The whole point of an e-commerce website is to make you money. So one of the principal things is that your sites need to have the capability of accepting payment. The most straightforward means of paying online is with a credit card. For your website to have the ability to receive credit card payments, you will have to open a merchant account. Here are some of the more natural ways to get your online store set up so you can accept payments and start making money selling your goods and services.
The easiest way to set up payments on your e-commerce website is with the use of open source e-commerce scripts. Typical examples of these are zen-cart and oscommerce shopping carts. You can quickly get these scripts set up with your web hosting and thereby have the opportunity to collect credit card payments.
You have two choices for accepting payments. You can receive these payments directly from your website, or you can have your customers routed to another site (called a gateway website) where they will make their payment. The option you choose has a lot of dependency on your budget. But if you are trying to reach a broader target and you have the capital you will want to start out with both options. If you are concerned about your budget, then a third party merchant will be the most affordable option as well as it will be one of the most comfortable options for you to choose from. The most popular third-party currently is PayPal, but they are not your only option. You can also select from 2checkout payment processing or VeriSign payment processing. There may be other options as well that will meet your needs better and help you to reach an international target market as well.
When you choose a third-party merchant, the customer is provided with a link that takes them to the third party. They then make their payment on that third party website before returning to your e-commerce website. When choosing third-party merchants though you may want to pick a merchant that will help you reach a target market in a different part of the world you want to ensure that you choose a trustworthy provider. If you are finding no fee or low fee options they may not be the best options at all. Stick with more reputable providers to keep yourself safe and to keep your customers safe; an evil third party merchant can ruin your reputation so beware.
If you haven’t started your e-commerce website as yet, you may want to find a web hosting provider that provides you with a package that includes a merchant account to be integrated into your e-commerce store. One such option is ixwebhosting. This is especially true if this is your first venture into the world of website creation. Get the experts to design your website from start to finish and to have your payment integration done as well. This way you can be confident when you start to market your store knowing that customers will be able to pay for their products and services in the most convenient manners for making payments online.
