How
Your Online Merchant Account Will Work
We'll
now look into the requirements for establishing
an online merchant account and processing
service for your business.
| There
are two possible scenarios:
Mail
Order and Telephone Sales:
Here, you
take the customer's personal and
credit card information in person,
by phone or by mail, You then
manually input the information
into your computer for processing
through your online merchant account. |
 |
 |
 |
|
Website
Sales: If you will be selling products
or services from a website, then
the real-time processing
solution is for you. Since the most
common means of transmitting customers'
credit card information securely
over the Internet is via the secure
socket layer protocol, or SSL, make
sure your hosting company supports
SSL.
Featured
Merchant Account Provider:
Free
Credit Card Processing.com
|
In
either case, you will need an online merchant
account. We discussed merchant
accounts in the previous page - and
we'll be addressing the criteria you should
use in
selecting which online merchant account
is right for your business - and
the costs involved - a little later
in the Nine-Minute Tutorial.
Let's
look at the two options a little more closely:
Manual
Input: You
will need to obtain an online merchant account,
along with the actual credit card processing
service. For the latter, you will lease or
purchase processing software from your processing
service, which will then be installed on your
computer. The software is configured with
your online merchant account number.
When a customer buys a product or service
from you, whether in person, by phone or through
the mail, you manually enter the transaction
data yourself in a window on your computer,
utilizing the software program. Next, you
transmit the data to your processing service's
computer, through your computer's dial-up
modem. The transmission will contain your
online merchant account number. Then, usually
within a few seconds, you will receive an
authorization number.
You may wish to submit a number of customer
orders together in one batch, to save your
having to input data several times daily.
Within a few days, the sales proceeds will
be transferred to your online merchant account
and then to your business checking account.
Real-time
Processing: Real-time
processing allows credit card purchases to
be approved or declined virtually immediately,
while the customer is still visiting your
website - and without your having to input
any data manually.
What is known as a payment gateway, usually
maintained by your online merchant account
service, permits your website to enjoy real-time
credit card acceptance by providing almost
instantaneous verification of your customer's
credit card data, transmitted over the Web
securely because of the SSL protocol.
You can use either an online order form or
a shopping card function, the latter being
advisable if you are offering many different
products via your online merchant account
and will be adding to and deleting from your
product offerings on a regular basis. Many
online merchant account providers will also
offer you shopping cart capabilities at little
or no cost. Please see
Shopping Carts for Online Merchant Accounts
to see what shopping cart options are available.
Most real-time systems will also provide you
with access to a virtual terminal on your
computer, which will allow you, should the
need arise, to manually enter orders taken
over the telephone or by mail.
NEXT:
Click here to learn about the various Fees
and Charges you may incur with your online
merchant account.
Featured Merchant Account Provider:
Free
Credit Card Processing.com
|
