The Payment Gateway: Never an Afterthought in E-commerce

E-commerce is booming in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. E-commerce transactions using Mada cards have increased 73.4% year-on-year, reaching SAR 27.55 billion (around $7.34 billion) by March 2025. Mada is a debit card network initiated and owned by the Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) to facilitate contactless online and onsite cashless payments.

This level of Mada card utilization hints at an even bigger e-commerce market when you add e-commerce transactions completed via other networks, such as Visa and MasterCard. There are excellent e-commerce opportunities, indeed, but it requires a payment gateway in Saudi Arabia that will enable you to accept cashless and card transactions easily and seamlessly.

Why the Payment Gateway Is Important

How much of the SAR 27.55 billion sales mentioned above went to your e-commerce store’s coffers? The answer would be zero, zilch, nada if you didn’t have a payment gateway.

Would you still have sales? Of course. However, they would be significantly less than if you could accept digital payments directly on your e-commerce shop.

“What? I’d have to transfer the payment to your bank account (which I might get wrong) and await your confirmation that you received my payment. Never mind,” is what one customer might say if they couldn’t pay for their purchase directly on your online store. “What if I’m not home? Better find another seller,” might be a would-be customer’s recourse if you accept only cash on delivery.

This is how important having a payment gateway is. The lack of it can break a done sale, and every sale withheld costs you money.

It also doesn’t stop with having a payment gateway. You need something reliable, particularly one that provides a seamless payment experience to you, the seller, and your customers.

What Makes a Seamless Payment Experience for Customers

When deciding on a payment gateway for digital payments, you must pick one that provides an easy and intuitive payment experience for customers. Remember this if you’re setting up a store on an e-commerce platform, and pick a platform that has a stellar reputation for the way it handles payments for its e-commerce store owners.

The following are the hallmarks of a good payment gateway measured by the customer experience yardstick:

• Fast checkout: Once a customer clicks checkout, they want fewer clicks and steps, a clear payment flow, and minimal data entry. The benchmark is allowing a customer to slide a switch to pay using the card stored on their device.
• Trust signals: Make sure the payment gateway is not only secure but also looks and feels like it, with visible security badges, local payment options, and other such signals.
• Mobile-first design: Mobile-first design means the payment page renders correctly, beautifully, and functionally on mobile phones. Saudi shoppers are mobile-first users.
• Clear results and error handling: The payment system must indicate progress and clearly show results. If successful, what’s the subsequent step? If the payment fails, what will happen, and what should the customer do next? Never leave customers guessing!
• Transparent pricing: Your payment page should itemize what the customer is paying for. There must be no hidden fees or surprise costs at checkout. For international stores, the currency at checkout must match the currency used while shopping. A customer wouldn’t want to shop in SAR but pay in USD or AED.

What Makes a Seamless Payment Experience for E-commerce Stores

The payment gateway should also make it easy for e-commerce stores to accept and manage customer payments. Here are features to look for in your payment gateway:

• Unified dashboard: You must have a dashboard that provides a snapshot of all customer payment transactions. You should be able to track payments, refund requests, disputes, and settlements from one place.
• Multi-currency and multi-language support: Especially for cross-border sellers serving the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) or global markets, your dashboard must provide an easy way to toggle between currencies (and languages), maybe even classify payments into various currency baskets.
• Easy reconciliation and reporting: It would be great if your payment tracking dashboard had built-in report-generation tools, particularly ones that follow established accounting standards. This would save you time spent on administrative tasks.
• Integration-friendly: A payment system that you can readily connect with or integrate into your enterprise resource planning (ERP), inventory, or customer relationship management (CRM) systems can be a great asset, ensuring smooth data and information flow among distinct processes.
• Reliable fraud detection and risk management: It’s essential that your payment gateway has built-in fraud detection and security features. It can automate blocking fraudulent transactions or flag them for your review.

A Payment Gateway for Your E-commerce Store

What’s the experience a customer expects from an e-commerce shop? They add items to their shopping basket or cart, click check out, and pay using their bank account, e-wallet, debit card, or credit card. They then receive confirmation that their payment and order have been received and their items will be packed and will soon be on their way.

The online payment gateway sits at the middle of this workflow, so you must choose a payment system that enables seamless payment experiences for you and your customers.