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 3rd
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. |