How to Accept Credit Cards on your Website for Free!

Since the advent of credit cards, customers prefer them over cash, as it save them from carrying too much cash in their pockets. This change in customer behavior has made it a prerequisite for any business, especially the online ones, to offer a simple and convenient online payment solution. In fact, no business can afford to let competitors gain an edge over it by not having an efficient payment gateway system. Additionally, accepting credit cards boosts your sales and facilitates online business.

The Need to Accept Card Payment

Spontaneous Buyers: It might be a case that your product influences a buyer so much that they want to buy it instantly. In such cases, if your website is equipped with an online payment solution, you have a sale on hand.

Global customers: Online businesses have an added advantage over physical entities as they can be accessed globally. Online credit card payment is an incredible solution if your customers are overseas. Along with its other functions, online payment processing also takes care of the currency difference and saves time.

As per the recent survey conducted by Statistic.co, the number of digital shoppers has grown from 172.3 to 189.4 million from 2011 to 2013, and the figure is expected to keep escalating. Hence, all businesses that have realized the importance of e-commerce have seen a hike in profits as compared to their traditional physical presence. If the internet represents a substantial market potential for your business as well, then it’s about time you think along the lines of e-commerce.

How to Take Your Business Online

In order to take your business to the virtual arena, the first step is to procure the services of a capable website design company. When it comes to online success, it is imperative to have an attractive, feature rich, and user-friendly website that entices visitors to stay and explore your products and offerings.

Once you have the website ready, you need to search for a trusted online payment processing service provider to get a merchant account for processing payments over the web. Although some web design companies also offer e-commerce capabilities, it is advisable to rope in a specialist card processing services provider.

Accept Credit Cards on Your Website

The solutions offered by leading online credit card processing companies are flexible enough to accommodate any business type and scalable enough to grow with your business. There are two basic methods of accepting online payments with credit cards:

Merchant Account/Payment Gateway: You can get a merchant account from your existing bank or a trusted third-party provider. A merchant account enables you to accept credit cards over the web. The criteria to open an account, however, may vary.

Third Party Merchant Account: It’s better to use a third-party merchant account in case you are apprehensive about your product sales. Choosing a renowned third party service will help you built the rapport with your buyer who will feel secure to make payments.

Benefits of Accepting Online Payments

• Increases sales and incentives
• Fast and secure payments
• Convenient to
• Comprehensive management of transactions

Mediums to process online payments

Shopping Cart Software

Customer convenience is a matter of utmost priority for any retail business. Hence, online retail businesses need to provide a simple online payment processing platform to their customers. Shopping cart software is one such ecommerce solution that allows online shopping customers to accumulate a list of items for purchase and upon check out, the software calculates a total for the order, including shipping and handling charges along with the associated taxes. In fact, it would be reasonable to say that shopping cart software is the backbone of e-commerce, and is considered to be one of the most crucial components of a successful internet business.

Credit Card Payment Processing

Credit card processing may seem like a complicated process, but in reality, it enables you to accept credit card payments in a convenient and simple manner.

The first step involved in credit card processing is the purchase of a product, i.e. the customer uses a credit card to pay for an item via a secured online payment gateway. Once this is done, card details are transmitted for approval as the payment gateway is connected to the processing network. Subsequently, the credit card issuer approves or declines the transaction, based on the validity of the card, the transactions, as well as the cardholder’s fund or credit limit. Then, the merchant completes the credit card payment process with a batch closure. After this, the processor’s acquiring bank collects the funds from the card issuer. Lastly, the funds are deposited into the merchant’s business bank account.

Value for Money:  Identify the Best eCommerce Service Provider

If you are looking for a well-organized, systematic payment processing solution that works well for your sales and payment processing requirements, some other factors to look into include:

• Setup & integration charges
• Features
• Scalability
• Security
• Support
• Services
• Vendor’s Reputation

After considering the above measures, all that remains for you is to select one of the online payment services after a thorough comparison among the options. Make sure that the one you select offers comprehensive technical support. In addition, check the testimonials received by the contenders to get a fair idea about their level of competence.  Consider the application process, setup and integration details.

There are various merchant services providers like PayPal, Authorize, Shopify and Charge.com being one of the leaders in the segment. You can learn more about the services offered by this trusted provider by visiting their website – www.charge.com.

Conclusion: The sooner you start accepting credit cards online using charge.com, the better your business would be. Hence, do the ground work as quickly as possible keeping the above mentioned parameters in mind and grow your business!