Continuing our series of posts for eCommerce preparedness. What is needed to accept credit cards payments online? Unless you choose to use PayPal or Google Checkout, you will need a Merchant Account with your bank and a Payment Gateway.

Let’s look at a couple of your options for secure payments.

The PayPal Option

You can interface your eCommerce store with PayPal (however this is really not recommended for serious online stores). Consider this option only if your are on a low budget.

The primary reason is the way PayPal directs your customers to their secure payments screen. By default PayPal sends your customers to a login screen with the option to sign up to PayPal which has often resulted in ‘cart abandonment’ where a customer doesn’t complete the sale.

You actually don’t need a PayPal Account. You can just click ‘Continue’ in the section:

Don’t have a PayPal account?
Use your credit card or bank account (where available). Continue

The advantage of PayPal is no setup or monthly fees with a nominal % per transaction. However the abandoned carts show this is not the most effective payment gateway in our opinion.

A More Professional Option – Setup a Merchant Account and Payment Gateway.

This is the most professional setup and will promote confidence in your store.

If you already have an existing Merchant Account, setup a secure Payment Gateway (DPS, Paystation, authorize.net etc.) that will interface with your Merchant Account through your cart.

This means you never see the actual credit card details of your customers and payment transactions are completed in real time.

There are setup and monthly fees plus additional handling fees with 3rd party payment gateways (generally somewhere between 2% – 4%).

Many banks now require a 3rd party payment provider to be in place before issuing a Merchant ID for your ecommerce store..

Merchant Account Requirements

Merchant Account providers typically want to review an ecommerce website to make sure it is a safe and secure shopping experience for your customers. By doing so they are protecting themselves as well as your business by reducing you potential for chargebacks.

So what are Merchant Account providers looking for when you apply?

• Merchant’s Name Appears Prominently On The Web Site
• Customer Service Phone Number Is Clearly Posted
• Return/Refund Policy Is Clearly Posted
• Delivery Methods And Timing Are Clearly Posted
• Privacy Statement Is Outlined
• Product Offered Is Clearly Described
• Page Where Credit Card Info Is Entered Is Secure