Blog & Company News
Oct 29, 2013
Keep it Simple – Just One Vendor for Hosting, Payment Gateway, and Merchant Processing
As our businesses’ web presence broadens in both scope and reach, it is easy to let our operations (in particular our ecommerce solution) grow overly complicated. While you may engage companies who are very good at delivering one service, it often comes to pass that we find ourselves trying to conduct an orchestra of musicians who have never played together. Sometimes it’s better just to hire a good band, so you can enjoy the party – so to speak.
Just imagine the services in the title of this article fragmented into separate vendors, yet serving one mutual client. The customer would have its domain registered and site hosted with one team (and that isn’t even always the case), their merchant processing through another, and then the payment gateway is provided by a third entity. In the beginning, things are set up relatively smoothly. X calls Y and emails Z and so forth. Business operations are a running smoothly for few months. The SMB owner is focused and getting ready for the busy season. It’s day one and boom, something goes awry.
People are spending money in the store and the ecommerce store is moving products at a rate that is already exceeding expectations. You can even see the front side sales. The money, however, is not being deposited into your account. Where is it going?
The hosting company did not report any outages. The payment gateway provider said all things were smooth on their end, and hasn’t had any calls … it was likely just the merchant processor. The brick and mortar is full of shoppers, but the proprietor is huddled in the back, making the call to the merchant processor who says it was business as usual over the last few days - the error likely falls upon the shoulders of the hosting provider. “It happens all the time,
or it could be or those responsible for the payment gateway.”
While it seems the example above is a perfect storm, the truth is, it is much closer to reality than any of us would care to think.
Now imagine the same scenario if one’s hosting, merchant processing, and payment gateway were all housed within one entity. One morning there are a few sales that did not hit the account that were expected to. The owner picks up the phone and dials the direct line for one call does it all service. A trained support provider answers the phone, checks all three departments, identifies the glitch, rectifies it, and the owner is back on the floor with customers.
Technology can make our lives so much easier, but only if the systems are streamlined and are designed to play well together. In markets of today, we have to be our best to compete and it is impossible to do that if we must play servants to the devices and systems that are intended to assist us.
You didn’t know that there was a company who could handle all of those disparate functions (and more.) Good news, there is, and
we are ready to take great care of you. Oh, and if you would like to find out more about streamlining your ecommerce, hosting solution, and more, download this
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