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Over 85% of all ecommerce transactions that take place in today's market are completed with credit cards. In order to be competitive as an online ebusiness, you will need the ability to accept credit card. Online merchant account companies offer specialized processing services that allow you to accept credit card payments for electronic transactions. Once the customer's information is received through the checkout interface of your online storefront, it is funneled through an ecommerce payment gateway for authorization. The merchant account company will then deposit collected funds into your business's savings or checking account. When selecting an account provider, it is important to consider the discount rate (the percentage of a sale that is paid to the credit card company), monthly processing charges, statement fees, and per-transaction rates.
Real-time ecommerce payment gateway In order to accept credit card, online merchant account providers utilize electronic gateways, which securely transmit credit card information from the shopping cart software to the merchant bank. A payment gateway can be one of three types: a swipe machine, desktop software, or a real-time web gateway. The traditional swipe machine is used mostly in brick and mortar stores where a sales clerk physically swipes the customer's card for transmittal to the bank for authorization. Desktop software allows the seller to key a customer's number and payment amount into a computer program designed to transmit payments in batches to a clearinghouse for authorization. A real-time web portal is the most frequently used ecommerce payment gateway, and with good reason. This type of gateway can authorize and validate a payment while the customer is still online, providing both transaction speed and efficiency.
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