Your,Website,Credit,Card,Frien business, insurance Is Your Website Credit Card Friendly?

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Small Business Q&A with Tim KnoxIn my last column I discussed the process of credit card enabling your brick-and-mortar business. I pointed out that research has shown that accepting credit cards can help increaserevenue and enhance cash flow. I also pointed out that you mayhave to look beyond your local bank for help in getting thingsset up. This week we will look at setting up an online paymentsystem for your business website. If you think hooking up abrick-and-mortar location with a credit card system stymiesmost bankers, try asking them how to do it on your website. If you'll recall, the question that spurred this topic camefrom a lady who went to her local bank for help in setting upa credit card acceptance system for her business and her bankerwasn't very knowledgeable on the subject. I pointed out thather banker's ignorance of the subject probably wasn't a reflection on his skills as a banker, but a reflection on thecompartmentalization of the credit card aspect of banking. The fact is, most banks can provide you with the merchantaccount needed to accept credit card payments, but beyond thathave little to do with the process. Even larger banks mayonly have a single person on staff who is tasked as the "credit card expert" and if that person ever goes on vacation,you're pretty much out of luck (voice of experience talkinghere, folks).I have helped many clients set up online credit card processingsystems and more than once I've had to sit down with the bankissuing the merchant account and educate them on how onlinepayment systems work. Don't believe me? This is a directquote (here's the Bible, here's my hand) from the bank employeewho was in charge of processing internet merchant accountapplications, "When someone pays online how do they swipe thecredit card in their computer…" Much like a brick and mortar credit card processing system, youwill need the following to accept credit cards on your website:(1) an electronic shopping cart system that allows the customerto select products and checkout when ready; (2) a paymentgateway service to get approval or declination of the creditcard; (3) a credit card processor who will process thetransaction; and (4) an internet merchant account issued byan acquiring bank in which processed funds are deposited. We covered most of these elements last week. Here's a quickrefresher for those who missed the basics, then we'll talkabout a shopping cart system.Payment Gateway Service: The payment gateway service comesinto play when a customer submits their credit card informationto the webpage form. Think of the gateway service as the middleman in the process. The website's shopping cart checkoutsystem electronically submits the credit card to the gatewayservice who then routes the information to the processor forapproval. Depending on the reply from the processor, thegateway service will return an approval or declination for thepurchase. This entire process takes just seconds to perform.Credit Card Processor: The credit card processor is anelectronic data center that processes the credit cardtransactions coming from the gateway company, ensures thatthe charge is valid, then settles the funds in your merchantaccount.Internet Merchant Account: An Internet merchant account is abank or financial institution account in which funds fromonline sales are deposited. Merchant accounts are usuallyissued by banks who are associated with the major credit cardservices like Visa and MasterCard. Be aware that many bankswill not grant merchant accounts to Internet merchants as theyare often categorized as "high risk ventures." This policyvaries widely and in the end, the granting of the merchantaccount will come down to economics from the bank's point ofview. If the bank sees even the smallest iota of risk, youwill not be granted the account. Fortunately, the growthof online sales has given rise to an entire industry of merchant service bureaus that will grant you a merchantaccount and everything else you need to accept online payments.The fees are usually higher, but it's better than not havingan online payment system at all. Shopping Cart System. To accept online payments you must havewhat's called a "shopping cart system" that allows yourcustomer to choose and purchase products. Adding a shoppingcart system to your website can be simple or complex, cheapor very expensive. It depends on the product you're sellingand the options you wish to offer your customers. As ineverything, you get what you pay for. A shopping cart system typically consists of three components:a product catalog, the shopping cart, and a checkout/paymentsystem. The product catalog is your inventory component anddisplays the items you have for sale on the website. Thecheckout/payment system is the part of the program that allowsyour customers to "add this to my cart," and the checkout/payment system is the component that allows the customer tocheckout and pay for their purchase.There is a wide variety of shopping cart software on the marketand the price is dependent on the features you want. Shoppingcart systems range from simple HTML form insertions to full-blown catalog and inventory systems like those used by Amazonor Dell.You can spend from zero to tens of thousands of dollars. Someof them you can set up on your site yourself while othersshould be set up by someone who knows what they're doing.You can get a free Paypal.com shopping cart system which is themost simplistic in nature, but the easiest to implement. UsingPaypal also alleviates the need for a bank merchant account because everything is handled by Paypal, for a fee of course.You insert HTML forms into your website code and when an itemis purchased.There are also numerous online companies who will assist in thesetup of your ecommerce / credit card system. These companiescharge several hundred to several thousand dollars for theirservices, so it would be wise for you to have an idea of exactly what you need before calling them into play.Customer submits credit card. The site sends the transaction tothe gateway. The gateway sends the info to the processor. The processor contacts the issuing bank of the customers credit card. The issuing bank returns the result of the processor. The processor routs the result to the gate. The gateway passes the result to the website. The website displays the result.One thing to remember when setting up an ecommerce system on your site is this: online it's all about security and privacy. Though online credit card processing has been around for yearsthere are still many people who are uncomfortable giving theircredit card number online. These are the same folks that do not hesitate to give their credit card number over the phone to a complete stranger or hand their credit card to a waiter who disappears with it for ten minutes. Online credit card processing is much less susceptible to fraud and abuse than either telephone processing or giving it to a waiter.Eighty-five percent of internet users surveys said that a lack of security made them uncomfortable sending credit card information over the Web.It's up to you to instill a sense of security and make the customer comfortable shoving their card into their computer.Here's to your success.Tim [email protected] For information on starting your own online or eBay business,visit http://www.dropshipwholesale.net