Online Credit Card Processing – Zeroing In On a Merchant Service

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<h1>Online Credit Card Processing – Zeroing In On a Merchant Service</h1><strong> Author: <a href='http://www.articleseen.com/profile_Jared Scott Findel.aspx'>Jared Scott Findel</a></strong><br /><p>Secure credit card processing is among the most important aspects of ecommerce websites. Read on to know how you can set up a reliable payment gateway on your website, which facilitates easy transactions for your customers and is hassle-free for you as well. For an aspiring online retailer, an essential issue that needs to be sorted out is setting up a payment gateway on the website. In general, you have got two options: * creating an embedded payment option directly on your website * redirecting the visitors to the secure sites owned by a service provider Retailers prefer choosing the second option as working with a payment service significantly reduces their workload and investment. Although they need to pay a small processing fee for the service, it is worth it as you are assured of security and free of any paperwork. A credit card processing service will require you to set up a merchant account which you can access from any part of the globe. They provide you with the option of multiple currency support, which enables you to accept payments from anyone who is interested in your services or products. While availing the option, you can set a default currency as well, indicating your bank to automatically convert all payments to the preferred currency. While choosing a merchant service, you need to be mindful of certain things, particularly security. Only work with a payment service provider which is Level 1 PC1 DSS Compliant. It suggests that their networks and servers are secure enough to process a huge number of transactions. When your ecommerce site is the source of your bread and butter, it is absolutely essential to make sure that transactions done on it are secure. Also, you need to make sure that web design is appealing and highly user friendly. Every merchant service will provide you with some kind of reporting tools, which will allow you to see the transactions made on the site. The reports these tools generate will differ from one provider to another, so you better compare the tools provides by the shortlisted merchant services. As a minimum, these reports must be detailed enough to enable you analyze trends on transactions and take strategy decisions. Charges are an important parameter to choose a service for businesses, particularly start-ups. Discuss with them the setup fee, the charges per transaction and monthly service charges, if any. You must have an idea about the number of transactions you expect on the website as it will help you choose the right tariff. The merchant service must provide you an excellent support team to make the payment gateway a complete package. Inquire with these services what kind of technical support they will provide. Usually, they will provide phone, mail and chat support. However, they may have charges for a specific type of support, so you better discuss everything with them before taking a decision. Another advantage you can get when working with a credit card processing service is that you get to know more about the target audience. While the customers are filling their credit information, a function can be included to get additional info such as age, sex, occupation etc. This will give an insight into the audience you are catering to, which will enable you to optimize your site in a better manner. It is hard to find a merchant service which fits in perfectly on all of these points. However, it will help if you test a service against all these parameters and zero in on a service that is ahead on most of them. </p><strong>About the Author:</strong><br />Author of this article is associated with Jared’s Direct, who have earned acclaim for web design, web development, <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.jaredsdirect.com/merchant-services.html">merchant services</a> and web hosting.<p> Article Source: <a href='http://www.articleseen.com/Article_Online-Credit-Card-Processing-–-Zeroing-In-On-a-Merchant-Service_143363.aspx'> http://www.articleseen.com/Article_Online Credit Card Processing – Zeroing In On a Merchant Service_143363.aspx</a></p>

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Keywords : web design, merchant services,

Category : Internet Business : Web Design