Moving to e-commerce? Yes, you can accept online card payments!
Integrating credit card payments into your e-commerce website can ramp up your business by 50-500%. Incredible as that sounds, it’s a fact that, when it comes to payment options, more and more people prefer to use their credit cards online than any other.
Accepting credit card payments as an online option has huge implications for the growth and development of your business. Your capacity to expand internationally can be impacted by the kind of payment gateways you use. The solution that you choose will have to be flexible across borders. Accepting credit cards gives your customers convenience and speed of transactions. They’re also not restricted by factors like location, business hours, time of day, and lack of ready cash in hand.
Safe online credit card payments
However, credit card payments can cause a certain amount of customer anxiety. Security is a huge concern for customers. Today, compliance with PCI (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards) has made credit card transactions safe and difficult for criminals to crack. Charge.com is one of the safest credit card processing companies in America.
With credit card payments, businesses also have the flexibility of being able to accept multiple international currencies, opening up your operations globally. Host merchant services allow a customer to use a variety of cards like Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and American Express.
Accepting debit or credit card payments is another choice that businesses have to make. Both have their pros and cons.
How does card payment work?
The common credit card payment procedure for e-commerce websites follows a regular, step-by-step process:
- Basket: Customers add products to their shopping-carts/baskets and proceed to check-out. It’s important to ensure that your website is SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) encrypted so that all data between web-server and browser remains confidential and integral. This provides a sense of security to customers.
- Checkout Process: Filling in the checkout page varies from site to site. Customers have to provide a certain amount of information and personal details: Shipping address, contact information, phone number etc.
- Payment: The card-holder’s data is submitted and payment has to be made. The payment service provider (PSP) page is presented to customer, while in the background, the PSP authenticates the details provided. The total charge is authorized and funds are allocated to the merchant. Transaction status is sent to the business-owner’s designated site, along with a unique identity to mark that particular transaction.
- Confirmation: Meanwhile the customer is returned to the website and provided with information that confirms or declines payment.
This is the general procedure, but there may be variations according to the type of website, card-holder, merchant, banker, credit-card service provider.
Get ready to accept credit card payments
The steps that business owners must follow to set up credit card payment are straightforward:
- Set up a merchant account
- Procure processing equipment or software
- Understand credit-card processing fees
- Understand the rules and compliance
A reputed, well-established credit card processing company like charge.com will provide the right advice and assistance in becoming a credit card enabled merchant. Sign up with the leaders and get started on the safest and most convenient way of doing business.