What is a Payment Gateway for Business?
With an internet merchant account, a business can process customers’ credit cards and debit cards in an online store, as well as other types of eCommerce payment methods. A credit card payment gateway (or “cc payment gateway”) protects customers’ payment information and keeps their personal data secure. Business owners that are looking for the best available payment services for their online store can benefit by learning the importance of internet merchant accounts and the most important features of a great credit card payment gateway.
Secure payment processing is even more important as a result of the 2020 coronavirus lockdowns, as customers have now come to expect diverse online payment methods. Financial experts largely agree that these expectations have become permanent, and that customers will increasingly limit their shopping primarily to businesses that offer these online payment methods.
What is an internet merchant account?
An internet merchant account is a service offered by a provider to businesses that want to process their customers’ credit card and debit card payments. Internet merchant account providers may offer additional services, such as eCheck processing or virtual currency processing. Merchant account providers may also offer additional products, sometimes at no extra charge, such as credit card swipe machines, online shopping carts, or security infrastructure on online stores. Just about anything a business may need in order to process payments online can be provided through an internet merchant account.
Credit card merchant account providers offer internet-enabled merchant accounts, as well as support for mobile payments and other POS requirements for online and echeck processing.
What is a cc payment gateway?
A cc payment gateway is a credit card merchant account service that provides the connection between a business’s website and the traditional banking network. When a purchase is initiated online, the payment gateway sends the transaction information through the traditional banking network, and determines whether the transaction is approved or declined and whether it was executed successfully. It then returns that result to the business and the customer in real time.
The Takeaway
Businesses increasingly require online payment processing in order to remain competitive. This was true even before the 2020 coronavirus lockdowns, and it is even more true today. Even after the quarantine has been lifted, customers expectations of more online payment options are not going away.
Credit card payment gateways and internet merchant accounts offer services to enable businesses to accept customers’ credit cards and other forms of online payment. It pays to know what function they perform and why they are necessary.
Visit Charge.com or call (888) 924-2743 to find internet merchant account products and services for processing customers’ online payments.