ONLINE POKER MERCHANT ACCOUNT PAYMENTS FOR YOUR ECOMMERCE BUSINESS

UK is the global leader in online spending. The UK alone has done more than 42 billion pounds of business online in 2007. With such a large market existing on the internet, you will be out of business very soon if you don’t have an online store for your business. It also helps you to stay ahead of the competition and sell more products.

Most businesses that accept mail order already have some presence on the internet by having a website on the net. However, many of the companies don’t have a full fledged online retail stores to sell their products. Having an online retail store is one way to expand your business. This method is much cheaper and easier than the traditional way. Also, this mode of expansion can take place at a much faster pace and be more effective than the traditional method.

There are several decisions that you have to make before launching your online store, such as the look and feel of your website, how it will be integrated with the legacy systems, the shopping cart you want to use for your website and the most important component, what kind of online payments you want to provide your customers with.

Given below are few of your options regarding online payments.

Payment Options

The options available for online payments are intimidating for you in the beginning. You will have to find answers for several questions like; is the most important factor for your business, the Cash – Flow? Which mode will best suit your business? Have you missed out anything?

Basically, there are 2 modes to choose from. The first one is: get an online merchant account, usually from a bank, and then integrate it with a “Payment Service Provider” of your choice. The second one is: use the services of an “Online Payment Processing Company” that give you a comprehensive solution. Let’s look at each one in detail.

Payment Service Provider and Internet Merchant Account

Being the owner of an existing business, you will already have a “Credit Card Merchant Account” but for your online business you will need an Internet Merchant Account.

You can obtain this kind of account either from your existing bank or from any other account provider, provided you get a good deal. For small and start-up businesses, it may become a difficult task to get the Internet Merchant Account from a bank. Therefore, there are other options like other financial institutions or the 3^rd party processor.

Your internet merchant account will mostly attract a setup fee, monthly fee and an annual fee to maintain the account. It will also attract a discount rate which is applicable to each transaction. They can be variable or fixed.

After you get your internet merchant account you will also need to sign another agreement with your “Payment Service Provider” also referred as “Payment Gateway”. This will facilitate the smooth flow of transactions for credit card payments.

There are several payment gateway services that you can choose from. However, you have to choose only those that will benefit your business. Contact one of our helpful account representatives to assist you in the setup of a high risk merchant account or offshore merchant account for a high risk merchant.