Lessons from the Square 2023 Outage: Foolproof Your eCommerce Store

The 2023 Square outage will be remembered as a cautionary tale for online businesses worldwide. For nearly a full 24 hours countless physical and online stores were unable to process transactions, leading to a significant drop in sales that might never be recouped.

It served as a stark reminder of the importance of diversifying your eCommerce shop’s payment systems.

In this retrospective, I’ll delve into the importance of having multiple payment gateways for your eCommerce website and guide you in selecting the best gateways tailored for your business.

1. What is an e-commerce gateway?

In the simplest terms, an eCommerce gateway is a service that authorizes and processes credit card payments.

The most prominent examples are:

1. Stripe
2. Square
3. and PayPal

Beyond that you’ll likely see an entire plethora of options depending on your organization type. For us, we’ve dealt with custom integrations through Authorize.net and completely bespoke.

The key here is you should be using a Gateway that’s integrated with your point of sale or sales processing stack as best as you can. This makes sure your getting the money through as streamlined as possible.

You’ll also find that vendors like Square and Stripe offer capital loans for stores that meet certain processing minimums, so that’s even more incentive to keep things native as the first line of defense.

2. The Importance of Multiple Payment Gateways

So you’ve aligned your eCommerce efforts with your primary processor. Cool. Check the box.

But what happens when that service goes down? Your shop goes with it — unless you have a back up. It’s key to diversify, and here’s why:

• Risk Distribution: Just like the 2023 Square outage, unexpected disruptions can happen. Having multiple gateways ensures that if one faces issues, you have a backup. This diversification minimizes risks and potential losses.
•  Expanded Customer Reach: Different customers have different payment preferences. Some might be comfortable with PayPal, while others might prefer Apple Pay or Google Wallet. Offering multiple options accommodates a broader range of customers.
• Improved Transaction Success Rates: Sometimes, transactions can fail due to gateway-specific issues. Having an alternative can mean the difference between a failed sale and a successful one.
• Geographical Flexibility: If you’re targeting international markets, certain payment gateways might be more popular or functional in specific regions. Multiple gateways ensure you cater to regional preferences.

3. How to Select Your Plan B, C, and D

I recommend a very formula for eCommerce processor backups:

If you’re using Square:

• Stripe as Plan B. Keep it turned off until you need it.
• PayPal as Plan C or an additional option.

If you’re using Stripe:

• Square as Plan B. Keep it turned off until you need it.
• PayPal as Plan C or an additional option.

If you’re using Toast:

• Stripe as Plan B. Keep it turned off until you need it. Toast and Square run on similar infrastructures. When Square was down, so was Toast in this instance.
• PayPal as Plan C or an additional option.

Lastly, what if all of these are down?

• Have an offline processing option that can collect info for later processing. Once again, I don’t recommend having this activated unless it’s absolutely needed. You want to get the cash if you can.

4. Have It Set Up — in Advance

Don’t wait until the next payment processing crisis to have these things set up.

Setting up multiple Gateways requires a little effort and at least a few business days from start to receiving money.

Take this as your call to action to make it happen now. Or, when you’re building your website out next time, be sure it’s part of your strategy.

In Conclusion:

The 2023 Square outage was a wakeup call for many online businesses. It emphasized the importance of always having a Plan B.

By selecting and integrating multiple, reliable payment gateways, online businesses can ensure they’re always prepared, no matter the unforeseen challenges that come their way.

If you need a hand, we’re here to help. We’re a full-service design and development agency who can get you ready for Judgement Day.

• Reach out here to get the conversation started today