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That is why it is extremely important that you
offer some type of online payment solution for your e-business.
Accepting credit cards is the most well known way
to accept payment on the Internet. Almost everyone has a credit card and by
accepting his or hers, it makes customers' ordering process much more convenient
and time saving, not to mention it encourages them to purchase from you.
Accepting credit cards has become a necessity to the survival of e-businesses.
In order to accept credit cards, you're going to need a merchant account. To
obtain one, just do a search on your favorite search engine. You will be
provided with a list of many different merchant account providers to choose
from. Merchant services contract with several merchant-processing banks that
will actually accept and process your business transactions.
For each transaction the bank processes, you
will be charged a discount rate, or percentage, of the face value of the amount
charged, along with a per transaction fee (usually ranging from $0.20 to $0.30).
When you perform your transaction, and receive an authorization number, the
charged amount is immediately wire-transferred out of your customers' credit
card account into your merchant account. The merchant bank will then discount,
or deduct, the percentage rate and per transaction fee, and wire-transfer the
balance of the charge into the business checking account of your choice. At the
end of the month, you will receive a statement, for your records, so that you
can balance your account.
There are three ways to perform transactions:
1. Terminals/Hardware
2. Point of Sale Software
3. Real-Time (Automatic Online Transactions)
Since this article is focusing solely on online
payment solutions for your e-business, I will focus on real-time. How real-time
works is when your customer is finished shopping and is ready to pay, they
simply go to the secure order form page where they type in their credit card
information. In a few seconds, a message appears on their screen, showing
whether their card was accepted or declined. A few days later, the money will
appear in your business checking account. With real-time, you will be provided
with an online database containing all of your credit card transactions so you
can balance your account at the end of the month.
There's a second, and probably more unfamiliar
way, to accept payment online, and that is accepting checks by email. Until
recently, service bureaus have been responsible for check drafting, but now any
business can do it. Federal banking regulations and the Uniform Commercial Code
permit this process.
How it works is: a customer submits his
checking account information and authorization to draft their account; then the
merchant takes the information and enters it into a check printing program on
their computer. From that point, the merchant can print it on special check
paper (available from the software provider) and take the check "draft" to their
bank and deposit it as if the check was mailed directly to them. Not only can a
merchant accept checks by email with the program; they can also accept them by
phone and fax capabilities, also. This is a great alternate solution to credit
cards as you will find some customers who aren't interested in putting their
credit card information on your site. If your interested in this type of payment
solution many merchant account providers can help you get this solution along
with a merchant account for credit card acceptance.
In summary, I would highly recommend obtaining
a merchant account for your business. As the Internet continues to grow, more
businesses come online and more people decide to make purchases on the Web, it
will become essential that your business accept payment online (especially
credit cards) in order to survive in today's business world.
I hope this helps in your future marketing
decisions.
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