Accepting Payments Online
Many people ask us "how can I accept payments online?". This is not an easy question to answer because there
are as many ways to meet this objective as there are search engine results for it.
What we like our clients to understand is that accepting credit card payments via your website requires
3 things: A bank account (the money has to be delivered to you somewhere!), a Merchant Services account and a Payment Gateway. You will pay fees for both your Merchant Services account and your Payment Gateway - sometimes these two services are "bundled" (for example if you sign up for a PayPal Pro account). Whether you purchase them seperately or as a bundled you can expect to spend about 4% of each transaction that is paid for by credit card plus about $30.00 per month in
basic fees.
If you are only selling a few items and do not already have a Merchant account then the fastest way to "sell
on line" is to establish a PayPal business account. It's relatively easy to create PayPal "add to cart" buttons and there is no need to invest in a complete ecommerce solution. This choice also reduced your per
transaction fee and there is no monthly fee.
If you are selling more than 10 or 15 items we recommend a complete ecommerce system like our LiteCommerce
websites that integrates with your selected Payment Gateway.
We understand this is a lot to think about, that is why we offer our consulting services before you make any decisions about website development and accepting payments online.
If you would like to schedule a consultation please send us an email or give us a call so we can set up
an appointment. It's so much better to spend a few dollars to build a roadmap for your online business than to spend thousands
of dollars only to discover you are completely off course.
