A Guide: How to Integrate to Clearent's Quest™ Payment Gateway

More and more, we see merchants coming to us with unique payment needs and opportunities. As styles of business evolve and change, leaving behind the brick and mortar standard, Clearent can help meet the demand for better digital and online payments solutions. You'll no doubt be encountering merchants who are looking for options that match their more modern methods of business, whether they have a shop online, run a non-profit, or operate out of a smaller storefront such as a food truck or pop-up booth. Having the freedom to accept payments online will vastly improve how your merchants market and sell their products.

Hosted Pages and e-Commerce Plugins

When selling to these merchants, be sure to let them know about our Hosted Payments Page and e-commerce plugins.

The benefits of a hosted payment page are endless, but the security and accessibility features will certainly appeal most to merchants that are newer to online commerce or cloud-based payments. Hosted payments are hugely successful with our non-profit and online merchants who want to provide their customers or donors with a simple and easy way to pay for one or a few items using their personal devices. We also offer the additional benefits of guaranteed PCI compliance through our integration process and give the option of page customization.

For merchants that offer a full online store or catalogue, our e-commerce plugins are a natural solution. When a merchant already has a website set up to receive payments, e-commerce plugins offer them an unprecedented ease of maintenance. They can customize their checkout process, catalog customers and track sales. We even offer the additional benefit of PCI security, since the plugin functions as a neat little extension of their shopping cart and eliminates vulnerabilities to data hacks. I like to compare it to getting TSA Precheck, it really is just that simple.

If you're looking for options better suited for software vendors or POS you could offer payment gateway integration. Clearent offers semi-integrated EMV solutions as well as fully integrated solutions.

Getting Started With Quest™ Payment Gateway Integration

I recognize that while the benefits of integration may seem pretty easy to promote, getting through the actual integration process may seem trickier to explain to new merchants. So I wanted to quickly lay out the steps for you; I think you'll find it's simpler than you thought.

Step 1: Fill out an integration request form

Your customer will need to, first and foremost, fill out Clearent's integration request form. This is mandatory, so always start with this form. It's the quickest way to get integrated and will save you and your customer a lot of trouble. When your merchant fills this out, it creates a Salesforce case for the Clearent Integrations Team to review and determine the integration scope. They'll follow up with your customer and you within 2 days.

Step 2: Receive a test kit

The Clearent Integrations Team then sends your customer a test kit; this includes necessary documentation, APIs, and a test environment for them to test their integration code. This may sound like a bit of a headache, but the kit format makes it really quick and easy to get their payments page or plugin set up. And they aren't just doing it alone - a dedicated Integration Manager will help them every step of the way.

Step 3: Finalize the code

After receiving the test kit, the Integration Manager will work closely with the merchant or developer to help them finalize and certify the code.

Step 4: Go live

When the integration code has been certified, the Integration Manager's job is done. The integration is live.

Clearent continues to get positive feedback on these baggage-free options for secure payments, and I hope by having the integration process outlined here, you feel more confident about offering these solutions to your customers. Often, just hearing that there's a simpler option out there for their unique business model will pique their interest, and you can roll from there. Good luck!