You can do it via the form below or go to this page.


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