Shopping Carts, Merchant Accounts, Payment Gateways, Credit Cards
Processing & Third Party Payment Processors in Small Business Ecommerce
A Quick Guide to Third-Party Credit Card Processors
(c) Copyright 2002, Angela Wu
If you've ever looked into getting your own merchant account, you
already know how expensive it can be. Application fees, setup fees,
standard monthly fees, transaction fees... they all add up fast!
It can be too much for a business that's just getting started.
There is an alternative. Third-party credit card processing companies
handle your credit card transactions for you in return for a cut
of your profits. Setup is typically either free, or there's a small,
one-time fee.
Here's here it works: once you've applied and/or been approved and
paid any applicable setup fees, you create ordering links for your
products. These ordering links lead to the third-party processor's
server, where they handle orders on your behalf. Credit cards and
online checks are common ordering options provided by third-party
processors. Some also offer a telephone ordering option.
After your customer places an order, that sale is automatically
credited to you, minus the company's commission. You are paid by
the third-party processor at regular intervals, according to their
pay schedule.
So what's the big deal? Why would third-party processors appeal
to startup businesses? Aside from the setup fee, you are only ever
charged IF and WHEN you make a sale. If you don't sell anything,
you're not charged anything.
Here are a few things to consider when researching third- party
processors:
READ MORE . . .
eBook Review
The Shopping Cart Report
by Dr. Ralph F. Wilson
213 pages (PDF file 1537k)
$34.95
http://wilsonweb.com/ebooks/carts.htm
eShopping Carts: Comparing Apples, Oranges and Tuna Fish!
or Make a Grocery List Cause You're Gonna Need One!
or All That Food and I'm Still Not Satisfied!
by Mike Banks Valentine
Have you ever bought a book, then plopped down on a pillow on the
couch with a cup of coffee and some snacks ready to devour that
books' contents, sip some French Roast and munch biscotti? Maybe
it's Folgers and Doritos at the computer screen in this case as
you open up Adobe Acrobat reader and Dr. Ralph Wilson's ebook "The
Shopping Cart Report".
Either way you've gone shopping and when you put that bag of rich,
fresh and aromatic French Roast whole-bean coffee in your empty
shopping cart, you've put a physical object into another before
moving down the bakery isle to the fresh dark-chocolate coated Biscotti
and put another physical object into a cart.
Online, both of your products are simply bits and bytes and the
shopping cart is complex software hosted on a remote web server
somewhere off in cyberspace. So whether you'll be buying that shopping
cart software and having it installed on your own web server or
simply using an existing cart hosted on some other secure server,
you will be using shopping cart software to sell your products or
services online.
READ MORE . . .
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You'll Die Without Credit Cards!
by Mike Banks Valentine
A major issue for small business is finding a reasonably priced
option for an online Merchant Account so that they can accept credit
cards for instant "real-time" approval of online payments.
Small businesses are finding the routine charges of up to $150 monthly
to be out of line based on their small sales volume. There are "free"
services for this like Yahoo Stores and Amazon zShops. Or the pay-per-transaction
model used by ccNow.com which takes ten percent of each sale. The
basic issue is that online sales are driven by credit cards and
if someone is forced to print a form and mail a check, then wait
for their merchandise, they are likely to go elsewhere . . . FAST.
So this issue troubles many new online merchants.
Hosting a shopping cart program on a site without the secure server
opens you up to huge liability from your own customers and it is
unlikely that your Merchant Bank will allow it anyway. This is a
major issue for small businesses online and is frustrating many
small operators trying to operate with minor online sales.
The expenses aren't justified by the income. The major player in
online Merchant accounts is Authorize.net and the application fee
alone is a barrier to most businesses - $450, plus about $50 monthly
in statement fees plus software leases averaging $25 monthly for
4 years!
The same is true of companies like Charge.com that offer Merchant
accounts without the large appplication fee, but don't tell you
up front about the software lease fees and statement fees in their
promotional materials.
READ MORE . . .
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