In today’s digital economy, where companies rely heavily on online transactions, payment security is no longer an option, it is essential. Cybercrime numbers are rising worldwide and data breaches are gradually becoming more sophisticated. Hence, protecting customer payment information has become crucial for companies. That’s where Payment Tokenization comes in!
Payment Tokenization is a robust security technique intended to protect sensitive payment data and reduce the risk of fraud. But what is tokenization, how does it help companies secure payment data, and why should businesses care about it?
In this blog, we’ll break down payment tokenization in simple terms, explore how it works, talk about its benefits, and explain how your business can use it through MakeWebBetter’s FormPay, a secure payment solution for HubSpot users.
What is Payment Tokenization?
Payment tokenization is the process of replacing sensitive payment information like credit card numbers, CVV codes, and bank account details with a randomly generated string of characters, known as a ‘token’. This token holds no value and can’t be reverse-engineered to retrieve the original data.
What makes it 100% safe from cyber criminals? Well, even if a hacker were to get their hands on a token during a transaction, they wouldn’t be able to extract any useful payment information. That’s because the actual payment data is stored securely in a PCI-compliant token vault, separated from that transaction’s ecosystem.
Payment Tokenization vs Encryption
- While encryption scrambles data using a specific key (which can potentially be cracked), tokenization in payments removes sensitive data entirely from the transaction environment.
- Even if your system is compromised, the data remains useless to cybercriminals in a tokenized transaction. So, all their hard work goes to waste and your payment data stays safe.
How Does Payment Tokenization Work?
So, how does payment security tokenization work during each transaction? Let’s walk you through a simple example showing how it helps secure payment data and boost customer trust.
- A customer enters their payment details during checkout.
- The payment processor generates a token, which replaces the actual card data.
- This token is then returned to your systems and stored for future use (e.g., one-click checkout, subscriptions).
- The customer’s real payment data is stored securely offsite in a token vault maintained by the payment processor.
- For any transactions in the future, the said ‘token’ is used instead of the actual card number, making every interaction secure and PCI-compliant.
At no point does your system handle or store the actual card information, ensuring maximum payment data security. This drastically reduces your risk exposure and compliance burdens on businesses. Companies save a lot of time, money, and energy to focus on boosting their brand.
Why Payment Tokenization Can Be a Game-Changer for Businesses?
Reduces Cost Of Potential Data Breaches
The average cost of data breaches reached a whopping $4.88 million in 2024, registering a 10% increase from the year prior. And traditional payment systems store customer data in-house, creating a high-value target for hackers. However, credit card tokenization saves no valuable payment data on the servers. So, even if hackers somehow breach your system and get in, they don’t get their hands on anything useful. As a result, you reduce the cost you can potentially suffer due to a data breach.
Reduce PCI Compliance Burden
Businesses that handle credit card data must comply with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS). Tokenization in payments significantly reduces the scope of PCI compliance because you’re not storing or processing raw card data. Moreover, this not only saves time but also slashes the cost of compliance.
Quicker Transactions
When your business uses techniques like credit card tokenization, each transaction is sped up. That’s because it reduces the need for additional security checks, which is not the case with traditional payment methods. This means ensuring businesses can secure payment data and speed up operations at the same time. And in a world where buyers have hundreds of options to choose from, swift and hassle-free payments can set your company apart.
Enable Safe and Swift Payments with FormPay
Enhanced Customer Trust
When you use security techniques like tokenization in payments, customers feel safe while doing business with you. And guess what? They also realize that your business cares about their data, which boosts their trust in your brand.
Omni-Channel Payment Data Security
When employing traditional payment methods, businesses require separate security measures for each transaction channel. While tokenization in payments offers a robust and unified level of security across channels like online or mobile transactions, or even in-store payments.
In the age of smartphones, businesses can also employ mobile payment tokenization for seamless, on-the-go transactions.
Common Myths About Payment Tokenization
Despite its benefits, some myths still linger around tokenization for credit card and payment tokenization. Let’s clear a few up:
“Tokenization and Encryption Are the Same”
False.
While both secure data, encryption transforms data using an algorithm that can be decrypted. Conversely, tokenization removes the original data entirely, replacing it with a meaningless string (as we discussed above).
“Only Large Enterprises Need Tokenization”
Not at all.
Small and mid-sized businesses are often more vulnerable to cyberattacks and can benefit the most from tokenization. It offers enterprise-grade security at an affordable cost. And SMBs need to boost customer trust more than huge enterprises (who already seem to have gained significant customer loyalty).
“Tokenization Slows Down Transactions”
Quite the opposite.
Tokenization streamlines processes like recurring billing and saved payments, speeding up checkout and enhancing customer satisfaction. This also lowers the number of unhappy customers due to payment hassles.
Where FormPay Comes In: Secure Payments Inside HubSpot
Now that you know what security tokenization in payments is and why it’s important, let’s move on to an even better solution that can safeguard your payment data inside HubSpot while providing several other super-useful functionalities.
Let’s now talk about HubSpot FormPay Integration by MakeWebBetter
What is FormPay?
FormPay by MakeWebBetter is a HubSpot-integrated payment app that allows you to collect payments directly through HubSpot forms securely, efficiently, and with full payment tokenization security and support.
It’s designed for businesses that want to combine customer data, CRM workflows, and payments in one powerful platform, all while ensuring security and compliance. Want to know more reasons why you should consider it? Let’s talk about this apps’ benefits one by one.
Why Choose FormPay?
Built-In Payment Tokenization
FormPay by MakeWebBetter effortlessly replaces sensitive payment data with tokens during every transaction, ensuring that your systems never store actual card details.
This protects your business and helps you secure payment data of your customers. And when the threat of costly data breaches isn’t hovering like a sword over your business, peace of mind is guaranteed, isn’t it?
Seamless HubSpot Integration
No need to jump between platforms. With HubSpot FormPay Integration, you can:
- Collect payments via HubSpot forms, deals, contacts, and quotes.
- Trigger post-transaction workflows to keep buyers engaged and the data updated.
- Manage all your customer and payment data in one place. Furthermore, this also gives you options to offer rewards to loyal customers and make them brand advocates.
Supports One-Click Payments AND Subscriptions
Tokenization in payments enables recurring billing options, as well. It offers a dedicated tab for subscription payments, making it easy to manage recurring payments. As for the checkout experience for your customers? It remains lightning-fast to ensure maximum customer satisfaction.
Supports Multiple Payment Gateways
Blurring international borders in payments and making transactions seamless, FormPay by MakeWebBetter supports several payment gateways. These include Stripe, PayPal, Amazon Pay, Adyen, RazorPay, Authorize.net, and PayU. This allows companies to go global and sell to buyers across the world.
Simplifies PCI Compliance
FormPay is built with security best practices and compliance in mind, helping your business stay within PCI DSS guidelines effortlessly. Also, with the in-built payment tokenization security option, the financial burden of PCI compliance is reduced for your business.
Tokenization and PCI compliance go hand-in-hand because of the amount of financial and operational burden the former lifts from your shoulder. Furthermore, it gives you time to focus on growing your business better.
FormPay for Centralized and Secure Payments
In a world where digital threats are constantly evolving, ensuring payment data security is imperative to every business. Moreover, payment tokenization security is one of the most effective ways to ensure that sensitive data never falls into the wrong hands.
However, implementing it in payments doesn’t have to be complex. With FormPay by MakeWebBetter, you can enjoy the benefits of secure, tokenized payment processing directly inside your HubSpot CRM.
Whether you’re selling products, collecting donations, or billing for services, FormPay makes sure your transactions are not only smooth and efficient but secure from start to finish. So, what are you waiting for? Your customers care about their data payment data. Now, let your brand show them that you do, too.