Stripe Terminals: The New Way To Pay

by Mike Ricotta - July 3, 2019

Stripe Terminals offer a new way to accept credit cards and our developers are “buying” it.

We recently received a new Stripe Terminal Dev Kit and we are enjoying our new toy! Our developers have been relieved at how quick and easy it has been to include Stripe’s card readers with Stripe Terminals in our current environment. 

For those that are new to Stripe, here are some of the things we have learned while working with them.

**UPDATE**

Checkout Arcane Strategies Terminal for Stripe and WooCommerce Plugin. This plugin is a gateway option for a WooCommerce store that allows in-store payments using a Stripe Terminal Verifone P400. It takes advantage of the Stripe API and WooCommerce plugins to provide the functionality necessary for communicating with the terminal reader and the WooCommerce store.

What is Stripe?

Stripe is a technology company that builds economic infrastructure for the internet. Providing customers with multiple applications and platforms that give businesses accurate and up-to-date payment information.

What are Stripe’s Products?

Their applications include Radar – a fraud monitoring system. Sigma – a data analysis tool. Billing – a billing API. Atlas – a consulting toolkit for startups. Issuing – a physical and virtual card API. Their platforms include Payments – a payment accepting platform. Connect – an AP and AR platform. Stripe.js – a js library for building payment flows.

What are Stripe Terminals?

Stripe Terminal is a card reader that leverages Stripe’s API. This card reader is an extension of Stripe’s online presence for in-person checkouts. 

What are the benefits of using Stripe Terminals?

• Works seamlessly with Stripe’s Payments, Connect, and Billing integrations. 
• EMV Level 1, 2, 3 Pre-certified Stripe Card readers provide end-to-end encryption for transactions.
• Natively supports chip cards and contactless payment. (Apple Pay and Google Pay)
• Centralized Card Reader dashboard where you can monitor all connected card readers.

How Arcane Strategies uses Stripe?

We have been using Stripe for our clients to perform on-site, in-person, and subscription credit card payments. Terminal has proven to be a safe and reliable option for many point of sale systems, as well as, assist in our ongoing effort to help provide clients with useful business and customer information.

How do Stripe Terminals compare to other platforms?

Our developers have worked with Authorize.net, Braintree by Paypal, and many other merchant providers. Compared to the field, Stripe gets an overall win with:

• Pricing: With some of the lowest per-transaction fees and predictable consistent pricing across card providers, Stripe remains a highly competitive option for financially conscious decision-makers.  Their application process is quick and easy. Unlike the competition, it doesn’t require a hard credit inquiry. The Stripe user interface is an easy way to add, edit or delete customer info/credit cards and even issue invoices and subscriptions for recurring billing.
• Integrations: In addition to great features, Stripe integrates very easily.  Stripe’s “Stripe.js” embed code allows for entirely off-site credit card authorization and tokenization, completely off-loading your PCI compliance needs without transferring users off-site like PayPal would have you do.  In fact, even the embed code can be stylized and configured to your needs. Stripe’s API also works well with WordPress plugins making it easy to add Stripe to existing WordPress websites. 
• Payment Methods:  From an operations standpoint, Stripe’s versatility of payment methods makes it competitive with similar providers like PayPal by Braintree.  In addition to its robust credit card management tools, Stripe offers ACH, recurring automatic payments, and invoicing to its feature set.

If you want to learn more about Stripe or see all of their offerings, and there is a lot more to learn, take a look at Stripe’s website here. 

If you are looking for a new or better way to accept credit card payments in-store or online but don’t want to have to do it by yourself contact Arcane Strategies at stripe@arcanestrategies.com. 

We are looking forward to continuing to use Stripe for our clients’ credit card payment needs.

Interested in one of Arcane’s Stripe product offerings?

• Explore our Stripe Terminal for WooCommerce.
• You can also learn about the Arcane Virtual Terminal POS and more on our Stripe POS products page.

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