Are you thinking of accepting credit cards on your website? If so, you no doubt have lots of questions. Listed below are some tips for you to consider as you investigate numerous options. Why Do It? Credit card payments allow you to take advantage of the many customers who now shop online, such as:
- Experienced online buyers – more and more people are becoming accustomed to shopping online – just look at this past Christmas season and all the problems UPS and FedEx had in delivering gifts to people before Christmas. If you don’t offer easy ways for your customers to make an online purchase, they will simply go to a different website.
- Impulse buyers – if your website has done its job, your customers should be all excited and ready to purchase products on your site. If you don’t offer them immediate purchase options, they may well have second thoughts.
- International customers – credit card payment is a tremendous convenience if customers are overseas, as it automatically takes care of the problems of currency differences as well as the time it takes for a check to travel to the vendor. You will lose a large number of overseas customers if check payment is the only option you offer.
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Methods of Accepting Credit Card Payments There are actually two ways in which you can accept credit cards on your site.
- Using Your Own Merchant Account – to do this, you’ll need a bank that will allow you to open a merchant account. Requirements for this will vary from country to country, and you should check with your local banks for more information on this.
- Use a Third Party Merchant – there are hundreds of companies that specialize in accepting credit card payments on your behalf in exchange for various fees and percentages. These are also known as “payment gateways”.
Which Method Should You Use? The initial costs of opening your own merchant account is usually higher than when you use a third party merchant. Some third party merchants have no setup fees at all. However, the transaction fee is typically much higher when you use a third party as compared to when using your own merchant account. A third party merchant is usually convenient to use when you don’t know if you can actually make much out of your product or service. If you just want to test the water to see how things are, this is usually a good way to start. It is also convenient in that the merchant takes care of everything for you.
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PayPal Of all the third party merchants, the one we most often recommend for startup eCommerce websites is PayPal. PayPal is a well-known service allows you to set up a Premier or Business account. Within the United States, charges range between 1.9% + $0.30 USD to 2.9% + $0.30 USD for each transaction. If you have any questions, please consider contacting North Texas Web Design at 972-474-7035.