It’s no secret that online shopping has been growing in popularity for years. In today’s fast-paced society, online shopping is convenient and typically hassle-free, especially if merchants have reliable payment gateway services. Before this rise in popularity for payment gateway services, chargeback credit card problems were more frequent, as was fraud. Today, payment gateway services keep chargeback credit card issues and fraud at a minimum and offer a secure way to make transactions online. Payment gateways also allow businesses to be in charge of their online sales, instead of having to rely on third-party platforms at risk for security breaches.

Just how popular is online shopping, though, and why? According to a 2015 report by Statista, oftentimes there are incentives for purchasing items in bulk online, especially expensive items. In fact, the typical US shopper spends about $78 per order! Shoppers are also knowledgeable about where to look for products they want to buy. For example, an impressive 48 percent of consumers know which online stores to shop at. And even if consumers don’t plan on buying an item right away, 50 percent of millennials regularly browse or window shop online, only buying items they deem necessary.

Like it or not, online shopping is convenient, which is a big reason why it’s so popular. Because of its popularity, merchants are expected to offer mobile or online stores where consumers can shop. Additionally, about 50 percent of digital consumers expect to be able to make mobile payments. This brings us back to the importance of secure payment gateways. After all, credit card fraud costs consumers more than $8 billion each year in the US, and 12 percent of fraud result from making online purchases.

Unsecured payment gateways are also susceptible to data breaches. In 2014, 54 percent of breaches were related to identity and credit card information theft. Fortunately, many secure apps already have data encryption techniques in place to protect consumers. The 256bit encryption common to these apps is difficult for even experienced hackers to hack. That being said, to decrease the chance of fraud issues and chargeback credit card problems, implementing secure payment gateways must be a priority for businesses across the board.