Since March 2020, hundreds of thousands of businesses across the United States have closed permanently. Yet applications for new businesses simultaneously skyrocketed, with more than 4.3 million applications submitted in 2020. That’s an increase of about 24% over 2019, and it marks the largest number of new business applications submitted in a year dating back to 2004.

The businesses that have weathered the pandemic and those that are just getting off the ground have shifted their operations to an online, e-commerce format. But that shift to e-commerce creates other considerations — including the need for speedy and secure payment processing. For many small businesses just beginning to explore e-commerce, a payment service provider (PSP) can make a world of difference.…