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Taking
Payments Online
by Jason
Baird
There are 3 main
things to deal
with here. You
have:
-Bank Account
-Internet
merchant account
or payment
processor
-Gateway
The bank account
need not be
special. The
payment
processor can
put the money
into any
account.
The payment
processor or
internet
merchant account
is just that. If
you already take
credit cards,
you can just
call up your
credit card
processor and
tell them you
intend to take
credit cards
over the
internet. They
charge a higher
rate or % of
sales for their
services since
internet sales
are a bit more
risky than card
present
transactions. If
you don't have a
merchant
account, you
need to get one.
The Gateway is
the company that
provides a more
front end part
of the whole
process. They
take the cards
that are
submitted to
them and then
you usually have
to batch or
manually tell
them to charge
the credit card.
If shipping
product you
shouldn't
process it until
you have shipped
the product.
Help setting up
your web site to
submit the data
to the gateway
company is
usually what you
need a web
developer for.
He can set it up
so that the info
submitted on
your website
ends up at the
gateway site.
A fourth thing
to possibly deal
with the is the
shopping cart. A
shopping cart is
only needed when
you have
multiple
products for
sale and a user
puts them into
their virtual
"shopping cart."
The cart is what
keeps track of
what they order,
the total price
and charging
sales tax if
applicable. If
the order is
coming from the
same state in
which you have
any brick and
mortars stores,
usually tax
applies.
A cart would not
be needed if you
just need a page
where people can
submit money
online to you
via credit card.
Other ways of
accepting money
online that are
popular are
electronic
checks.
Jason Baird
MBA, business
owner AND web
geek
jason@weboutsourcing.com
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