Mar 22, 2012

Help Desk: How To Take Credit Cards On Your Site

[caption id="attachment_393" align="alignright" width="300" caption="How To Take Credit Cards"]

[/caption] Last time at the Help Desk, we discussed installing a shopping cart, a necessary component for any business website. In this post, we are going to discuss how to accept credit cards from those shopping cart purchases. After getting your shopping cart software ready so you can sell your products online, the next step is to set up a payment process for your ecommerce store. Sure, you could utilize PayPal or Google Checkout to process your payments, but a true payment gateway offers your shoppers a more professional and secure experience. Let’s say someone is shopping at your website. Once your customer has added your product (or products, let’s be confident that they want to buy all sorts of items from your store!) to their online cart, he or she is now ready to check out and pay. With a payment gateway, they can then enter in their payment information on your website. Of course, you’ve already installed an SSL Certificate so their personal information will be protected. The gateway processes the transaction in seconds and sends the funds (minus fees, of course) to your merchant account. But if instead you send your customer to PayPal or Google so they can purchase from you, your customer has to leave your website and pay there instead. Not only could you lose an order (and the ability to upsell) if someone abandons their order, they may feel pressured to start an account with PayPal or Google just to order from you. Do you really want to risk losing any customers or orders in today’s tough economic climate by adding another step just to buy from you? Not only will your customer stay on your website for a more professional shopping experience, an online payment gateway, like our NewtPay, offers your business:

Lower Costs: You’ll receive more affordable processing rates and monthly rates than PayPal or Google offer.

Faster payments: Funds from your online sales will be sent to you automatically in just one to two business days instead of requesting a transfer to get your money.

Increased Security: Our gateway utilizes a financial institution and all funds are federally insured, while PayPal payments are not regulated.

Support: We offer 24/7/365 live support, while PayPal offers no support and utilizes a mediation service that freezes funds during disputes with customers.

Our payment gateway, NewtPay, offers little to no startup costs and low monthly fees. With a highly flexible rate structure, it accommodates businesses just getting started with online sales to established ecommerce businesses. And NewtPay integrates easily with most leading online shopping carts, including Newtek Cart. Further Reading: 1. Learn more about NewtPay and NewtPay Pro, our flexible and affordable merchant accounts. 2. Read our Knowledge Base article on shopping carts and website building tools we recommend for your ecommerce needs. 3. Our Knowledge Base offers more detailed information on ecommerce, including shopping carts and SSL.