Importance and Intricacies of Testing the integration of Payment Gateway
Considering the importance of a payment gateway for any e-commerce platform in today’s time, the information here may be extremely useful. The intricacies of a payment gateway integration with an e-commerce platform include a lot more than it being able to validate and accept transactions online. Various factors go into consideration for the same.
Be it any e-commerce platform, if it wishes to receive payments online, it needs a payment gateway with robust services to offer. It is also imperative to understand the payment options that are available with a payment gateway.
What is Payment gateway testing and why do we need it?
Every payment gateway needs to be tested in order to provide seamless and comfortable online transactions. It needs to approve or disapprove transactions instantly, as it can cause a problem for merchants and in turn, can affect the sales directly. Testing of the payment gateway involves different aspects such as connectivity, security, encryption, etc.
From the customer’s point of view, the online transaction process should be so smooth, that he/ she only needs to click the button and get the transaction done without interruption in second. But from the merchant’s point of view, he needs to ensure that the complete transaction process is working fine along with its sub components.
The testing of payment gateway integration allows the merchant to check and evaluate all the entities that take part in the online transaction. It also helps him to determine that the chosen system is, in fact, the best fit for the customers.
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Types of testing required
Functional Testing – While testing the integration of payment gateway, testing its functionality should be the top priority. While checking the functionality, consider these points:
- Display and working of all the listed payment methods (like cards, net banking, etc.)
- Language and currency format
- Notification after the unsuccessful transaction (via message or mail) – for both customer and merchant
- Notification after the successful transaction (via message or mail) – for both customer and merchant
- Redirecting customers back to the website after checkout and confirmation of the payment.
Integration Testing – The next important and crucial point to test is integration testing. This covers the verification of the merchant’s website/online store integration with the payment gateway.
Consider these points to verify the integration:
- connection of payment gateway to the correct bank/fs
- seamless and uninterrupted communication to and fro from banking server
- Transaction processing for the described amount of money and currency format
- Successful transaction processing of the entire process in the correct order
A simple procedure can be followed to check these points:
- Place an order.
- Check if funds get credited in the merchant’s account.
- Verify if the transaction can be refunded.
Performance Testing – Once the integration and functional testing are done, next is performance testing. It is extremely essential for the website to deliver smooth performance. The payment gateway integrated with the website should achieve the desired performance benchmarks considering the following points.
- Configuration of load balancing components.
- Memory, network server and space for proper functioning.
- Working across different environments.
- Performance while several users are trying to complete transactions at the same time.
Database testing – One of the important aspects of the online transaction process is the trust of the customers. It is extremely important that as a merchant, you should assure your customers that the details they provide you for transactions will be managed properly. Database testing incorporates the following points:
- Management and security of customer’s personal details (if taken any).
- Management and security of customer’s banking details (if taken any).
- Proper format of information stored in the database.
- Accessibility of stored information in the database.
Security Testing – Online transaction needs a customer to provide sensitive information like credit card number, CVV, etc. It is difficult to keep such information secure and safe from cyber-attacks. Thus security testing should be taken very seriously
- Implementation of authorization management.
- SSL certificate.
- Implementation of safety access points.
- Encrypted storage of sensitive information.
- Safety from cross-site scripting, spoofing, etc.
Things to keep in mind before starting Payment Gateway testing
Before you begin testing keep these things ready-
- Payment Gateway documentation
- Payment Gateway documentation with error codes
- A payment processor sandbox.
- A proper test data for the dummy credit card number
- Collect payment gateway information like Google Wallet, Paypal or else
- Collect payment gateway document with error codes
And make sure that you understand,
- Payment gateway terminology
- How payment gateway session works
- Parameters of the payment gateway application
- Transaction entries in the database (if you have database access)
Don’t forget to take a note on:
- How payment gateway behaves after a successful transaction
- How payment gateway behaves after a failed transaction
- The response of payment gateway to the merchant and the customer after successful transaction
- The response of payment gateway to the merchant and the customer after a failed transaction
- Console during the transaction.
Testing the payment gateway integration
For testing the integration, there needs to be an understanding of the core of “a payment gateway”, and for that, one must understand its working.
Now, as the working of a 3D secure payment gateway is clear, we can move to testing the integration of a payment gateway with the mobile application (e-commerce platform). For making sure of seamless transactions, a QA (Quality Assurance) analyst does a thorough study.
It is the study of all API documentation across the payment gateway, which enlists the response codes and the way to perform testing across them with each test card. Since the documentation carries entire vital information required to test the integration, it is very important to have a QA Analyst study it thoroughly.
Test cards are required for Testing different available cards and the response codes associated with them. To unveil the integration level between a payment gateway and an application (e-commerce platform), one can verify the response at both the application end as well as payment gateway end.
For example, if the testing across the card reveals response code detailing as insufficient funds available or expired code, then the same response should be displayed on the payment gateway dashboard. There should be no mismatch, like the display of “payment confirmation” at the application end while it is showing “failed due to insufficient funds/expired code”, etc. at the payment gateway end.
In case of such a mismatch, the end-user will get the wrong information and thus, it should be resolved. There can be different response codes for different payment gateways, and hence, every payment gateway must ensure proper integration for clarity at both ends.
Validation of 3D Secure Payments
By now, it is quite clear that integration between the application and payment gateway holds great importance. Alongside this, it is as important to understand the implications of 3D secure payments and its validation.
Since 3D secure payments authenticate the cardholder (reduce the likelihood of fraud) with its issuing bank, it is of utmost importance to make sure it works smoothly. Some payment gateways do not require the implementation of 3D secure payments separately.
If a payment gateway implements 3D secure payments separately, it is required to test that as well. This is imperative to make sure that 3D secure-enabled cards work without any interruption with the 3D secured payment gateway.
Embedded Payment Form
In the case of embedded payment options, User Interface (UI), Validations and Security checks are required from application end and thus, testing happens for the same.
For validations, testing of card numbers, CVV and validity checks takes place.
For testing the proper functioning of UI, it is extremely imperative to test the embedded forms in multiple browsers and devices like mobile phones.
For testing the security of the application, it is important to verify whether the application is safe enough for storing several card details or not.
Since the technology is advancing at such a rapid rate, it is the need of the hour to make sure that the integration is thoroughly tested from the functional as well as security aspects.
Customers or end-users seem to remain loyal to the platforms that provide them with a seamless experience with regard to making payments as well. Hence, this testing is extremely imperative to maintain customer loyalty.
Furthermore, in today’s time, increased competition has left no room for flawed activities especially with regard to transactions. Every end-user expects to witness no fraud while making payment.
Having said that, it is crucial to keep in mind that a deeply driven test of integration between an application and payment gateway is the key to sustaining!
A short Checklist
- Format and message after successful transaction
- Format and message after a failed transaction
- Redirect to the webpage after successful transaction
- Buffer time and page while redirection
- What happens if the payment gateway language is changed during the payment process
- What happens if payment gateway stops responding
- What happens in the backend while payment gets processed
- What happens when payment session ends
- Is every payment option is selectable and does it work
- Does the payment gateway defaults to the desired debit/credit card
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