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But, for many businesses, especially start up
and small to mid size businesses, having a website that includes the usual
ecommerce capabilities is just not in their budgets. Setting up merchant
accounts and secure servers can get quite costly.
So, if you are really wanting or needing to
have e-commerce capabilities on your website to sell your products, but your
budget just won’t allow it, there are a variety of alternatives to the expensive
online route that you can consider.
Your first choice allows you to accept credit
card payments but without a secure server. Some financial institutions, which
offer credit cards, also offer Traditional Merchant Accounts. This allows you to
manually verify credit card information from those that want to purchase from
you. But, you should be aware, if you ask for credit card information from your
website without the guarantee of a secure server, you may run into hesitation
from potential customers.
Another alternative to the expensive merchant
account is to accept cheque payments online. For this you will need to acquire
software or a program that will allow you to print MicroPrint (the small numbers
and characters at the bottom of a cheque… ie. routing #, account #, etc.). There
are several cheque writing programs available, including those found at
Checker.net and Checkman.com.
The procedures involved to use this payment
method are to first set up a form on your website. You then send an invoice to
your customer with direction to the cheque-form page, which they must fill out
and submit, via your cgi program. You then verify the funds and information and
then the software prints the cheque on special cheque paper, which you can
purchase at most business supply stores.
You can also have the above type service
online, via such sites as Paybycheck.com.
Another alternative, which is rapidly becoming
the choice of many online product and service providers, is Online Payment
Systems. There are several of these systems available but I have only found one
that has features available to Canadians. Called PayPal.com, this service allows
you to set up an account with them and they verify the credit information of
those buying from you. Now, many features that this system has to offer are
still limited for Canadian retailers but you are still able to set up an
account, bill your clients, and receive payments into your Canadian bank account
or credit card account with only minor service charges being applied.
Taking advantage of the expansive market of the
World Wide Web does not mean that you have to go bankrupt. You can still get on
the E-Commerce bandwagon and accept payments with the above listed services and
other alternative payment systems that may be available. Actually, most of these
services are all that the average small business, especially those in the
service industry, really need. And they don’t cost a fortune.
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