Are you familiar with a payment gateway? If you spend any time at all on the Internet, you probably know one of the most famous e-commerce payment gateway solutions that the ‘Net has to offer: PayPal! When it comes to payment gateways, PayPal’s popularity has paved the way for a different kind of payment gateway or simply a host of others that function the same but are named differently - which is a bit of a mixed blessing. After all, as a merchant you will want to ensure that you sign up with a company that is not only reputable but that also will be in business for many years to come.
Your merchant account payment gateway enables your customers to place orders directly on your website and with the help of the online payment gateway the payment may be made with a credit or debit card over a secure socket layer encrypted server. As a merchant, you will then use your payment gateway to send the payment, customer, and your own identifying information over to the host. The gateway computer payment is then transferred to the merchant bank which in turn will contact the customer’s bank for validation of the credit card information and also with a request for the transfer of funds. If it is determined that the card is valid and the funds are available the payment gateway is then notified of this and the transaction is approved. It is noteworthy that this process takes place in less than seven seconds.
When setting up a payment gateway for your website, it is useful to sign up with the most popular system. After all, what is a payment gateway but a method of elevating your business’ reputation by association with another? Additionally, if you set up an account with a popular payment gateway, many times payments may be instantaneous, since many customers already have accounts with this company as well. On a side note, this might even net you some impulse transactions that are made simply because of the ease with which a consumer can use their payment gateway access control to make purchases. In other words, an account that has $25 in it may be used to purchase that cute little vase you are selling for $23.99 whereas if a credit would have had to be used, the sale might not have occurred in the first place.
To find the top ranked payment gateways you can simply search the web and compare the different e-commerce gateway payment options. Generally speaking, PayPal and PSBill are the most commonly seen icons on websites, but there are also a few others that come up time and again. When setting up your own payment gateway account, make sure that you understand the limitations that the service places on you. Some will require you to sign up for a special merchant account if your revenues a certain threshold and if you fail to abide by their terms, your ability to take payments may be delayed.