What You Should Know Before Adding A Shopping Cart To Your Website ?

You have many options when it comes to adding a shopping cart to your website. If you want to create a highly personalized shopping cart, you will require the services of an experienced programmer.

Paid & Free Services

Many online service providers can create and install your shopping cart and payment software very quickly, but their services may be very expensive.  Several reliable and free online merchant solutions exist including online payment services such as PayPal.  Instead of charging you up front payments, these free services charge a percentage of any online payments you receive. 

How They Work

You can easily install payment software on your website by completing an online form with certain details regarding your payment and business procedures.  You will then receive software code that is instantly generated; this means you can copy and paste the HTML code directly into your site.  Online payment processors will also assist you during this process.  Once you have copied the code, you will be able to accept debit or credit card payments from your online customers. 

The main difference between customized online merchant software and free payment options is the fact that the money will not be directly deposited into your bank account.  Payment for free online payment processors will have to be withdrawn from the company’s account and transferred to your bank account; you generally have to pay for this service.  However, smaller online businesses often find this relatively low cost far outweighs the high cost of software development.

Why Use An Online Merchant Account?

The Internet has become the world’s largest marketplace.  Surveys reveal that approximately one million new people became acquainted with online services including search engine and email services every 100 days.  Statistics indicate that 80% of all online sales begin as a search on some of the principal search engines such as Yahoo!, MSN or Google.

Current technology has evolved so rapidly during the last 10 years that electronic online payments have become the standard.  More than 40% of all online payments are processed electronically via debit or credit cards, rather than online payment portals or wire transfers.  Businesses today can advertise, sell and collect payments online without every actually meeting their customers.

New Payment Methods

Mobile phones have become one of the most recent payment methods.  Many industry experts predict that this will become the preferred online payment method for shoppers all around the world.  You will soon be able to use your mobile handset to pay for your online purchases just as easily as you would send an SMS. 

Businesses need to adapt their payment policies and procedures to make it as convenient as possible for their customers.  Therefore, you should establish online merchant accounts with convenient payment processors to cash in on the huge percentage of business currently being transacted online.  Many online merchant solution providers have created software and products that greatly minimize the risk of fraud.

Transaction Processing Solutions

Transaction processing refers to the process of completing a transaction from making a payment for a product or service to the actual delivery.  Most online transactions are completed with the help of advanced software.  Sophisticated transaction processing software can record each step of the transaction for future reference.  Effective software will not only record each transaction, but will also enable you to easily reproduce any or all of them at any time.  This will help you to correct any errors or identify any problems.  You can retrace each step made by any of your customers, until you discover the source of the problem.  Online transaction processing enables you to maintain an electronic ledge of all business transactions completed on your online merchant account.

You can choose to purchase ready-made transaction processing software or have one customized specifically for your online merchant account.  Although the security levels of the two options are nearly identical, the cost will normally vary greatly.  If you have an online merchant account, make sure you purchase a reliable transaction processing solution for all of your online business transactions.  You want to ensure the process is as smooth and reliable as possible from accepting your customers’ online order and processing their payments to transferring the funds into your business account.

Internet Payment Gateways Options

Any online merchant account requires a reliable Internet payment gateway in order to sell goods and accept payments.  The e-commerce process is very similar to sales made in traditional stores where customers purchase a product and then pay with a debit or credit card at the checkout.  The main difference is that customers don’t even need to use their actual card to make a payment; they merely enter card data such as the card number, CVV number and name of the card holder into a secure online form.  Generally within a few days, the payment will be debited from their card and credited to the merchant’s bank account.

Most online payment gateways are very secure.  However, online customers should only shop at reputable websites.  One tip is to look for an “s” after the “http” in the URL of any site; this will indicate that the site is secure.  This will obviously not guarantee that a site won’t use your card information fraudulently, but it will certainly help.

Advantages of An In-House Gateway

You may also be considering creating your own in-house Internet payment gateway.  Many customers will appreciate the fact you have developed your own secure software rather than merely obtaining any software available online.  Another advantage is the fact that your payment gateway will blend seamlessly into the design of your website rather than displaying annoying third-party logos or advertisements.

Although the cost will be slightly higher, you will instil a greater sense of security in your customers.  You will also maintain full control of the software.  This means you won’t have to waste precious time for a third party to rectify any problems that may occur in their online processing solution.

Establishing An Online Merchant Account

Online merchant accounts are also known as “payment gateways,” and they are very easy to establish.  They require software that your web developer or hired professionals can incorporate directly into your website.  The software you choose may include a shopping cart; this type of system enables online visitors who visit your website to browse through all of your available products and add them to a virtual cart.  The process is very similar to adding carts to a regular shopping cart at a traditional mall or store.  The visitor can decide to keep or remove any items from their shopping cart.  Once they are done shopping, they can pay for the remaining items via the payment gateway offered by your website.

You can also choose to link your payment gateway to your merchant bank account.  This will depend on the type of online merchant solution you choose to implement.  If you prefer to have special software created just for your website, you will be able to accept all credit cards from your online customers.  The software will be linked directly to the major credit card processing companies such as MasterCard and VISA, as well as to your merchant bank account.  This software enables customers to pay for any products or services using a bank transfer, debit card or credit card.

Whenever anyone uses online banking or a card to pay for their online purchase, the shopper will be connected to the bank that issues the card.  Within days, the money will normally be transferred to the bank.  Fortunately, you can complete the transaction and deliver the product to your customer instantly without having to wait.  Because the payments will be processed, you eliminate any wait and can provide your customers with an improved shopping experience.

Online merchant solutions enable you to bring your business to your valuable customers instead of waiting for them to come to you.  Make sure you take advantage of the many online payment system options currently available.  They will make the shopping experience much more convenient for your customers, and will convince them to keep returning to your online store.

>> back