Easy Online Payments

Zoho Checkout is an online payment page builder. Think of it as a simple tool to create a webpage where your customers can pay you. It’s ideal for businesses or individuals who don’t need a full e-commerce website with a shopping cart, but rather a quick way to accept payments. Typical use cases include: a consultant or freelancer collecting service fees, a charity collecting donations, a small business selling one or a few products, or an event organizer selling tickets. If you are a UK business owner wanting to start accepting online payments as part of your digitalization journey, Zoho Checkout provides a hassle-free solution. You get a professional-looking checkout without writing code or contracting web developers.

Yes. You can set up recurring payments (subscriptions) in Zoho Checkout. For example, if you run a monthly membership or subscription service, you can configure the page to charge the customer’s card automatically at your chosen interval (weekly, monthly, yearly, etc.). As for currencies, Zoho Checkout supports multiple currencies through the payment gateways. If your Stripe account or chosen gateway supports GBP, EUR, USD, etc., you can accept payments in those currencies. Many UK businesses will primarily use GBP for domestic transactions, but if you have international customers, you can charge in their local currency and the funds will be converted via your gateway. The checkout page will display the currency symbol and amount accordingly. Keep in mind that currency support depends on the gateway’s capabilities – for instance, Stripe and PayPal both support a wide range of currencies. Zoho Checkout itself will pass the amount to the gateway, which processes the currency conversion.

Zoho Checkout gives you a few easy options to share your payment page:

• Direct Link: Every payment page you create has a unique URL. You can simply copy that link and paste it anywhere – on your website (“Pay Now” button linking to the page), in an email, or on social media posts. When customers click the link, they’ll be taken to the secure Zoho Checkout page to complete payment.
• Embed in Website: If you prefer the payment form to appear on one of your own webpages, Zoho Checkout provides an embed code (an HTML snippet). You can paste this into your website (for example, in an iframe) to display the checkout form seamlessly on your site. This way customers might not even realize they’re interacting with an external page, as it’s framed within your site’s layout.
• Button Widget: You can also generate a payment button HTML code. This is useful if you want a button on your site that, when clicked, opens the Zoho Checkout page in a pop-up or new tab. For social media or emails, usually the direct link method works best – e.g., “Click here to pay/register” which goes to your Zoho Checkout page. Svennis will guide you through these options during implementation, ensuring the payment process is convenient for your customers.

Zoho Checkout has native integrations within the Zoho ecosystem and basic webhooks for external systems. Natively, it connects with:

• Zoho Books & Invoice: when a payment is received, an invoice can be automatically created in Zoho Books, marking it paid – this is great for bookkeeping and VAT records.
• Zoho Subscriptions: if you outgrow Checkout for subscription management, Zoho Checkout can hand off to Zoho Subscriptions for more complex recurring billing needs.
• Zoho Campaigns / Mailchimp: you can link a payment page to these email marketing tools so that payers’ email addresses automatically add to your mailing list (for newsletter or drip campaigns), which is perfect for post-purchase engagement.
• Slack: with a bit of setup, Zoho Checkout can send a notification to a Slack channel whenever you receive a payment, keeping your team in the loop in real time.

Beyond these, Zoho Checkout offers webhooks (a way for the system to send an automated message to another URL when certain events happen, like a successful payment). Using webhooks or Zoho Flow (Zoho’s integration platform), Svennis can integrate Zoho Checkout with other websites or applications you use. For instance, if you have a backend database or a CRM that isn’t Zoho, we can configure a webhook to notify that system of new payments. While Zoho Checkout doesn’t have a full API for custom development, these integration points cover most needs. We’ll help ensure that when someone pays you through Zoho Checkout, all the other places that need to know – your accounts, your CRM, your email list – are updated automatically.

Zoho Checkout is intentionally a lightweight application focused on simplicity. It’s fantastic for straightforward use cases, but it does have some limitations to be aware of:

• No complex product catalog: Zoho Checkout handles simple pages mostly one product/service at a time. If you need a shopping cart with multiple items, or extensive product options, Zoho Checkout might not be sufficient. In such cases, we’d recommend Zoho Commerce or an e-commerce integration.
• Limited customization beyond branding: You can adjust colors, logo, and fields on the checkout page, but you can’t deeply alter the layout or add dynamic content. If your checkout needs are very custom, we might need to embed custom code or consider alternate solutions.
• No direct CRM integration out-of-the-box: While it integrates with Zoho Books and Campaigns, it doesn’t directly push data into Zoho CRM without using Zoho Books as an intermediary. Svennis can set up a process where each payment creates a record in Zoho CRM (via Zoho Flow or a custom script), if having that data in CRM is important for you.
• Reporting is basic: Zoho Checkout shows you payments, but it’s not a full analytics suite. If you need in-depth sales reports or customer segmentation by purchase, we might integrate Zoho Checkout with Zoho Analytics for advanced reporting. The good news is, Svennis Cloud Solutions can fill these gaps. Our team will advise you if Zoho Checkout alone is the right fit or if you might benefit from other Zoho tools. Often, we can implement a hybrid approach: use Zoho Checkout for its ease-of-use now, and later on, we help you migrate to Zoho Commerce or Subscriptions as your business grows. We ensure that you have a future-proof path. By working with us, you’re not just getting Zoho Checkout – you’re getting a partner who understands the entire Zoho ecosystem and how to make it work for your unique business model.

Svennis Cloud Solutions is a Premium Zoho Partner with deep experience in Zoho’s finance and sales applications. Here’s what that means for you:

• We have local UK expertise – we understand UK payment gateway preferences, GBP currency handling, and compliance requirements like GDPR and UK PCI standards.
• We offer an end-to-end service – from consulting on whether Zoho Checkout is right for you, to implementing it, training your staff, and providing after-launch support as you start collecting payments.
• Our team has a broad view of digital transformation. If your goal is to digitalize your business (e.g., moving from paper or spreadsheets to online systems), we can integrate Zoho Checkout with other parts of your workflow. We won’t just leave you with a siloed payment page; we make sure it ties into your customer database, email marketing, and accounting, giving you a unified system.
• We’re in it for the long haul. As your business grows or your needs change, we’ll be there to adjust your Zoho setup. Need to add a new product line with its own payment page? We can help. Decided to launch a full e-commerce site? We’ll help migrate you to Zoho Commerce and ensure continuity. Choosing Svennis means you gain a trusted advisor. We’ve helped numerous businesses across the UK and Europe successfully launch online payment solutions. We bring best practices (like how to reduce cart abandonment, how to phrase your checkout page text for clarity, etc.) and technical know-how so you avoid common pitfalls. In short, we make sure Zoho Checkout delivers real value and makes getting paid easier for you.

We follow a structured yet flexible process to get you up and running quickly:

1. Discovery: We start by discussing your requirements – what are you selling or charging for? Is it one-off payments or recurring? Do you have existing payment systems? We also identify which payment gateway(s) you want to use (Stripe is common for UK, but if you need PayPal or others, we note that).
2. Setup: Next, we help you configure the basics in Zoho Checkout. We’ll create your organization in Zoho Checkout and link it to your payment gateway account (if you don’t have one, we’ll guide you on setting up, say, a Stripe account). We ensure things like your business address, currency (GBP), and email notifications are properly set.
3. Page Creation: We design your first payment page together. This includes setting the page’s purpose (product or donation description), amount to be charged (fixed price, variable, or suggested amounts), and any custom fields you need (e.g., Reference number, or an option to choose a subscription plan). We apply your branding – uploading your logo, choosing a background or banner image if you have one, and matching the colors to your brand style. We’ll utilize Zoho Checkout’s preview feature so you can see how the page will look to customers.
4. Integration & Testing: If we are integrating with other Zoho apps (Books, CRM, Campaigns) or sending data to an external system, we set that up now. Then we run test transactions. For instance, we’ll do a £1 test payment (often gateways have a test mode as well) to ensure the end-to-end flow works – the payment goes through, you get notified, the information appears in Zoho Books or sends an email, etc. We also test failure scenarios (like card declined) to see what notifications come through and ensure you’re happy with the messaging to customers.
5. Training: We train you and your team on how to use the Zoho Checkout interface. This includes how to create or edit payment pages (so you can add more pages in the future on your own), how to interpret the dashboard (payments received, pending, etc.), and how to refund a payment if needed. We also cover how to use any integrated features – for example, checking the invoice in Zoho Books that corresponds to a payment, or confirming that a subscriber was added to Zoho Campaigns mailing list.
6. Go Live: Once testing is successful and you’re comfortable, we’ll help you deploy the payment page. This might mean embedding the link on your website (“Pay Now” buttons) or sharing it with your customers via email/social media. We stay on hand during your first few real transactions in case any adjustments are needed.
7. Post-launch Support: After going live, Svennis continues to support you. We’ll check in to ensure payments are flowing smoothly. If you encounter any questions – for example, how to export a report of payments at month-end, or how to handle a customer who wants to update their card for a subscription – you can reach out to us. We provide ongoing assistance and can also inform you of any new Zoho Checkout features or relevant Zoho apps that could benefit your business.