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Q:
Why do I need a Merchant account?
A. In
order to take any credit card orders you must have a merchant account. The
merchant account company will take a percentage out of each credit card
order you take (referred to as the discount rate), and give that money to
the credit card company (ie VISA or MasterCard). Then the merchant account
company will deposit the rest of the money in your business checking
account. Most money will be available to you within 48 hours.
Q:
Why do I need Payment Gateway?
A. Gateways
serve 3 purposes:
1)They allow you to perform "Real-Time" credit card processing in
conjunction with online shopping cart programs.
2)They allow you to manage your credit card charges through your browser
including inputting credit card charges, viewing charges, processing
returns, and performing searches. So, they replace the "keypad" or
"swiping" device that you see in most "Brick and Mortar"
businesses. Everything can be performed online in your browser!
3)Fraud protection is performed by the gateway which helps your business
minimize fraudulent orders.
Q.
What is an electronic shopping cart?
A. An electronic shopping cart works the same way a shopping cart does
in the physical world. As you browse through an online store, you can place
products in your virtual shopping cart, which keeps track of the products
you have placed in it. When you're ready to leave the store, you click a
"check out" link which shows you what you've placed in your
virtual shopping cart. You can usually remove items that you're no longer
interested in purchasing and then enter your shipping and payment
information to process your order.
Q.
Will my web host provide me with the shopping cart software that allows my
customers to select items and store them in the virtual shopping cart and
then view, add to or delete items before proceeding to final checkout?
A. Many Web
hosts say they offer a free shopping cart, but be careful. Usually, these
"free" applications are limited in functionality, difficult to
install, and poorly supported. You'll do better to look for Web hosts that
offer shopping cart functionality as part of a complete online commerce
service.
Q.
What is real-time processing?
A. Only a few of the merchant account providers allow for real-time
online processing of your credit card orders. With the others, you'll be
required to receive e-mail notification of the order, then manually process.
With real-time processing, the merchant provider validates the customer's
card, processes the payment, and forwards the order to you only after the
payment is verified. Authorize.net and Echo-inc.com are currently the two
providers we use for real-time processing.
Q.
What options are available to accept payments through my Web Site?
A. Authorize.Net and Echo-inc.com are server-based transaction processing systems that
enables businesses to authorize, process, and manage credit card and
electronic check transactions in a real-time, online environment from any
computer with an Internet connection and a Web browser. Established in 1989,
E-Commerce Exchange makes it easy, affordable, and secure for businesses to
accept credit cards and checks over the internet.
If your company chooses to use real time processing as a means of securing
payment, you will need a merchant account, and we choose Authorize.net or
Echo as payment
gateway.
Q. How
does an Internet Credit Card Processing Service work and what kinds of fees
should I expect to pay?
A. Internet payment processors and leading Web hosts will charge you
a one-time set-up fee plus a fee per transaction with some minimum amount
per month.
Q. What
are the major steps in setting up an ecommerce webiste?
A. There are four basic steps needed to facilitate ecommerce
on your website. This diagram combined with our ecommerce FAQ's will
give you a good foundation to move forward.
#1 - Get a domain name and start a hosting plan - Finding a
good hosting company that will meet your needs is critical. Don't use price
as the deciding factor or you may find yourself in trouble down the road
when you realize what corners are being cut to give you that low price. You
want a dependable and customer service oriented company with secure
high-speed servers so that you don't lose customers to website congestion
and failures.
Build an Online store - Build an online store (a
database driven computer program which contains your products and price
information). We offer ShopSite Starter, Manager & Pro.
Graphics - Work with someone who knows how to scan,
photograph, and/or manipulate images and files or teach yourself some
graphics basics for your new store to upload. If you want to do it
yourself then we suggest that you purchase the most current version of
FrontPage (currently FrontPageŽ 2002) or a similar webpage editing
product.
Market your business - Let people know where you
are and what you're selling. Give them a reason to come to your site. Use
search engines, make doorway pages, and advertise in whatever fashion you
can afford.
#2 - Payment Processing Services / Gateway - Handles secure,
encrypted, real-time credit card transactions over the internet. The
merchant account is needed to coordinate the transfer of funds between your
bank, a payment-processing service, and a customer's bank.
#3-4 - Payment Processing Services / Merchant Account -
Payments get processed and deposited into the company's bank.
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