eBay Merchants See a World of Processing Change with Charge.com
Many people visit retail stores each day looking for wide selections and reasonable prices, but there is good reason to believe that this number will one day be whittled down to just a few. Ecommerce – once a dream people only saw on science-fiction television series – has become the wave of the future. Millions of shoppers peruse virtual malls now instead of going to actual ones, and most retail stores have websites with sales pages for customers to flip through. If they did not, they could potentially lose up to 80% of their sales. Some businesses – like those run by eBay merchants – skip the physical storefronts altogether, and focus solely on making sales via the Internet. It is a fairly simple operation – the eBay-merchant simply applies for a merchant identification number, obtains an online shopping cart connected to a merchant account, posts some pictures of the products up for sale, and then hire a reputable company to handle the payment processing.
This is sometimes easier said than done, however – many payment processors still remain wary about providing online merchant services, especially to small/independent business owners like those operating on eBay. They make it difficult to obtain the merchant accounts necessary for credit card processing, place severe financial restrictions on those who do get accounts, and supply their clients with shopping carts and little-to-no technical support. In addition to the hassle, the frustration, and the lack of maintenance, credit card processors can be a financial drain on their clients by charging excessively high rates and hidden fees. Online businesses cannot complain – without access to those accounts, they cannot accept credit cards and their companies will not have a chance to flourish. They pay whatever they are asked – even when they are simply inquiring about merchant accounts, even when their money is locked up for weeks at a time, and even when their credit card processing companies are being less than helpful. To be fair – with all the bother and expense that some eBay merchants have to go through just to get their businesses up and going – they could have just opened up a physical storefront in a shopping center.
Charge.com does not approach online sales in this manner. After all – why should it be so hard to set up a business designed to make everything more convenient? At Charge.com there are no inquiry fees for companies seeking online or eBay merchant services, and the application process itself is quite simple and quick. Once a company has been approved for merchant processing with Charge.com, it send remittances through its private merchant account without fear of having them seized and held for review. There are no hidden fees or obscenely steep rate hikes, either. All costs – fees and rates – are determined at the time an account is opened, and no changes are made without consulting the client. Charge.com also has the best support eBay merchants and other small/independent business owners could ask for. Each client receives a free shopping cart already linked to their merchant account, (free credit card readers are available for onsite and mobile companies as well), and Charge.com will set up these credit card machines for them at no cost. Customers who are experiencing technical difficulties can always turn to Charge.com 24/7/365 for help from the payment processor’s expert support staff, too. For eBay merchants, the future is here – getting reliable online payment processing now just takes a few quick clicks of the mouse.
