It is the perfect solution for online retailers who sell subscriptions or physical products on a monthly basis: direct debit in your webshop. Nowadays it is also possible to use direct debit via iDeal in your webshop through various payment providers. What are the advantages of direct debit and how do you implement this in your webshop?
Important trends surrounding direct debit
We see two important trends surrounding direct debits:
- The direct debit phenomenon is becoming more accepted by consumers. While recurring automatic payments had long been the most normal thing in the world (often via credit cards), Europe was still a bit behind. Due to the arrival of the business models of Netflix, Spotify and Apple iCloud – and the success of these services – we have started to use and accept direct debits more.
- More and more payment providers (PSPs) including Mollie, Buckaroo and Stripe support direct debits (recurring payments) with iDeal.
This makes selling subscriptions online and having the financial settlement done via your webshop light years closer.
Direct debit contract with the bank or via PSP?
When you get started with direct debit, you can arrange this directly with your bank or you can join a PSP that has already arranged everything for you. The latter is preferable because applying for a direct debit contract is a complicated procedure at a bank. The bank views direct debits as 'loans' because customers who order something with direct debits have the right to reverse the direct debit within 56 days. Because it is a loan, the bank imposes limits on the total number of direct debits that can be made and the maximum amounts per direct debit. This entire process takes a lot of time. And once you have a contract, you still have to come up with a system with which you can collect money via your site.
It is more convenient and faster to arrange direct debits via a PSP. The risk of reversal remains of course, but activating direct debits via a PSP is much faster. And more importantly: the PSP has the technical infrastructure to start with recurring payments!
Registered with a PSP, what now?
If you have an account with a PSP and you have activated iDeal and direct debits (SEPA), you can get started. In some cases you can get by with standard plugins or modules that these PSPs have available for WordPress or Magento, for example. For example, Van Ons contributed to the implementation of direct debits in Mollie's WordPress plugin. You will then be up and running in a few hours.
In most cases you prefer to use the API that the PSP has made available directly. You then have more freedom to process the direct debits the way you want. You are not bound by plugins and the way they prescribe that you should handle direct debits. You can then optimally connect the use of direct debits with iDeal to your back-end and back-office. Van Ons is happy to help you implement this! Please feel free to contact us to discuss the options.
Would you like more information and detailed cases regarding direct debits? Bas van der Lans wrote about it on his blog: https://basvanderlans.nl/ecommerce-donaties-automatische-incasso/