Online Payments

You have something to sell and you want to be able to accept payments over the Internet. The best way, of course, is to have an online payment capability that allows customers to pay by credit card or even by check while they are connected to your site.

This capability is really "step two" of the process. "Step one" is providing your online customers with a "shopping cart". The shopping cart allows your online customer to select items you offer and place them in a shopping cart, just like they would if they were shopping in a real store.

The shopping cart is a software system that keeps track of the items a customer selects and the presents the items at the checkout. The checkout is where your online payment software interacts with the customer to gather personal and credit card information. It then verifies this information and proceeds to charge their credit card. After that, the customer is told how to obtain the products he or she selected.

Simple shopping carts for a single item are readily available. Clickbank and PayDotCom are a couple of simple methods for handling single items. To use these systems, you create a website that describes your product. On your sales page you place a link to the Clickbank and PayDotCom system. From there the customer interacts with Clickbank and PayDotCom to enter the personal and credit card information. When the sale is completed the custom is directed to a "thank you" page on your site where you describe how they can obtain their product.

More complex shopping cart and online payment software allows you to offer a number of products to your customers. Some systems allow you to "upsell" your customers.

An "upsell" occurs when a customer selects to order a products and clicks a link to the order page. But, on what seems to be an order page there is another offer. The offer described an upgraded product or another product that works in conjunction with the original product. You've heard the upsell whenever you order a burger and are asked, "Want fries with that?" The customer has the option of accepting the upsell or simple proceeding with the original order. The shopping card and online payment software work together to process whichever option the customer selects.

If you opt to go with a more complex shopping cart and online payment software solution, you may need to obtain a merchant account. A merchant account is associated with a bank account where charges to credit cards are deposited. Normally a merchant account charges a percentage of the sale for its overhead fees.

Merchant accounts can be obtained from your bank or financial institution or online.

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 buyers 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.

You should understand how the shopping cart, online payment system and merchant account all work together. Be sure to read the details of the various options to ensure that you understand how the money flows because it's your money.

We hope the following online payment resources will be valuable in your sales efforts.

If at any time your wish to communicate with us, please feel free to contact us.

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