So many businesses these days have an online shopping cart to compliment their bricks and mortar business. In fact with the nature of the internet the number of individuals making money from their online pursuits has skyrocketed in recent years. It seems to be a similar pattern that the use of credit cards online has exploded during this time. Simply put, if you operate any type of online business whereby customers will be buying something from you, you need to be able to accept credit card online payments. No matter the nature of your business you can surely guarantee that your competitors will be accepting credit card payment online.
Why Accept Credit Card Online
- An added convenience for your customers
- Increase the chance of impulse buying from your site
- Keep up or surpass what your competitors are offering
- Allows customers to buy from you wherever they are in the world, whatever currency they have, and whatever time zone they are in
- Accepting credit card payment online basically allows your “shop” to be open 24/7.
How To Accept Credit Card Online Payments
There are two main methods of accepting online credit card payment:
- Setting up and using your own merchant account:
This process will vary depending where you are in the world, but essentially means finding a bank that allows merchant accounts. Local banks would be able to provide this information. Generally a larger, more established business, making many transaction will be better suited to a merchant account. While these can cost more to initially setup, usually they are cheaper to operate if the online transactions are numerous, and can give a more professional “appearance” to your web business. - Using a Third Party Merchant:
This type of setup for accepting credit card payment online is also know as a “payment gateway”. There are a stack of companies who will accept credit card payment on your behalf then transfer it to your account. Payment for these services is usually by way of either a monthly fee, a per transaction fee, or a percentage of the transaction. Usually a payment gateway is much easier to setup and the initial setup costs are less. Using a payment gateway to accept credit card payment online will be better suited for the online business not making large numbers of transaction, or who is just “testing” the waters.
If you choose to accept credit card online payments, using one method over another will depend on your budget, your requirements, the number of transactions made, and the size of your business.
Some Payment Gateways for Accepting Credit Card Payments Online
- PayPal.com – extremely easy to setup and reasonably priced transactions fees.
- Authorize.net – a big player in this industry.
- CCBill.com
- Google Checkout
- Amazon’s Webstore
- CCNow.com
These are just some examples of payment gateways to accept credit card online payments. There are literally thousands of companies operating in this field, but dominated by a dozen or so. All offer varying establishment and ongoing fees, with many offering no fee setup. I haven’t included the fees associated with the above payment gateways because they tend to vary depending on the number of transactions you will make among other things (also their terms and fees will intermittently change).
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