If you are building an online shop, you will need to address the question of taking payments for orders. You can, of course, request that a check payment be sent to you in the mail. Most shopping basket software allows you to select this option when you are setting it up. If you already have an offline, bricks and mortar business, you may simply wish to accept credit card payments over the phone.
However, there are
some basic problems with these solutions and it all comes down to the way
people shop on the internet. Customers expect to be able to add items to their
basket and proceed to the checkout to pay. If they then find they must
telephone you or print out and send their order, they may simply abandon their
order and hop over to another website. Shopping online is all about convenience
and if you are unable to provide this, you may be losing customers without even
being aware of it.
So, what are your
options and what is it all going to cost? Well, the good news is you can do it
all very simply and cheaply. PayPal does not have a set-up charge and is a
large and trusted online payment processor servicing 78 million accounts
worldwide in 56 countries. Your only cost is a small percentage on each sale; a
transaction charge. Payments from your website go straight into your PayPal
account from where you can transfer amounts to your bank account with the click
of a button.
Once you sign up
with a payment processor, you can either link to their secure server from your
shopping basket facility or build 'add to basket' buttons via a simple web
query form. The html generated is then pasted next to items on your web page
and your customers will be transferred to a secure server when they go to
checkout.
Traditional
merchant accounts are normally set up through your own bank and will become
integral to your business account. Having your own merchant account gives you
the choice of many different online payment gateways. Most, however, do charge
a set-up fee, monthly fee and transaction charge. Just as you would offline, do
make sure you research any company you sign up with on the internet. Print out
and read their terms and conditions. Take particular notice of where they are
operating from, their fees, when and how you will receive your money into your
account.
Another point to
consider is the question of chargebacks. This happens when a buyer requests a
refund of an amount already paid to you. Reasons include not receiving goods
ordered or items arriving faulty, damaged or not as described. Sometimes
requests are made if the buyer’s card was used fraudulently.
If the chargeback
request is successful, your merchant payment processor will charge you a processing
fee. However, some companies will now provide you with insurance against
chargebacks inclusive in your monthly fee. It's certainly worth shopping around
for the right solution for you but knowing you have done your research will
give you some peace of mind.
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